25-02 (706), Leader's Guide to Equipment Fielding (Jan 25) [PDF - 6.2 MB]
Driving change in a military organization is a difficult endeavor. Personnel often resist change because of organizational culture and the processes and procedures that enable stability and predictability. Conflicting interpretations of organization role and mission can further impede successful change. Successful change requires organizational buy-in, focused commitment, willingness to explore new possibilities and rethink old paradigms, and hard work in shedding obsolete means and developing new approaches that are appropriate for employing new capabilities.
The creation of Army Futures Command (AFC) signaled the seriousness with which the U.S. Army is approaching our current modernization effort. AFC’s creation of cross-functional teams (CFTs) to drive development and procurement of new technology and materials is beginning to deliver what may become of flood of new materials in the coming years. In concert with AFC’s efforts, the Army’s Regionally Aligned Readiness and Modernization Model (ReARMM), sees units rotate through eight-month modernization, training, and mission cycles, ensuring the Army can provide trained and ready forces to Combatant Commanders around the world when needed.
As part of the Army’s overall modernization process, leaders are challenged with divesting their units of legacy equipment, fielding new equipment, and oftentimes transforming into new organizational designs. Integrating newly received personnel and forming new teams, within new organizational structures, while receiving, accounting for, and training on new equipment requires significant planning and leadership. Doing all this within constrained time periods provides Army leaders and Soldiers multiple opportunities to excel during ReARMM modernization phases. Concurrently planning and setting conditions for the training phase that follows the modernization phase adds even more challenge to this endeavor.
To assist leaders and Soldiers with these challenges CALL created the Leader’s Guide to Equipment Fielding. The primary audience for this guide is division and below level organizations, but the guide examines and explains the modernization phase processes and roles across multiple echelons so that all entities involved in the process can visualize the linkages across echelons that enable success. While primarily focusing on clarity of process and highlighting best practices in divesting old equipment and fielding new equipment, the guide also discusses the subsequent training phase planning and preparation milestones that occur during the modernization phase. As the Army moves forward and gains experiences with ReARMM, we will continue to capture emerging lessons and techniques to inform future versions of this guide. We welcome and appreciate feedback from the field to aid in this process.
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