ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md.—In the Spring of 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed the United States Congress as the threat of war loomed over the American people. Roosevelt had an urgent, yet simple case to make in front of the joint session, if the nation was to survive, our military and defense base would need to transform.
The President identified one key technology that would be of particular focus: aircraft. Roosevelt said that he “should like to see this nation geared up to the ability to turn out at least 50,000 planes a year.” Sources from the time say this was meant to be hyperbole, a quixotic number meant to spur innovation—not to be taken literally. In 1938, the U.S. produced just under 2,000 military aircraft, reaching 50,000 planes per year was simply not realistic. Transformation would have to happen in every corner of American life. Citizens would need to ration their use of raw materials, factories would need to transform their floors and convert to wartime production, and millions would need to enter the labor force. Transformation on this scale and timeline was impossible.
In 1943, over 85,000 U.S. warplanes rolled off factory lines. From the time Roosevelt addressed Congress in 1940 to the end of the war, the U.S. produced nearly 300,000 military aircraft. Small towns throughout America began scrap programs, conserving materials like tires and bedframes. The nation’s largest manufacturers, many of whom had no experience building war machines, would eventually turn out one plane per hour. To build the war machines, more than six million women entered the labor force. Driven by the existential threat of annihilation, the U.S. responded with an aerial armada that would block out the sun.
Exponential advancements in technology and warfare have created a global threat landscape that is changing at a dizzying rate. Armed conflicts, from Ukraine to the Middle East, have proven that technological advancements do not wait for forces to catch up. For our Army, legacy systems, procedures and thinking must be reevaluated to meet and predict challenges. The Army Transformation Initiative, the comprehensive strategy to holistically transform into a leaner, more lethal force, is the vehicle through which the Army will answer the call.
In December 2024, the U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command established the CECOM Transformation Directorate, a new headquarters element with a two-pronged overarching focus: identifying transformative efforts within CECOM and interpreting the Army’s continuous transformation strategy to predict how CECOM’s expertise can make an impact for the Army.
With over 9,000 Soldiers, civilians and contractors, CECOM works globally as the Army’s integrator of C5ISR and medical materiel. CECOM is well placed to manage and deliver the technology that will define the next decade of military technology, and the CECOM Transformation Directorate is working to ensure that the intersection between CECOM’s capabilities and the Army’s larger transformation effort delivers the maximum impact for the warfighter.
The team
Drew Rehkop, CECOM’s director of the new transformation team, leads three CECOM Department of the Army Civilians as they navigate the waters of continuous transformation.
According to Rehkop, the first and most critical step was defining the problem statement. As the Army transforms, how does CECOM keep pace with modernization efforts to deliver capabilities?
“Under that problem statement, taking a holistic view of the command to identify how we will maximize capabilities that nest and fall in line with Army transformation timelines,” Rehkop said. “Some of it is just shining a light and bubbling things up, but the other piece is identifying key capabilities and action points that we may have to do differently.”
The transformation directorate pulled CECOM personnel from throughout the command, the four members of the team bring different backgrounds and expertise to their roles.
Reanna Labuda, who currently works as a special projects officer within the transformation team, joined the directorate from CECOM’s Office of Acquisition Support, giving her a keen eye for burgeoning technology and projects.
Labuda said every day is different, and that is by design. She and her colleagues hunt down existing capabilities within CECOM, from the headquarters to any one of the five major subordinate commands, to identify what they call “unicorns”, CECOM expertise that can’t be found anywhere else in the Army.
One avenue for identifying capabilities is the CECOM Transformation Operational Planning Team. Created and led by the transformation directorate, representatives from throughout CECOM meet to discuss priorities, new capabilities and opportunities. The OPT members from the different CECOM organizations act as conduits, bringing the expertise of their respective organizations into an open forum.
Labuda said some of the most impactful results come from identifying ideas with different subject matter experts to increase visibility, weaving it into larger Army transformation priorities.
The impact
It is difficult to overstate the scale of change the Army is currently undertaking. When the Secretary of the Army and Army Chief of Staff penned their letter to the force on introducing the transformation strategy, they made clear the monumentality of this journey. From the restructuring of formations to the elimination of outdated programs, the Army is going to change in seismic ways in a short period of time.
Consistently, in both the Army’s strategy for continuous transformation and the preceding transformation guidance from the Secretary of Defense, there are intersections between what the Army needs and what CECOM does.
CECOM’s Software Engineering Center is an Army leader in electromagnetic warfare, agentic AI solutions and modern software practices including Development, Security and Operations and Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery. CECOM’s Tobyhanna Army Depot, a critical node in the Organic Industrial Base, recently cut the ribbon on their state-of-the-art Microelectronics Manufacturing Facility which will soon deliver home-grown, organic microelectronics for everything from unmanned systems to a range of radio and communications equipment.
The CECOM Integrated Logistics Support Center is streamlining their support to the warfighter through their Artificial Intelligence Assisted Maintenance program, leveraging CECOM’s organic AI capabilities. The U.S. Army Information Systems Engineering Command, another subordinate command of CECOM, ensures network capabilities at Army posts around the world, recently providing advanced solutions for new academic buildings at the United States Military Academy. The U.S. Army Medical Logistics Command, the Army’s only medical materiel integrator, is currently in the midst of a multi-year, holistic effort known as Medical Logistics in Campaigning to fully integrate medical logistics into the Army Sustainment Enterprise.
The way forward
CECOM Deputy to the Commanding General Nicholaus Saacks sees the transformation team as the command’s “one stop shop”, connecting CECOM leaders with high-impact efforts and the teams behind them.
“There are a few different benefits, but I think having that one cell seeing all these transformation initiatives across the command, being able to help us understand what different teams are doing and seeing how we can improve across the command in accomplishing those initiatives,” he said.
The CECOM command group, according to Saacks, also benefits from the transformation directorate as they engage with Army leaders, private industry and the public.
“When the Secretary of the Army and the Army Chief of Staff released the Army Transformation Initiative, the things we were working on were well nested within their direction and priorities,” Saacks said.
The transformation directorate, according to Saacks, provides CECOM leaders with key capabilities from throughout the command that they can highlight and amplify in a unified way.
Rehkop, the transformation director, believes success can be measured in two ways: internally and externally.
“Internally, it’s that road map, allowing CECOM leaders to see the command, and allowing the command to see itself,” he said. “The other big thing is making sure the Army understands CECOM’s capabilities.”
When the U.S. was answering FDR’s call for 50,000 planes a year, adversaries were different, technology was different, and the world was different, but the necessity for transformation is the same.
As the transformation directorate continues identifying key capabilities, coordinating with different CECOM elements, it is driven by the ingenuity and innovation of the entire CECOM team.
For Saacks, defining success within CECOM’s transformation effort is elusive. To get close, he believes, transformation must be continuous.
“I think success is when we’re at a place where transformation is just a part of our DNA,” he said. “When we’re not comfortable or content with how efficient we’ve become or with the quality of our work because we know we can always do a little bit better.”
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