• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Army focuses on getting equipment to deployed troops faster

Army News Service

Release Date: 3/23/2004

By Sgt. 1st Class Marcia Triggs

Editor's note: This is the eleventh article in a weekly series on the 17 Army focus areas. This one focuses on "Resource Processes." WASHINGTON (Army News Service, March 23, 2004) - Every Thursday senior leaders on the Army staff spend an hour validating equipment requirements from commanders to ensure needed capabilities get in the hands of deploying troops.

Additional body armor, more up-armored Humvees and battlefield robots are examples of requests that have been heard and approved by members of the Army Strategic Planning Board.

Getting the right equipment to combatant commanders in a timely manner is only one aspect of the Army's focus area "Resource Processes."

"It's a series of actions that match dollars to desired capabilities," said Lt. Col. Bobby Claflin, an action officer with the Deputy Chief of Staff for Programs, G8.

Nested in improving the Army's "Resource Processes" is supporting combatant commanders, getting re-deploying troops ready for future missions and working with other services to ensure money isn't wasted by developing redundant capabilities, G8 officials said.

The Army Strategic Planning Board was first formed after 9-11 with a primary focus on supporting the Global War on Terrorism. And even though it works as a gatekeeper, it ironically has proven to compress equipment-fielding schedules from years to months and even weeks, officials said. Unit commanders from company to theater-level submit operational needs statements to their major commands, and if the MACOMS can't fulfill the requests, they are forwarded to Headquarters Department the Army for resolution, said Col. Mark Averill, chief of ASPB.

"When commanders see a required piece of gear that they need for mission success they can basically write and ask for it," Averill said.

Before requests reach the ASPB's Thursday meeting, Averill hosts a Tuesday meeting where a council of colonels first reviews the requests.

"It's not layers of bureaucracy," said Lt. Col. Michael Komichak, a member of the ASPB. "Instead of walking requests in each of the staff sections and trying to get on the G3's calendar, we provide a forum where multiple decisions directly impacting Soldiers on the ground can be made within 60 to 90 minutes."

The planning board isn't just driven by requests from commanders, Komichak said. Board members also think forward, he said. They use lessons learned from previous rotations of Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom to "lean forward" and predict what units will need on the ground, Komichak said.

Among the board members are representatives from the Rapid Equipping Force. They look for off-the-shelf technologies that they can get in the hands of Soldiers as rapidly as possible. An example of a REF product is the "Well-Cam," which is being used in Afghanistan. The Well-Cam is a camera attached to an Ethernet cable that enables Soldiers to safely search wells for weapons caches.

By reprioritizing resources and restructuring other programs, the Army has reinvested $36 billion towards Army Transformation, said G-8 officials. Technologies and capabilities are being developed that can be applied to the current force, officials said.

In addition to investing in new equipment, major items that have been used in Iraq and Afghanistan are being repaired through the "setting the force" program.

Through the reset program, all returning units will achieve a sufficient level of combat readiness to be able to conduct future missions, officials said.

"The entire resource process has been evolving from independent processes to a synchronized concert that includes the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the sister services," Claflin said.

(Editor's note: The Army's 17 immediate areas of focus include: The Soldier; The Bench; Combat Training Centers/Battle Command Training Program; Leader Development and Education; Army Aviation; Current to Future Force; The Network; Modularity; Active Component/Reserve Component Balance; Force Stabilization; Actionable Intelligence; Installations as Flagships; Authorities, Responsibilities, and Accountability; Resource Processes; Strategic Communications; Joint Expeditionary Army with a Campaign-quality Capability; and Logistics. To view a brief synopsis of each area, visit The Way Ahead.