Futures Command Seeks Industry Help 3 Materiel Command Delivers Readiness 4 Army Profession, NCOs Key to Future Force 6, 7 Transformation Efforts Require Speed, Teamwork 8 Human-Machine Bias Must be Overcome 11 New Food, Barracks Initiatives for Soldiers 12 Generation Next Forum 14 Best Partners Needed for Robotics, Logistics 16, 17 Scenes from Global Force 18 PUBLISHED BY THE ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY www.ausa.org March 29, 2024 | AUSA Extra 1 Camarillo: Army adapting to meet soldiers’ needs Army Undersecretary Gabe Camarillo addresses the service’s relationship with industry during AUSA’s 2024 Global Force Symposium and Exposition in Huntsville, Alabama. (AUSA PHOTO) IN THIS ISSUE VOLUME 5 NUMBER 46 MARCH 29, 2024 See Camarillo,Page 6 Special Edition: Global Force Symposium T he Army has plans to change the way it does business with indus- try, and as warfi ghting innova- tions advance, a “quiet revolution” is taking place in the service, Army Un- dersecretary Gabe Camarillo said. “Our innovation challenges aren’t technical, they really are institutional,” Camarillo said Tuesday in his keynote address at the Association of the U.S. Army’s Global Force Symposium and Exposition in Huntsville, Alabama. He acknowledged that the Army’s pro- cesses are designed around “two rela- tively fi xed constraints” that include the two-year appropriations process and the time it takes to run the competitive con- tractor process required by law. Some fl exibility will help with both constraints, Camarillo said, but the Army must now work around them for a subset of new capabilities. This will re- quire an ongoing conversation between the Army and industry for an outcome that’s benefi cial to each. “We need to work with all of you as we both learn how to adapt our processes and become much more creative in how we structure our approach,” Camarillo said. “The conversations about the de- fense industrial base are poised to take a U-turn.” “I know that most of our industry partners that rely on traditional buying models might think that some of this is a big shift, [that] some programs may only be profi table once you achieve a large run of production over several years,” he said. “But if the Army is going to AM General stands ready to support the warfighter with technological advancements and dependable, network-secured mobility, surpassing mission requirements across all military operations. SEE THE DIFFERENCE www.amgeneral.com THE NEXT GENERATION JLTVA2www.ausa.org ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY March 29, 2024 | AUSA Extra 3 Rainey: Army seeks industry’s help for future capabilities F rom off-the-shelf technology that can help soldiers today to next-generation autonomous vehicles and command-and-control capabilities, Army Futures Com- mand is looking to its industry team- mates for help. “Indisputably, the amount of tech- nology disruption in the character of war is unprecedented, and it just keeps getting faster and faster,” said Gen. James Rainey, commanding general of Futures Command. During a keynote presentation Wednesday at the Association of the U.S. Army’s Global Force Symposium and Exposition in Huntsville, Ala- bama, Rainey said the Army is “try- ing to do continuous transformation,” and it is “not going to succeed” with- out help from “industry teammates, big, little and small.” “We don’t really have a technology problem in the Army,” Rainey said. “What we have is a technology adop- tion problem. The American indus- trial base is such a huge advantage we have in our country. How do we bring that to bear?” Delivering capabilities As it works to deliver the capabili- ties soldiers need, Futures Command is approaching the service’s transfor- mation in three periods of time. Over the next 18 to 24 months, “we have to look at what’s happening in the world and adapt faster,” Rainey said, citing Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George’s “transforming in contact” initiative. “The term ‘trans- forming in contact’ confuses some people,” he said. “What we’re saying is the great brigade combat teams and divisions we have right now that are rotating forward into [the U.S. Central Command region], into Eu- rope, into the Indo-Pacific and other places, that’s the best place for us to work on transformation.” Some key capabilities the Army is seeking in the near-term include loitering munitions, ground-based Gen. James Rainey, commanding general of Army Futures Command, discusses the service’s transformation efforts at AUSA’s 2024 Global Force Symposium. (AUSA PHOTO) rockets and missiles and counter- unmanned aerial systems that would work alongside an armored company or a light infantry company, he said. The Army also is working “very hard” on human-machine integrated formations that blend soldiers with robotic and autonomous vehicles, Rainey said. “We’re never going to replace humans with machines,” he said. “It’s about putting those two things together in an optimal way that makes the Army better.” Over the next two to seven years, the Army is looking to work on launched effects, the Future Long- Range Assault Aircraft and the Ex- tended Range Cannon Artillery, also known as ERCA. “ERCA is a requirement, not a thing,” Rainey said. “We did a rapid prototyping effort, and we watched what’s going on in Ukraine and ad- justed what we’re doing with ERCA.” Futures Command also is pursu- ing a “better armored howitzer” and mobile indirect fires, and the service also must “relook our suite of mor- tars,” he said. The Army’s systems can’t be just a little bit better than its adversaries’ systems, Rainey said. “It has to be 10 [times] better,” he said. “We can’t be a little bit faster; we’ve got to be way faster.” 2030 and beyond Finally, the Army is looking out to 2030 and beyond. “There are real op- portunities for us to transform and make bigger adjustments than we can make in the next five to seven years,” Rainey said. This includes advances in robot- ics and force protection but also up- dates to how soldiers fight. “We exist to dominate the land, and the land domain isn’t going out of business,” Rainey said. In the future, the fight will be long, Rainey said. “I do not believe in the short, sharp war idea,” he said. “Nu- clear-equipped superpowers, if they got into an existential fight, I believe it’ll be a long, tough, nasty fight.” The Army must look at how it can improve the lethality and survivabili- ty of its light infantry formations and its casualty evacuation and medical treatment capabilities on the battle- field, Rainey said. “We have to never forget that this is about close-combat dominance,” and the men and women who are on the front lines, he said.www.ausa.org4 AUSA Extra | March 29, 2024 Gen. Bob Brown, USA Ret. President and CEO, AUSA Lt. Gen. Leslie Smith, USA Ret. Vice President, Leadership and Education, AUSA Luc Dunn Editor Desiree Hurlocker Advertising Manager Advertising Information Contact: Fox Associates Inc. 116 W. Kinzie St. • Chicago, IL 60654 Phone: 800-440-0231 Email: adinfo.rmy@foxrep.com ARTICLES. Articles appearing in AUSA Extra do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the officers or members of the Council of Trustees of AUSA, or its editors. Articles are expres- sions of personal opinion and should not be interpreted as reflecting the official opinion of the Department of Defense nor of any branch, command, installation or agency of the Depart- ment of Defense. The publication assumes no responsibility for any unsolicited material. Email: extra@ausa.org ADVERTISING. Neither AUSA Extra, nor its publisher, the Association of the United States Army, makes any representations, warranties or endorsements as to the truth and accuracy of the advertisements appearing herein, and no such representations, warranties or en- dorsements should be implied or inferred from the appearance of the advertisements in the publication. The advertisers are solely respon- sible for the contents of such advertisements. MEMBERSHIP RATES. Premium membership rates are $40 for two years or $75 for five years. Lifetime membership is $400 and can be paid in full or in four monthly installments. A special Premium rate of $10 for two years is open to E1–E4 and cadets only. New two-year Basic membership with select benefits is free. Learn more at www.ausa.org/join. Voice for the Army – Support For the Soldier PERK OF THE WEEK ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY Materiel Command ‘totally focused’ on ready combat formations AUSA members can receive unique discounts—both nationally and at many local businesses—by sign- ing up at www.ausa.org/abenity. Some of the more popular discounts include food delivery services like Blue Apron, Every Plate and Hello Fresh, and pet services such as Bark Box, Rover and PetCareRx. A rmy Materiel Command is “totally focused” on deliver- ing ready combat formations around the world and at home, said Lt. Gen. Christopher Mohan, the com- mand’s deputy commanding general. In a keynote address Thursday at the Association of the U.S. Army’s Global Force Symposium and Exposi- tion in Huntsville, Alabama, Mohan outlined the work being done by the Army’s sustainment enterprise and stressed the importance of working closely with industry partners to achieve the mission. “We are absolutely committed to shoulder to shoulder work with our industry partners. We do it all the time,” Mohan said. “We can’t do it without you, so we’ve got to talk to each other, we’ve got to sit down across the table and walk the floor at our facilities together so that we can do this together and continue to sus- tain the greatest Army in the world.” The Army sustainment enterprise is engaged around the world, Mohan said, describing the war in Ukraine as a “wake-up call,” not only to the fact that the U.S. still has enemies who are “trying to defeat our way of life, but also to the importance of lo - gistics forces.” To help Ukraine, he said, the Army has marshaled and moved equipment around the globe using more than 8,000 trucks, 236 trainloads and 115 vessels to deliver everything from bullets to hardware to clothing. None of it could be done without industry, partner countries, Army civilians, the organic industrial base or some of the autonomous and artifi- cial intelligence capabilities resident in additive manufacturing, Mohan said. “We’ve reformed and changed the way we think about the front end of it, but the back end of it is where we could use some help from industry, because at the end of the day, we still go to a warehouse, we still pull a part off of a wire shelf, put it in a card- board box and put it on the back of the truck, and it goes off into never, never,” Mohan said. “We’ve got to re- form the back part of that and the distribution, and that’s where we can use industry’s help.” Mohan highlighted the Army’s emerging watercraft strategy, which will include manned and unmanned vessels that will be critical to opera- tions in the Indo-Pacific, and he cited the need to modernize pre-positioned stocks in the Pacific and Europe. “Army pre-positioned stocks is important to all theaters. It’s got to be modernized, sized, strategi- cally located, and when we have all those elements, it is a true strategic deterrent,” Mohan said, pointing to the success of having issued a heavy brigade combat team set to U.S. sol- diers deploying to Germany during the initial Russian invasion. “That was a true strategic deterrent, and we have to continue to invest in that.” Lt. Gen. Christopher Mohan, deputy com- manding general of Army Materiel Com- mand, speaks on the final day of the 2024 AUSA Global Force Symposium and Expo- sition in Huntsville, Alabama. (AUSA PHOTO)StrykerX. Taking Command. Join Our Winning Teamgdls.com/careerswww.ausa.org6 AUSA Extra | March 29, 2024 ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY Army profession ‘necessary’ to ensure service’s success E fforts to strengthen the Army profession are “necessary” to ensuring the service’s success in building a competent, lethal and cohesive force, the commanding gen- eral of Army Training and Doctrine Command said. Part of Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George’s four focus areas, strengthening the Army profession is a “continual focus,” particularly as the Army moves from 20 years of counterinsurgency operations to pre- paring for large-scale combat opera- tions, Gen. Gary Brito said Thursday during a fireside chat at the Associa- tion of the U.S. Army’s Global Force Symposium and Exposition in Hunts- ville, Alabama. “We owe that to the moms and dads who allow their kids to join, and more importantly, we owe that to those who join our Army,” Brito said. One key element to strengthening the Army profession is “zero compro- mise in warfighting capabilities,” Brito said, and “being really brilliant at the basics.” Training and Doctrine Command’s goal is training “lethal warfighting soldiers” and delivering “competent, thinking leaders,” he said. To do that, the command is looking Camarillo From Page 1 keep changing its technologies, and if it’s going to adopt new innovation, we need to ensure that there are in- centives in place to continue to invest in the new generation of capabilities that we need.” Changing the Army’s buying mod- els would not be a luxury but an imperative if soldiers are to receive what they need as technology ad- vances, he said. Camarillo acknowl- edged that the Army must be a good partner to industry, which must re- main profitable and resilient. “There’s a quiet revolution in the Army,” Camarillo said, pointing out that the Army is realizing now that it does not have to field new capabili- ties to the “entire Army,” that differ- ent capabilities can be fielded to dif- ferent types of units and formations over time. He also noted that as the Army looks at smaller production quanti- ties of certain items, the service has to be willing to pay more to keep pace with required investments. “All of this for some could be new, and it could be uncomfortable, but I think it can definitely work, and there are significant upsides, I think, both for industry and certainly for the Army to adapting our buying models to keep pace with the changes that I’ve described,” Camarillo said. He pointed to the importance of events such as Global Force as a place for these critical two-way dia- logues to take place. “It provides a great opportunity for all of you to hear where we’re headed, where we’re placing emphasis in our modernization, what investments we’re making, and it also provides, very crucially, an opportunity for the Army to hear from all of you, hear from you about your capabilities, what challenges you face and where you are placing emphasis for the fu- ture,” he said. The two-way dialogue, he said, “is at the heart of this event.” at how it teaches, trains, educates and develops soldiers and leaders, Brito said. As an example, the Army must le- verage technology and find innova- tive ways to connect with and deliver education to a younger generation of soldiers that is comfortable with technology. “Those soldiers who come in, … they require a level of delivery and engagement,” Brito said. As the Army pursues a sweeping transformation, it “can’t separate that materiel modernization from the people component,” Brito said. “We’ll modernize and innovate quickly be- cause we’re going to have technology taking off,” he said. Ultimately, the Army will remain strong if it has “warfighters of high character, competence and commit- ment,” Brito said. Gen. Gary Brito, right, commanding general of Army Training and Doctrine Command, speaks with retired Lt. Gen. Leslie Smith, AUSA vice president for Leadership and Edu- cation, during the association’s 2024 Global Force Symposium. (AUSA PHOTO)www.ausa.org ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY March 29, 2024 | AUSA Extra 7 Enlisted leaders vital to delivering ready, agile force Sgt. 1st Class Jared Tansley, a paratrooper assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division, secures static lines during airborne train- ing March 7 at Fort Johnson, Louisiana. (U.S. ARMY/SGT. LILLIANA MAGOON) N COs play a key role in build- ing a force that’s ready to sustain itself on a complex and dispersed battlefield, a panel of senior enlisted leaders said Tuesday. “Gone are the days in which we had 10 operating days of supply and equipment on hand, stacked up at the back of the [forward operating base] or [brigade support area],” said Command Sgt. Maj. Jimmy Sellers, senior enlisted leader for Army Mate- riel Command. “Now we’re looking at how do we get [those supplies] to the point of need, all the way from the factory to the foxhole, … and make sure we have the right supplies on hand.” Speaking alongside the senior en- listed leaders from Army Futures Command, Army Training and Doc- trine Command and the West Virgin- ia National Guard at the Association of the U.S. Army’s Global Force Sym- posium and Exposition, Sellers said the Army is studying how it should move on a “dynamic” battlefield while ensuring soldiers have what they need to fight. The key is “being able to fix, arm and fuel forward and making sure we’re not a stagnant organization that’s standing still,” he said. “How are we going to be able to provide that multifunctional logistics non- commissioned officer that’s able to … get those requirements to the com- mander as required?” Part of that effort is training, educating and developing NCOs so they’re properly equipped to lead soldiers and be force multipliers for their units and commanders, said Command Sgt. Maj. Raymond Har- ris, senior enlisted leader for Train- ing and Doctrine Command. Work is underway to revamp the Senior Leader Course, a prerequisite for promotion to sergeant first class, to produce what Sellers and Harris referred to as multifunctional logis- tics NCOs. The goal is to “ensure they understand support operations and how to be a leader within the sustainment community,” Sellers said. The goal is to start implementing the revamped Senior Leader Course “maybe end of this year, beginning of next,” Harris said. The Army also must make sure it has the right soldiers with the right aptitude, Sellers said. “If we don’t have the right soldier, … the technol- ogy is going to outpace us,” he said. For the Army National Guard, it’s important for the component to mod- ernize and transform so it can re- main relevant, said Command Sgt. Maj. James Jones, senior enlisted leader for the West Virginia National Guard. “There are significant other challenges when you talk moderniza- tion and the National Guard, number one being time, and two being mon- ey,” he said. One Army National Guard “prior- ity division” is in the first wave of modernization, transforming “along with their [active Army] counter- parts,” Jones said, but “most of the greatest among our forces in the Na- tional Guard will remain ready and relevant through cascading modern- ization.” The Guard must keep up and adapt, he said. “It can’t be just-in- time readiness,” Jones said. “If it’s not intuitive enough that a Guards- man can learn it really quickly over a couple of days, it has to be a more deliberate process, because we have limited time to train up on equip- ment. You have to get out and get reps and sets on that equipment … to build true readiness.” Command Sgt. Maj. Brian Hester of Futures Command, who said the character of war is changing as in- novation and technology continue to evolve, emphasized the importance of consistency. “The nature of war remains con- sistent,” he said. “For the Army, that means we have to be consistent and remain the dominant land force.” Senior enlisted leaders from across the Army speak during AUSA’s 2024 Global Force Symposium and Exposition in Huntsville, Alabama. (AUSA PHOTO)www.ausa.org8 AUSA Extra | March 29, 2024 ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY Bush: Speed, teamwork needed for Army transformation Jeremy Tondreault, left, president of platforms and services at BAE Systems, Gen. James Rainey, commanding general of Army Futures Command, and Douglas Bush, assistant Army secretary for acquisition, logistics and technology, speak Wednesday at the AUSA Global Force Symposium and Exposition in Huntsville, Alabama. (AUSA PHOTO) S peed, flexibility and teamwork are critical as the Army moves forward with its transforma- tion for the future, the service’s top acquisition and modernization offi- cials said. Speaking Wednesday on a panel at the Association of the U.S. Army’s Global Force Symposium and Exposi- tion in Huntsville, Alabama, Douglas Bush, assistant Army secretary for acquisition, logistics and technol- ogy, said the Army cannot do what it needs to do without teaming up with industry. He also emphasized speed. “Acqui- sition at speed has been my mantra since I arrived,” Bush said. “That’s based on perception of threat. We’re not in a place where we can take our time with programs. We’ve got to keep up with technology.” Gen. James Rainey, command- ing general of Army Futures Com- mand, echoed Bush’s remarks. “It’s all about speed,” he said, adding that the Army doesn’t get to choose when it’s called to fight. “The sense of ur- gency we share is critical,” he said. Today, the Army has several tools to help it move more quickly through the acquisition process, Bush said, including middle tier of acquisition authority. The Army has been mak- ing use of those authorities to speed munitions production and provide much-needed capability to deployed troops, Bush said. Jeremy Tondreault, president of platforms and services at BAE Sys- tems, who also spoke on the panel, said companies are seeking “trans- parency” of requirements and re- sourcing from the service. “That shapes what we invest in,” he said. “The more transparent we are in this partnership in the early phases, the more likely industry is going to be able to make their investments use- ful to the Army.” Another challenge for the Army is production scale, Bush said. The Army must be able to produce at scale the new equipment it needs, he said. Together, speed of acquisition and production scale are a means of de- terrence, Bush said. “The arsenal of democracy, once funded and supported by the Ameri- can people, is not to be trifled with,” he said. New cross-functional team focuses on all-domain sensing T he Army is creating a new team focused on helping the force bet- ter see, sense and target deep into the battlefield. The All-Domain Sensing Cross- Functional Team will be stood up out of the Assured Positioning, Naviga- tion and Timing/Space Cross-Func- tional Team, Army Futures Com- mand announced Tuesday during the Association of the U.S. Army’s Global Force Symposium and Exposition in Huntsville, Alabama. The transition “arrives on the heels of the successful completion” of the team’s “original mission,” the com- mand said in a news release. “The APNT/Space CFT did what we asked them to do, and the changes we are making are intended to capitalize on our success,” Gen. James Rainey, Fu- tures Command commander, said in the news release. All-domain sensing has been a consistent priority for Army senior leaders, the news release says. “The Army must be able to see as far as it can shoot, see after it shoots, access machine-speed analytics to make informed decisions and understand the impacts of multiple effects on the battlefield,” the release says. The team will focus on capabili- ties such as sensor technologies for surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting; integrated sensing archi- tecture to enable Army force projec- tion, fires and maneuver; and identi- fying advanced technologies for data processing and dissemination at the pace and scale required for large- scale combat operations. The All-Domain Sensing Cross- Functional Team will be in Adelphi, Maryland, and Huntsville, and it’s expected to reach full operational capability by the second quarter of fiscal year 2025.Next >