For MSgt. Rick Burnette, the day started like any other. He got up at 0500 hours, worked out, had breakfast, conducted pre-combat inspections and prepared to leave his forward operating base to survey a sewage plant in Zafaraniya on the southern side of Baghdad. His convoy pulled just off the road and parked its four vehicles in a densely populated residential neighborhood where the soldiers took defensive positions. To ensure an adequate safety perimeter, MSgt. Burnette instructed the children in the area to leave. They did, but returned a short time afterward, just as a small car down-shifted while making a U-turn, heading straight for the soldiers.
"The explosion was loud and powerful," recalls Burnette. "I stumbled backwards and tried to collect my senses, then opened my eyes to see the children who had just returned lying lifeless on the ground."
MSgt. Burnette was in medical hold at Walter Reed Army Medical Center when he volunteered to come to work for the deputy chief of staff, G-8. He asked to come to this office because he wanted to share his story and to make a contribution in helping to equip soldiers. MSgt. Bumette maintains that, even though the explosion had resulted in nerve damage throughout his body, shrapnel in both thighs and his hip, hearing loss in one ear and two severed thumbs, he survived the blast because the equipment he was wearing "had prevented further catastrophic injuries."
The Army G-8 allocates the resources and equipment that provides our soldiers with updated force protection gear such as Interceptor body armor, ballistic eyewear, one-hand tourniquet and combat-arms earplugs; these items are now standard issue and are items that MSgt. Bumette cites as instrumental in saving his life. MSgt. Burnette's story of survival is but one boots-on-the-ground example of the combat capability that we in G-8 strive to deliver each and every day.
The primary challenge confronting our Army is how to balance near-term readiness, operational commitments and the Army's longer term modernization needs within fiscal realities. Also, the Army must continue to fund our operations and support accounts while at the same time taking care of our most valuable asset, soldiers like MSgt. Burnette.
As the Army's lead for allocating resources and equipment, the Army G-8 is responsible for developing, independently assessing, integrating and synchronizing the Army's program and equipment. We accomplish this through the programming of resources, materiel integration, analytical and modeling capabilities, and the management of Department of the Army studies and analyses.
The Army G-8:
* Serves as the principal adviser to the Army Chief of Staff on materiel program execution; joint materiel requirements; and doctrine, organization, training material, leadership and education-personnel and facilities integration.
* Advises the secretary of the Army and Chief of Staff on resource allocation and development of the Army Program Objective Memorandum (POM).
* Serves as the Army lead for the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), defense strategic planning guidance and the joint programming guidance.
* Is the focal point and proponent for Army operations research and systems analysis.
The G-8 team is made up of three directorates-Army Quadrennial Defense Review Office, Program Analysis & Evaluation (PAED) and Force Development (FD)-and one field operating agency, the Center for Army Analysis (CAA). The G-8 team works to plan, develop and resource programs that support soldiers by balancing current force needs with Future Force capabilities. To meet the Army's goal of sustaining the all-volunteer force with fully trained and equipped soldiers, G-8 has partnered with the Marine Corps and Special Operations Forces to develop tactical equipment to modernize and replace our current equipment to the benefit of all. By modernizing as a joint team-operationally, organizationally and doctrinally-we can leverage joint interdependences. The support of the President and Congress is essential to fund the Army's modernization and maintain our ability and capability to act decisively.
The international security environment has changed dramatically since the terrorist attacks of 9/11. The QDR's principal purpose is to develop operational guidance for the national defense and national military strategies and shape the Future Force. This is accomplished through strategic initiatives like preventing the acquisition of weapons of mass destruction by a hostile state, defending the homeland and building partnerships to defeat extremism. The Army's continuing development of modular, multipurpose, brigade-based combat and support forces will ensure the most appropriate force mix for combat operations, irregular warfare and the global war on terrorism.
The challenges posed by the 21st-century security environment also drive our vision of the force we must become. The planning, programming, budgeting and execution (PPBE) process uses the 2006 strategic planning guidance to develop the Army's current and Future Forces. The Army plan is the framework that guides key initiatives to build our Army. Army PAED manages the resourcing of the Army plan, leads Army participation in the Department of Defense PPBE process, manages the development of the Army's input to the POM and provides a single authoritative source for resource information.
In addition to the POM, PAED supports the Army's business transformation efforts by aggressively seeking ways to prioritize limited resources. To achieve this, PAED is working to restructure the Army's institutional base by divesting from non-core functions, as well as improving the level of proficiency to implement disciplined and measurable approaches to reduce waste and streamline organizations.
The Army's ongoing transformation will result in an organizational redesign that will significantly improve our operational capability. The FD mission is to allocate the Army's equipment in accordance with the Army Campaign Plan and Army priorities, while transforming the Army into a modular force. By the end of fiscal year 2006, the Army converted 26 active component brigade combat teams (BCTs), activated nine additional active component BCTs and began the conversion of 14 Army National Guard (ARNG) BCTs, bringing the total number of modular BCTs to 49. The goal is to complete transforming the modular BCTs by 2011.
MSgt. Bumette left G-8 and joined a modular unit after his convalescence. He returned to Fort Stewart, Ga., to the 3rd Infantry Division (Mechanized), the first unit in the Army to transform into the modular force design. The 3rd Infantry Division now boasts increased combat power and provides the combatant commander with full spectrum capabilities for the fight.
The G-8 also plays a key role in the development and fielding of Future Combat Systems (FCS) which serves as the Army's primary transformation program to increase capabilities and reduce or eliminate vulnerabilities in the Future Force. It is the fastest and most efficient way to modernize the Army. The Army is planning to stand up the evaluation brigade combat team (EBCT) in 2007, with FCS capabilities flowing into this unit by 2008. The EBCT will evaluate how FCS enables the modular force with a family of systems designed around a common network.
The Center for Army Analysis plays an important role in transforming the force by helping to provide the analytical foundation for transformation efforts. CAA uses mathematical models and operations research techniques to conduct analyses of Army forces and systems in the context of joint and combined warfighting. CAA's focus is theater level operations and Army-wide processes, especially those that involve resource and force allocation. These responsive analytical studies help the Army senior leadership, the Army staff and combatant commanders address top transformation and operational issues. In addition, for the past several years, CAA has maintained full-time deployed analysts in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
Lessons learned are another way that G-8 ensures the Army uses its scarce resources to best equip the force. For example, based on Army-wide soldier feedback, the Army's Rapid Fielding Initiative and Rapid Equipping Force (RFI/REF) have both accelerated the fielding of equipment to soldiers, and can better support the global war on terrorism by using current programs and commercial off-the-shelf technologies. Initiatives such as RFI and REF continue to provide soldiers and units the mission-essential items and equipment designed to enhance combat effectiveness, survivability and capability for full spectrum operations.
In addition, the Army uses reset as a means of maintaining readiness and equipment reliability. Reset actions include repair and replacement of equipment lost to combat operations or worn to the point of being uneconomically repairable. Reset also includes recapitalization of equipment when feasible and necessary. The funding of reset requires additional resources above the base budget. Sustaining trained and ready forces will depend on how well we allocate new production and reset equipment across the Army. To do this, G-8 force developers convene semiannual Army equipping and reuse conferences to discuss how best to allocate all available equipment in the Army's inventory based on Army priorities. The results ensure that units understand where equipment is located, who is getting which equipment and when it will be received. Resetting the Army will continue to be a significant challenge as we fight this war, implement Base Realignment and Closure and complete Global Defense Posture Realignment recommendations.
The Army also is committed to protecting the lives of citizens here in the United States. Last year when Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, the Army provided equipment capabilities for 100 percent of every validated request in support of relief operations. To prepare for this year's hurricane season, G-8 was part of a team made up of representatives from Army G-3, Army Materiel Command, Forces Command, ARNG and Army Reserve to develop equipping solutions for identified shortfalls for the states of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina and North Carolina. The equipping solutions consisted of both materiel and operational solutions involving more than 11,000 items of equipment. Materiel solutions consisted of permanent and temporary loan equipment from other units, new production diversions and diversions from national level reset. Operational solutions consisted of a hurricane response plan tied to Federal Emergency Management Agency regions, leveraging Army Reserve unit capabilities by which equipment is prepositioned in hurricane states for the duration of the hurricane season.
Transformation into a modular force represents the most extensive reorganization of our Army since World War II. By 2011 we plan to have reconfigured the total force into the modular design. We are engaged in a Long War that will be waged primarily by ground forces-the first challenge confronting the Army G-8 is how to balance near-term readiness, operational commitments and the Army's longer term modernization needs within fiscal constraints. But whether supporting the global war on terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan, homeland defense or disaster relief, no soldier with boots on the ground ever is placed in harm's way with anything less than a full complement of mission-enhancing, life-sustaining equipment. That is the mission of the G-8 and our pledge to the soldiers we support.
The Army continues to learn, adapt and transform. Our values, however, remain intact; our loyalties, nonwaiverable. MSgt. Burnette, a stellar example of an American soldier, likewise continues to develop and transform. He is confident because he trained for the right mission with the right equipment. Both he and the G-8 team understand that soldiers must have what they need, when they need it-never late and never too little.
Honored in July by Army Times as its Soldier of the Year, MSgt. Burnette is preparing to leave Fort Stewart for a Reserve Officer Training Corps instructor position at Old Dominion University, on the Virginia coast, where he will prepare a new generation of Americans to defend our nation.
As these soldiers begin their Army experience, the Army and the nation must continue to properly resource and equip these young men and women in a manner befitting their patriotism and selfless service.
[Sidebar]
The Army's Shadow 200 Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, the tactical maneuver commander's premier reconnaissance, surveillance and target acquisition system, provides greater situations! awareness on the battlefield and supports the commander's ability to shape the battlefield.
[Sidebar]
The Buffalo vehicle protects convoys against the threat of mines and improvised explosive devices.
[Sidebar]
Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment, 172ndStryker Brigade Combat Team, patrol a neighborhood In Mosul, Iraq, where insurgents have been known to be operating. The Stryker reactive armor tiles were developed to provide a rocket propelled grenade level of protection.
[Sidebar]
The non-line-of-sight cannon will provide networked, extended-range targeting and precision attack fires on point and area targets in support of the modular force.
The mounted combat system will provide direct and beyond-line-of-sight offensive firepower. It will be capable of delivering precision fires at a rapid rate and destroy multiple targets at standoff ranges, complementing the fires of other systems.
[Author Affiliation]
By Lt. Gen. David F. Melcher
Deputy Chief of Staff, G-8
[Author Affiliation]
LT. GEN. DAVID F. MELCHER assumed duties as deputy chief of staff, G-8, in October 2004 after serving as the Army's director of Program Analysis and Evaluation from June 2002 to September 2004. Gen. Melcher's command assignments include: commanding general, Southwestern Engineer Division, Dallas, Texas, from September 2000 to May 2002; commander, Engineer Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas, July 1996 to July 1998; commander, 6th Engineer Battalion, 6th Infantry Division (Light), Fort Wainwright, Alaska, from July 1992 to June 1994; and company commander in 14th Engineer Battalion, 7th Infantry Division, Fort Ord, Calif. Gen. Melcher served as the deputy director, Strategy, Plans and Policy Directorate, and executive officer to the deputy chief of staff for Operations and Plans, Washington, D.C.,from July 1998 to July 2000; regimental tactical officer, U.S. Military Academy, West Point, N.Y.,from June 1994 to June 1996; special assistant to the Chief of Staff, Army, Washington, D.C.,from June 1991 to June 1992; S-3 (operations officer) during Operation Just Cause, Panama, and executive officer, 13th Engineer Battalion, 7th Infantry Division (Light), Fort Ord, Calif,, from September 1988 to June 1991; White House fellow and executive assistant for the director. Office of Management and Budget, Washington, D.C., from August 1987 to September 1988; economic analyst, Force Structure, Resource and Assessment Directorate (J-8), The Joint Staff, Washington, D.C, from June 1986 to August 1987; and assistant professor of Economics, U.S. Military Academy, West Point, N.Y.,from January 1985 to June 1986. Gen. Melcher was commissioned in the Corps of Engineers in 1976 after graduating from the U.S. Military Academy as a Distinguished Cadet. He earned a master's degree in publk administration from Shippensburg University and a master's in business administration from Harvard University. His military education includes the Engineer Officer Basic and Advanced courses; U.S. Army Command and General Staff College; U.S. Marine Corps Command and Staff College; and the U.S. Army War College. He is a registered professional engineer in New Hampshire.
Комментариев нет:
Отправить комментарий