The 3-D printing revolution now includes an effort to replicate the human skull. The Army Research Laboratory is working on skulls that can be used for research on brain injuries. Dr. Thomas Plaisted is a materials engineer at the Composites and Hybrid Materials Branch of the Weapons and Materials Directorate at the Army Research Lab. On In Depth with Francis Rose, he said the skulls won't solve the head injury problem, but they'll be an effective tool to help find a solution.
Both the Army and Air National Guard say they are making inroads toward gaining a foothold for their state-based forces in the Defense Department's growing mission sets in cyberspace. Both services say they are training more personnel and building the guard's credibility within the Pentagon when it comes to cyber missions.
Maj. Gen. Michael T. Harrison drops in rank from two-star to one-star for failing to investigate sexual assault accusations.
A two-star Army general blamed for failing to properly investigate sexual assault and other allegations against a colonel on his staff will be retired with one star the Army announced Wednesday. The Associated Press's Robert Burns writes, "The decision by Army Secretary John M. McHugh comes more than a year after Maj. Gen. Michael T. Harrison was suspended from his duties as commander of U.S. Army forces in Japan. His case has been cited as evidence of why sex-crime victims say they don't trust the military to protect them, despite efforts by senior Pentagon officials, including Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, to make commanders accountable."
The Defense Department has a plan to get its supply chain management issues off of the Government Accountability Office's high risk list, but progress has been very slow. The Army has a plan to speed things up.
The U.S. Army, like all of the American military services, is dependent on an increasingly complex array of information technology to prosecute its mission. On this edition of AFCEA Answers, our guest is the officer responsible for the Army's IT resources, Lieutenant General Robert Ferrell USA , Chief Information Officer/G-6. He explains how the modernization of the Army's LandWarNet ties in with building the Joint Information Environment, and will result in improved network performance for Army facilities worldwide. The general also offers a progress report on the presidentially-mandated program to reduce the number of Army data centers. And he adds that acquisition modernization is vital to keeping the military's IT resources at the ready in a time of declining budgets and shifting threat priorities.
More than 15,000 transgender personnel secretly serve in the military. In May, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel agreed to review the rules that prohibit transgender service members from serving openly. Now, three retired General Officers release a road map for a new policy. Maj. Gen. Gale Pollock, former acting Surgeon General of the Army and the Commission report co-chair, joined Tom Temin on the Federal Drive with details.
Engineer Patrick DeGroodt helps build Army's communications network, Warfighter Information Network-Tactical Increment Two.
Katherine Hammack, assistant secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy and Environment, says shrinking forces won't be enough to match sequestration-level budgets.
Shrinking force size and changing force structure are two reasons the Defense Department continues to push for another round of base realignment and closure. The Army will likely shrink the most of any of the services, and they are already returning 21 locations to their home countries in Europe. But most members of Congress still oppose another BRAC round in the States. Katherine Hammack is Assistant Secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy, and Environment. On In Depth with Francis Rose, she said the Pentagon is making some progress.
The Army has thousands of personnel working full-time on cyber, but so far, those soldiers have no dedicated career path. That may be about to change.
With industry help, Army builds an open architecture and a set of open standards to chart a robotics acquisition strategy that's more modular, more interoperable and hopefully more cost effective.
Assistant secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy and Environment, Katherine Hammack, is back from a round of visits to Army bases to see how they're dealing with climate change. She says readiness is dependent upon how they prepare for a future of limited energy resources. She explained what she saw on In Depth with Francis Rose.
Closing an operating base in Afghanistan isn't as simple as packing up and moving out. The Army is taking care to leave the land as it was before soldiers found it. Army Lt. Col. Jason Borg works as a base engineer at the International Security Assistance Force joint command. He spoke via satellite from Afghanistan with Tom Temin on the Federal Drive about the logistical ballet.
Big data success at the Army's Enterprise Management Decisions Support earns that team an honor. Lt. Col. Bobby Saxon receives the 2014 GOVTek GTRA Executive Technology Award for Excellence in Big Data. Saxon is system program manager for the EMDS. On In Depth with Francis Rose, he explained how big data will impact decision making in the military.