The Center for Army Lessons Learned is calling for soldiers who want to serve a yearlong tour in a hot spot such as Afghanistan, Kuwait or Africa. As an Embedded Liaison Officer, they would report back on what they observed. Colonel Paul Reese, director of the Center for Army Lessons Learned, joined Tom Temin on the Federal Drive to discuss what the Army is calling a great opportunity.
The Army is experimenting with a new type of interactive software to train its young leaders. It's called the Emergent Leader Immersive Training Environment software (ELITE). The training tool teaches soldiers to deal with a range of problems including disagreements with their platoon sergeant, driving under the influence and sexual harassment. Marco Conners is chief of the Army Games at the National Simulation Center. He joined Tom Temin on the Federal Drive with details.
Ronald Pontius, the deputy to the commander of Army Cyber Command, said over the next few years the Army will give cyber workers their own career field, preliminarily known as Career Field 17.
The Army and Air Force are using a shared network security infrastructure at Joint Base San Antonio as of Sept. 14. It's a major step toward the Defense Department's goal of moving base-level cybersecurity operations to a more defensible, centrally-managed architecture.
On this week's edition of On DoD, we get a preview of the forthcoming Army Training Information System (ATIS).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.