By Ann Roosevelt
The Project Manager Infantry Brigade Combat Team, PM IBCT, part of the newly formed PEO Integration is preparing for a major review that could lead to production for Increment 1 equipment to improve capabilities for Infantry Brigade Combat Teams starting in 2011, the project manager said.
“About 80 percent of my personal effort and attention are on Increment 1 with it’s Milestone C decision coming in December for the first low rate initial production of the equipment,” Col. John Wendell, project manager BCT Modernization, told Defense Daily recently.
An Increment 1 Limited User Test (LUT) has been completed on equipment also known as Early IBCT (E-IBCT)–unattended sensors, an unmanned aerial vehicle, an unmanned ground vehicle, and non-line of sight launch system, initially developed under the terminated Future Combat Systems (FCS) program. Acquisition offices call this equipment Increment 1.
Data from the LUT is being combed through and evaluated by the Army Test and Evaluation Command (ATEC), which will provide a formal Operational Materiel Assessment Report, or OMAR, he said. “That gives us a formal assessment of the systems’ safety, suitability and effectiveness.”
Emerging results will come in an early look this month.
The final ATEC report will show the capabilities and limits of the equipment. It will be a key document informing the Milestone C decision, he said.
Earlier this month, the Army announced the creation of the Program Executive Office (PEO) Integration to support current and future acquisition programs.
The move responded to the Defense Secretary’s April decision to restructure the FCS program, and the subsequent acquisition decision memorandum guidance from the DoD Acquisition Executive in June.
Project Office BCT Modernization is one of several offices, to include one for the Ground Combat Vehicle and one for the Network that PEO Integration oversees.
“We’re responsible for integration, test and fielding of all Increment 1 products, Wendell said of the PM IBCT office.
The new PEO structure is part of the shift to a new modernization strategy to improve warfighter capabilities, which the Army plans to deliver in capability packages every two years.
Wendell said the project office is not finished with Increment 1. “We still have tests to prove out the full capability before it is put in the hands of soldiers.”
For example, in fiscal year 2010, a classified LUT will be held, examining the ability of the network and systems to pass information and the correct countermeasures in a secure environment.
Success in this LUT will mean the office will be in the position to field Increment 1 to the first brigade in the fourth quarter of FY ’11, he said.
To date, the first brigade to receive Increment 1 has not been identified. The Army wants to take advantage of [Army Force Generation] ARFORGEN synchronization to hit the deployment cycle for units that need it the most,” Wendell said.
The First Unit Equipped IBCT is expected in the fourth quarter of FY ’11, after moving through the ARFORGEN training and readiness cycles, then be slotted into the deployment cycle for FY’12.
The PM BCT Modernization has another area of focus, with two product managers. One will be aligned with the Army Training and Doctrine Command’s Capability Manager, working on requirements. The second will work on enterprise integration, or how to synchronize capability for the whole formation, as part of integration.
“I rely on all the directors in PEO Integration for support,” Walker said. “We are geographically dispersed, but meet virtually almost more than we meet physically.”
It’s a more effective way to get things done, because it’s hard to get efficiencies when the office is trying to do a broad ASALT (Army acquisition, logistics and technology) integration, he said.
“You’re forced to be dispersed,” he said. The complexity of Army modernization pulls from the Army’s 13 PEOs, acquisition centers of excellence, the full breadth of industry, and essentially cuts across organizational boundaries and acquisition timelines.
Army BCT Modernization also has a joint piece: “it is the first program to pull in four channel Ground Mobile Radio from JTRS,” Wendell said. This next-generation radio can pull in any of the software programmable waveforms, and will provide commonality across the services and promote joint interoperability.
“Increment 2 is still in the planning stages, but broadly will include upgrades to Increment 1 plus new equipment, Wendell said. “At my level, I’m constantly looking at how to meet the full breadth and scope, always competing new ideas and capabilities…how to make it better.”
From an acquisition standpoint, the office is still working with TRADOC to refine the requirements for Increment 2.
At PEO Integration, Increment 1 is part of a Capability Package for the IBCT that will include other capabilities, not necessarily equipment. Such things could include a precision mortar or even a Human Terrain Team.