By Emelie Rutherford
The general leaving his job as the Marine Corps’ top equipment buyer has parting advice for the defense industry: “sharpen your pencils.”
Brig. Gen. Michael Brogan will depart his post as head of Marine Corps Systems Command on July 7 and become the commanding general of Training Command at the service’s base in Quantico, Va. Brig. Gen. (sel) Francis Kelley, System Command’s current chief of staff, then will take the reins from Brogan.
Brogan has steered the growing command for the past 44 months, and has been in the limelight because of his role as program executive officer for the closely watched joint- service Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle (MARP) effort.
The Orrville, Ohio native has delivered many blunt messages to defense companies as he has worked to equip Marines during two wars, at a time when equipment requirements also grew because of the push to boost the size of the Marine Corps.
Now he tells industry: “Get ready to sharpen your pencils, because the largesse that we have enjoyed in baseline budgets, in supplementals (emergency war-funding bills), and then in Overseas Contingency Operations (war) funding is going to decrease.”
“We are going to be looking for products that demonstrate value, not necessarily all of the bells and whistles and every whiz-bang gizmo that can be attached to it,” Brogan said in an interview with Defense Daily. “What are those essential characteristics that allow a piece of equipment to perform its mission that can be affordable (and) maintainable because of lifecycle cost, (which) is a big piece of it.”
Industry should acknowledge Navy Secretary Ray Mabus’ focus on energy efficiency, the general said.
“Things that run on engines probably will, in the not-too-distant future, need to be able to operate on biofuels and alternative fuels,” Brogan said. “If there are ways to supplant those engines through solar or wind or thermal–thermal’s probably for our bases and stations–that will be useful. And for anything that is carried by a Marine infantryman, weight needs to become an independent variable.”
One constant is change, he said, “and these are probably the changes that are coming.”
Efforts to conserve energy and lighten the load of Marines’ gear will require some initial investment by government and industry, yet could potentially help save money, Brogan said.
“For example, if we can use solar power to recharge batteries, then we don’t have to buy as many generators, we don’t have to haul as much fuel for those generators, and that frees up some money,” he said. “If we are able to use a local water source (in theater) and purify it, package it, and distribute it, without having to carry bottled water in convoys, then one we’re not buying that water from a local vendor, two we’re not spending the resources to move it around-both human and hydrocarbon.”
In some cases, such items are available now and just need to be packaged for the military, Brogan said. For areas such as more-powerful batteries, he sees the commercial sector and the consumer desire for energy density driving the battery industry, not the U.S. military.
Brogan said he is proud of the work the Marine Corps Systems Command and the MRAP program executive office did during his tenure.
“To recognize the large number of lives that have been directly impacted by that (MRAP) vehicle, of the service men and women who used it, and indirectly their families, parents, that has been, frankly, incredible rewarding,” he said.
“A tremendous amount is possible when the Hill, the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the users, the acquisition community, and industry all come together and get behind something,” he added.
Production is now winding down on the MRAP All-Terrain (M-ATV) vehicle effort that followed the initial MRAP effort, which quickly built more than 16,000 of the blast- deflecting trucks to troops fending off attacks from increasing lethal improvised explosive devices in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The initial MRAP effort was not free from controversy. The Defense Department’s inspector general, for one, criticized the Pentagon for not acting faster than it did to build MRAP vehicles for troops in Iraq and faulted the Marine Corps for not properly determining if vehicle prices were appropriate.
“Specific to the acquisition program, the key is early on to document not just the decisions that are made, but the rationale that supported those decisions, because no matter how well you do you will be criticized after the fact,” Brogan said. “There will be people that second-guess, that use hindsight and question what was done.”
The MRAP effort is far from wrapping up, Brogan said. There are 10 times as many active contracts now than when the program began, because of efforts to upgrade the vehicles.
Brogan said he sees fewer big acquisition programs in the Marine Corps in the near future.
“At least on the ground side, we’re going to operate with what we have for a long period of time,” he said.
Still, despite the U.S. economic downturn, he predicted the Pentagon will not do away with the practice of awarding multiple contracts to industry for competing prototypes of large weapon systems, an effort that started three years ago.
“I’m absolutely convinced it is the best way to ensure competition remains alive, and to get what you want because you can then provide feedback to industry …and it allows both parties to communicate clearly expectations and results,” Brogan said. “And in the end I think we’ll spend less money, because programs won’t drag out. We’ll get them right up front and (earlier) than we would if we don’t do competitive prototyping.”
Marine Corps Systems Command has grappled with an increasing number protests of contract awards filed at the Government Accountability Office because of the downturn in the economy, Brogan said.
The economy “has led to increasingly hard-fought competition, because industry is hungry,” he said. “And it has made those who are unsuccessful absolutely willing to come to (the media), or to the Hill, or to the leadership of the department to register their complaints, in some cases to drag it out or to get a piece of it, or to have an award overturned.”
Brogan said he has no doubt Kelley will do well as the next commander of Systems Command, considering he has 14 years of acquisition experience.
“He’s ready,” Brogan said.