“We have bought an awful lot of up-armored Humvees over the last five years, so that up-armored Humvee fleet is still young,” he said. “And at the same time we have also upgraded a lot of ‘legacy’ [Humvee] utility vehicles at our depots to the point where that portion of the utility fleet is very, very young. We think that’s the same for both services. So it does give us this opportunity to wait some number of years before we make that big production investment so that we are not trying to do too many things at the same time.”
Manned and Unmanned
Although the size and specific force structure of the Army of 2030 remain to be seen, it is a safe bet that unmanned ground and air platforms will provide a significant amount of necessary service capabilities. The tactical contributions of both unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and unmanned ground systems (UGS) have been proven over the last decade of war, and it is likely that the potential roles and missions for unmanned systems will only increase over the coming years.
U.S. Army Sgt. Skyler Rose (right) and Spc. Joshua Phan, both with Iron Troop, 3rd Squadron, 2nd Cavalry Regiment, work together to control an Unmanned Aerial System during a training exercise March 16, 2013, at Hohenfels, Germany. The regiment was conducting a Mission Readiness Exercise designed to prepare troops for an upcoming deployment to Afghanistan. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Joshua Edwards
In July 2012, for example, the Robotic Systems Joint Project Office (RS JPO), part of the Army Program Executive Office for Ground Combat Systems, published an interim 2012 addendum to its biennial “Unmanned Ground Systems Roadmap” (the roadmap is published in odd-numbered years, with the next iteration expected in 2013).
The identified purpose of the 2012 addendum was to “concentrate on how the RS JPO is focusing its resources to create strategies and align priorities in the areas of acquisition, technical management, test & evaluation, process management, and logistics & sustainment, to continue to meet the needs of the warfighters within an increasingly fiscally challenging environment.”
As part of that process the roadmap highlights the rapid acquisition process noted in the new Army Capstone Concept and how these rapidly-acquired systems will need to be merged into permanent fleet structures.
Sgt. Michael Tacket, with Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, launches a Puma Tier I Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle during training at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, Nov. 14, 2012. U.S. Army photo
“As a result of the recognized need to maintain the UGS capability beyond today’s fight, and to serve as a bridge to the program[s] of record, the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Army approved a Directed Requirement for continued support and sustainment of selected contingency systems,” it reads. “This directive authorizes the sustainment of specific capabilities beyond today’s worldwide engagements, to bridge the capability gap until the enduring, program of record UGS are fielded to the warfighter. In the short term, the result is that the RS JPO is charged with creating long-term sustainment strategies for its fleet of COTS [commercial off the shelf] UGS, in an effort to institutionalize the capability within the Army and Marine Corps. A number of systems are authorized for retention and to compete for Army operations and maintenance sustainment funding in Fiscal Years 2014-2018, based on the cost-benefit analysis that considered costs to procure, reset, store, and sustain systems funded from contingency. These systems include Small Unmanned Ground Vehicles (Packbot 500 Fastac, SUGV XM-1216 w/Tether, SUGV 310 (Mini-EOD)), as well as Man Transportable Robotic Systems (TALON III B, TALON G IV, Packbot 510). The RS JPO expects more formalized evaluation of sustainment strategies and potential system modifications, based on the directed requirement, and the forthcoming Army’s Unmanned Ground Vehicle Campaign Plan to be included in the publishing of the 2013 RS JPO UGS Roadmap.”
Along with ground robotic systems, U.S. Army planners are also looking at a range of DOTMLPF implications across the service portfolio of existing/upgraded UAS platforms and potential new UAS acquisitions.