As the Army modernizes, leaning on industry partners remains critical, according to a new paper published by the Association of the U.S. Army.

“The pace of technological change is no longer measured in decades, but in months, and sometimes weeks,” Majs. Ryan Crayne and Blake Estlund write. As adversaries beef up their technological capabilities, “the Army is responding with sweeping reforms to its acquisition system, its requirements process and its sustainment enterprise. But even with these internal changes, one truth remains: The Army cannot transform alone. It needs industry partners to match its urgency.”

In “We Cannot Wait: Three Imperatives for Industry Partners as the Army Transforms,” Crayne and Estlund argue that for too long there has been a divide between the Army’s acquisition and modernization processes, creating bureaucratic inefficiencies and emboldening U.S. adversaries.

Crayne is an AUSA scholar and an Army marketing and behavioral economics officer who currently serves as the innovation lead for the Army Enterprise Marketing Office. He is a fellow with the LTG (Ret.) James M. Dubik Writing Fellows Program and has a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Michigan. Estlund is an Army acquisition officer serving as an assistant product manager and project manager of self-propelled Howitzer systems. He has a master’s degree in business leadership.

Effective collaboration means industry and the Army must work alongside each other from the start, Crayne and Estlund write, citing Ukraine’s ability to collaborate at the point of need, which cut innovation timeframes from years to months or weeks. “While the U.S. system differs from what’s been happening in Ukraine, the Army is nevertheless adopting the principles of engaging directly with frontline Soldiers,” they write.

Instead of relying on contractors, as the Army did during the global war on terror, industry must enable soldiers to repair and adapt at the point of need. 

“In future large-scale combat operations, forward contractor support cannot be assumed, and materiel sustainment from industry partners will be even further contested,” Crayne and Estlund write. “The next critical adoption that industry partners must champion is a model that facilitates the Army’s right-to-repair, retool and redesign.”

Speed is a requirement because “there is no silver medal ceremony in warfighting,” though “the obstacles preventing us from achieving speed in acquisition are not technological, but procedural,” Crayne and Estlund write.

To meet the needs of the future fight, the Army should take advantage of industry to accelerate its modernization.

“The Army faces a moment where technological pace and operational risk demand a different kind of partnership with industry partners,” they write. “The Army is transforming and moving toward a new acquisition partnership model, and we need our partners to keep pace. The ultimate cost of idleness will be paid by our citizens in the wasting of our country’s treasure and by our Soldiers in a profligate spilling of their blood.”

Read the full paper here.