ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY

The health of the Army contracting enterprise is strong, a senior Army official said Dec. 4 at a one-day seminar sponsored by the Association of the U.S. Army.

A workforce of about 8,000 people works in 270 offices overseeing 300,000 contracts valued at about $74 billion. “We hire the best people and in a timely fashion,” said Stuart Hazlett, the Army deputy assistant secretary for procurement. “That has not always been the case,” he said, proudly describing a credentialed and certified force where the majority were hired in the last 11 years.

The latest entrants in the technology search competition sponsored by the Army to help advance its modernization priorities will demonstrate their innovations during the upcoming Association of the U.S. Army Annual Meeting and Exposition.

The Expeditionary Technology Search, known as xTechSearch, invites small nondefense companies to demonstrate technologies and nontraditional innovators who can work with the Army to modernize the force.

The Army’s failure to modernize “has been detrimental across the board” but big improvements are on the way, said Lt. Gen. Paul A. Ostrowski, Army Acquisition Corps director and principal military deputy to the assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology.

The next commander of the U.S. Army Futures Command might serve a seven- or eight-year tour in a dramatic change in general officer assignments modeled after the late Adm. Hyman G. Rickover, who directed the Navy’s nuclear propulsion program for three decades.

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley raised the possibility of an extended Futures Command tenure during a House Appropriations Committee hearing when he was asked about how the Army planned to make big changes in the acquisition process and leap ahead in technology when there is constant turnover in Army command.

The Army’s acquisition czar says his many priorities include recruiting top people into the workforce and addressing salary disparities that can cause some talented people to leave.

Bruce Jette, assistant Army secretary for acquisition, logistics and technology since December 2017, told a House subcommittee that getting top minds to leave academic institutions to work for the Army may require some new solutions, such as creating partnerships that combine government and university employment. The Army also is looking at how much it should pay for partial jobs.

The Army’s current and former acquisition chiefs were the keynote speakers at an Association of the U.S. Army event focused on improving government contracting.

Bruce D. Jette, the current assistant secretary for acquisition, logistics and technology, said his objective is “to try to get things done faster and better.” Doing that means, in part, having “a more coherent relationship between the Army side and the industry side.”

The Army acquisition chief is trying to change the perception of success for acquisition program managers. “We are going to be product-oriented,” said Bruce Jette, assistant Army secretary for acquisition, logistics and technology.

Jette, sworn in Jan. 2, is talking about culture change in the acquisition community. Success for a program manager has been measured by adhering to the process, he said. The result could be every box is checked but no product is built. “That is an unacceptable outcome,” he told the House Armed Services Committee during a hearing on acquisition reform.

The Army needs private sector innovation to achieve its goal of expanding capabilities, the Army’s acquisition executive told Congress.