Photo By Megan Gully | Gen. Charles Hamilton, Army Materiel Command commander, speaks to leaders across the...... read more read more
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REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. -- The Army’s senior sustainer underlined how the country’s National Insurance Policy – the Army’s Organic Industrial Base consisting of 23 arsenals, depots and ammunition plants that manufacture, reset and maintain Army equipment – is ensuring Army readiness while executing its most comprehensive modernization in history.
That underscored the message Army Materiel Command’s top leader Gen. Charles Hamilton had for leaders from the OIB participating in a modernization war game at Redstone Arsenal, June 13-15.
“The OIB is our nation’s National Insurance Policy, ready whenever we need it, and for more than a year it has been demonstrating its importance to the world,” said Hamilton, telling the audience about conversations he has with senior defense and Army leaders. “They all know about this world’s best kept secret, that is not a secret anymore.”
Hamilton said that while the OIB continues to play a vital role in sustaining the operational readiness of the Army, including U.S. support to Ukraine, it is simultaneously preparing for the future.
Launched in March 2020, the Army’s OIB Modernization Implementation Plan, led by AMC, is providing a holistic way ahead to modernize facilities, processes and the workforce across the 23 sites. This war game focused on the plans for fiscal years ‘23, ‘24 and ‘25 to make sure priorities are properly aligned and that sites are ready to execute when they receive funding.
“Change is hard, and I want to reiterate to everyone that we are trying to change how the Army is doing a lot of things,” Rich Martin, director of AMC’s OIB Modernization Task Force, said. “We are building this process that’s never really been inculcated until we started about a year and half ago.”
The 15-year OIB Modernization Implementation Plan synchronizes a cost-neutral investment of an estimated $18.1 billion in three phases: Build 21st Century Capability for the Future (Fiscal Years ‘24-28); Continue to Build Capabilities and Attack Vulnerabilities (FY ‘29-33); and Maintain and Sustain OIB Investments (FY ‘34-38).
“We owe our future Soldiers the best equipped, most modernized and ready Army,” Hamilton said, referring to the OIB moving into the 21st century, which includes integrating data to ensure the OIB is able to provide precision sustainment and predictive logistics.
“We used to say factory to foxhole, but now it’s foxhole to factory,” he said. “Because every round expended, every meal eaten, every missile fired from the Soldier perspective must inform the factory – the OIB. That connectivity is the piece we were missing.”
Tim Goddette, deputy assistant secretary of the Army for sustainment, attended the war game and challenged participants to think about three things: the first was to think about what makes their OIB site unique.
“When we talk outside this organization and say OIB, people are going to think about the depot, but if you are an arsenal or ammunition plant, please think about what you do differently and how that translates to these modernization efforts,” he said.
Second was to collaborate and learn from each other and use this time to look, share and discuss challenges.
“We could have done this one-on-one, but we are here together because you should be looking at what other people are doing,” Goddette said. “You should be sharing ideas with one another. You should also be talking about the challenges you go through, because in many cases the challenges are the same and others they’re not.”
Goddette’s last point was to not only think about modernization in terms of product, but also in terms of risk.
“If you get funded, or more importantly you do not, what does that mean in the second, third and fourth order effect,” he asked the OIB leaders. “If this is a single point of failure, you need to bring that out.”
| Date Taken: | 06.14.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 06.28.2023 10:32 |
| Story ID: | 447422 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 141 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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