Army's Swift Response to Soldier Needs
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by Lawrence P. Farrell, Jr.
Among the hard-learned lessons of the
wars that U.S. forces have been fighting for the past three years
is the importance of having a military procurement system that is
responsive to the needs of troops on the front lines.
The widely reported shortages of body armor and up-armored Humvees
in Iraq highlight the huge challenges facing the Defense Department’s
acquisition process which, in a nutshell, are to anticipate equipment
requirements accurately and to rapidly meet urgent needs.
One viable solution to this problem can be found in the U.S. Army’s
Rapid Equipping Force, or REF. The organization, based in Fort Belvoir,
Va., was exclusively designed to find materiel solutions to emerging
war-fighter requirements—ideally, within 90 days or less. To
work directly with operational commanders, the REF has forward teams
in Afghanistan and Iraq. In Iraq, the teams consist of one officer
and several NCOs with each Army division. “Only by being on
the battlefield and living and working directly with soldiers can
we understand and address the true needs of the soldier in a quick
and effective manner,” said a REF spokesman.
With a workforce that grew from about 20 in April 2004 to more
than 100 by December, the REF has managed to deliver a number of
key technologies in a matter of weeks or months. It also facilitates
and expedites the delivery of materiel solutions through the existing
acquisition management structure. Under the traditional procurement
cycle, the same process would have taken years.
To expedite development and rapid equipping, REF seeks primarily
commercial off-the-shelf technologies, which can function as stand
alone capabilities or can be integrated with existing military systems.
The REF had its origin in the PackBot robotic platforms sent to
Afghanistan in the summer of 2002 to remotely inspect high-risk
areas. The robots helped operational units clear caves, buildings
and compounds. Another useful field-engineered device supplied by
REF is a personal digital assistant loaded with mission essential
phrases that lets units without interpreters communicate more quickly
and effectively with local citizens. Among the success stories was
an REF engineer field rigging a web-camera to an ethernet cable
and a laptop. On its first mission, this “well-cam” discovered
a weapons and equipment cache inside an 80-foot well. As an alternative
to destroying locks and doors during search missions in rural Afghanistan
and then reimbursing the owners, simple and inexpensive lock shims
were procured and provided to soldiers with to enable them to accomplish
their search missions without destroying civilian property.
Observers who have witnessed the successes of REF wonder how the
Army can benefit from the experience in the long term. So far, the
Army has not decided how exactly it would integrate REF into the
permanent procurement structure, but it is clear that REF know-how
should shape the service’s approach to developing and purchasing
technologies for years to come.
Paul Stoskus, REF deputy director, told a recent NDIA armaments
conference that the organization has been ordered to insert future
force technologies, as appropriate, into the current force; and
to assess results and apply lessons learned to stay ahead of an
adaptive enemy.
To help cope with the threat of snipers in Iraq, REF obtained funding
for the fielding of the Pilar acoustic sensor system, which detects
incoming bullets. Working with the Defense Advanced Research Projects
Agency, the REF obtained and oversaw the installation of Army’s
Swift Response to Soldier Needs Boomerang, a smaller and comparatively
low-cost acoustic detector that was fielded on Army vehicles. To
further help protect soldiers from mortar attacks, REF is evaluating
various technologies in partnership with DARPA and providing support
to the Counter Rocket Artillery and Mortar (C-RAM) effort originated
by the Training and Doctrine Command Army Futures Center.
A suite of force-protection solutions that REF has deployed include
walk-through detectors, aerosol-based field explosive detection
kits, an iron image detection spray, ultra sensitive metal detecting
wands and a device to check vehicle gas tanks. “Sometimes commercial
off the shelf solutions can not only be life savers, but also save
a lot of money,” Stoskus said. Contributing to the further
development of combat robotics in Iraq, the REF has produced a smaller,
lighter and less expensive device that can be quickly used by units
to determine whether roadside debris is a danger. Engineers currently
are assessing a lightweight robot that could be carried in a rucksack
and thrown into a room to provide immediate situational awareness.
As the Army continues to refine the process and collects lessons
from the field, it would appear certain that the REF experience
will have lasting implications for the future of Army modernization.
The most ambitious Army procurement program, Future Combat Systems,
is likely to be shaped in many ways by the notion that, no matter
how advanced and sophisticated a technology might be, it needs also
to be fielded in a timely fashion and be attuned to the needs of
the troops.
REF undeniably is proving to be a valuable resource for our forces
in the Middle East and we believe it could also serve admirably
to help set requirements and procurement strategies for the emerging
technologies inherent in FCS. Kudos to the Army for setting REF
in motion and congratulations to REF and industry for the many successes
to date.
Please email me your comments to Lfarrell@ndia.org