bobdina
10-11-2009, 06:24 PM
Speakes: Huge transitions ahead for force
By Kris Osborn - Staff writer
Posted : Sunday Oct 11, 2009 10:03:34 EDT
As deputy chief of staff for Army programs since 2006, Lt. Gen. Stephen Speakes has his eyes on several Army transformations, including the conversion of several heavy brigade combat teams to Stryker brigade combat teams.
Along with stewarding the move to build more mobile Army units suited to irregular warfare, Speakes has been working on modernization and budget issues for decades. He also has served as force development director in the Army’s Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, as deputy commanding general (operations) for Third Army, as deputy commanding general (operations) of Coalition Forces Land Component Command for Operation Iraqi Freedom, and as chief of staff of V Corps, U.S. Army Europe and Seventh Army.
Speakes will retire in November.
He gave his views on priorities for the Army, the shape of the force and modernization:
Q. What is the Army’s rationale for converting heavy brigades into Stryker brigades?
A. The origin of it starts with the Quadrennial Defense Review. One of the things we were challenged to do is give the Army more capability for irregular warfare and counterinsurgency. We ought to consider more movement from our heavy formations to our lighter versions, and this point is personified by Stryker.
We will convert one HBCT to a Stryker brigade in the near term and another in the next three to four years. This is ... not something that is measured in one particular step.
We think the basic design of the Stryker brigade has stood the test of time and the tests of combat.
Q. Will the Stryker perform well enough in terms of survivability?
A. The Army has not made a specific public commitment about an SBCT. We are still pre-decisional. The Army maintains classified statistics on all of our combat platforms, including the Bradley and the tank. We measure them very carefully and we look very carefully at the wounded in action. We are trying to assess where we have vulnerability and immediately apply science and technology to address them.
The Stryker performs favorably. This is a constant dynamic, which is constantly improving the platforms. We have been able to make important modifications.
Q. What are some other areas of emphasis for the Army?
A. We are working hard on getting more aviation capability. We found that combat aviation brigades are in high demand in the force as we look at ops in Afghanistan, and we see that trend continuing.
The second thing we will do is to optimize our [unmanned aerial vehicles] and accelerate them. They make great examples of what soldiers need in this fight.
The next area of adjustment is … our special operations community … to make them more like their modular equivalents in the general force.
Q. What will happen to the heavy assets in those HBCTs to be dissolved?
A. We have moved to pure-fleet the force so that by the end of 2011, we will be all A3 Bradleys and M1A2 System Enhancement Package tanks. We will move the Guard formations to M1A1 Abrams Integrated Management tanks. It is the overall picture of the Army that is continuing to take its best lessons learned, focus on the network, the capabilities packages and focus on the Ground Combat Vehicle. The Ground Combat Vehicle is vital to the force to replace the infantry fighting vehicle we have today.
Q. Any early thoughts on what the new Ground Combat Vehicle will look like?
A. We want to solicit the views of industry. We have learned a lot from our reviews of the Manned Ground Vehicle, which involve significant advances in technology such as hybrid electric power, active protection systems, semi-active suspension systems and the auto loader. A few years ago, they were at [technology readiness level] two. We want industry to understand the Army is deadly serious.
Q. How are preparations going for the new camouflage uniforms?
A. We are taking two new samples of the uniform and we are looking at bringing it out to Afghanistan for testing to look at the best combinations of pattern and color. It is not just the uniform, but the kits that go with the soldiers. We are moving to test sets of the uniform to see what the soldier response is. We want to work with the scientific community to get the best technical evaluations and get feedback from soldiers.
Q. What are some of the future plans for the MRAPs?
A. We have looked intensively at what MRAP can do to best contribute. It has worked well in combat in Iraq. Over the summer, Training and Doctrine Command developed a concept to take MRAPs that come out of Iraq and put them into brigade combat team sets so they are configured in a combat team. As we harvest these vehicles, our intent will be to configure them in sets to be available so soldiers can train on them and put the Army in them on an as-needed basis as the missions, conditions or enemies dictate.
We want to take about 3,700 [MRAPs] and issue them on a permanent basis for things like route-clearance missions. Some of them will replace M113s.
Q. Efforts to merge the former Future Combat Systems network with the entire Army are underway. How are these initiatives progressing?
A. The challenge we had two to three years ago was we had a future-course network and a regular Army network and the challenge of bringing them together. Now, there will be one network for the Army — coming to the Army in capabilities packages.
The first increment is coming to the Army with a bang. This network is going to be inherently joint with radios and waveforms. The essence of it is to pass voice and pass amounts of data to the tactical edge like we have never done before. These are huge transitions that are coming to the force with incredible speed.
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/10/army_speakes_101109w/
By Kris Osborn - Staff writer
Posted : Sunday Oct 11, 2009 10:03:34 EDT
As deputy chief of staff for Army programs since 2006, Lt. Gen. Stephen Speakes has his eyes on several Army transformations, including the conversion of several heavy brigade combat teams to Stryker brigade combat teams.
Along with stewarding the move to build more mobile Army units suited to irregular warfare, Speakes has been working on modernization and budget issues for decades. He also has served as force development director in the Army’s Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, as deputy commanding general (operations) for Third Army, as deputy commanding general (operations) of Coalition Forces Land Component Command for Operation Iraqi Freedom, and as chief of staff of V Corps, U.S. Army Europe and Seventh Army.
Speakes will retire in November.
He gave his views on priorities for the Army, the shape of the force and modernization:
Q. What is the Army’s rationale for converting heavy brigades into Stryker brigades?
A. The origin of it starts with the Quadrennial Defense Review. One of the things we were challenged to do is give the Army more capability for irregular warfare and counterinsurgency. We ought to consider more movement from our heavy formations to our lighter versions, and this point is personified by Stryker.
We will convert one HBCT to a Stryker brigade in the near term and another in the next three to four years. This is ... not something that is measured in one particular step.
We think the basic design of the Stryker brigade has stood the test of time and the tests of combat.
Q. Will the Stryker perform well enough in terms of survivability?
A. The Army has not made a specific public commitment about an SBCT. We are still pre-decisional. The Army maintains classified statistics on all of our combat platforms, including the Bradley and the tank. We measure them very carefully and we look very carefully at the wounded in action. We are trying to assess where we have vulnerability and immediately apply science and technology to address them.
The Stryker performs favorably. This is a constant dynamic, which is constantly improving the platforms. We have been able to make important modifications.
Q. What are some other areas of emphasis for the Army?
A. We are working hard on getting more aviation capability. We found that combat aviation brigades are in high demand in the force as we look at ops in Afghanistan, and we see that trend continuing.
The second thing we will do is to optimize our [unmanned aerial vehicles] and accelerate them. They make great examples of what soldiers need in this fight.
The next area of adjustment is … our special operations community … to make them more like their modular equivalents in the general force.
Q. What will happen to the heavy assets in those HBCTs to be dissolved?
A. We have moved to pure-fleet the force so that by the end of 2011, we will be all A3 Bradleys and M1A2 System Enhancement Package tanks. We will move the Guard formations to M1A1 Abrams Integrated Management tanks. It is the overall picture of the Army that is continuing to take its best lessons learned, focus on the network, the capabilities packages and focus on the Ground Combat Vehicle. The Ground Combat Vehicle is vital to the force to replace the infantry fighting vehicle we have today.
Q. Any early thoughts on what the new Ground Combat Vehicle will look like?
A. We want to solicit the views of industry. We have learned a lot from our reviews of the Manned Ground Vehicle, which involve significant advances in technology such as hybrid electric power, active protection systems, semi-active suspension systems and the auto loader. A few years ago, they were at [technology readiness level] two. We want industry to understand the Army is deadly serious.
Q. How are preparations going for the new camouflage uniforms?
A. We are taking two new samples of the uniform and we are looking at bringing it out to Afghanistan for testing to look at the best combinations of pattern and color. It is not just the uniform, but the kits that go with the soldiers. We are moving to test sets of the uniform to see what the soldier response is. We want to work with the scientific community to get the best technical evaluations and get feedback from soldiers.
Q. What are some of the future plans for the MRAPs?
A. We have looked intensively at what MRAP can do to best contribute. It has worked well in combat in Iraq. Over the summer, Training and Doctrine Command developed a concept to take MRAPs that come out of Iraq and put them into brigade combat team sets so they are configured in a combat team. As we harvest these vehicles, our intent will be to configure them in sets to be available so soldiers can train on them and put the Army in them on an as-needed basis as the missions, conditions or enemies dictate.
We want to take about 3,700 [MRAPs] and issue them on a permanent basis for things like route-clearance missions. Some of them will replace M113s.
Q. Efforts to merge the former Future Combat Systems network with the entire Army are underway. How are these initiatives progressing?
A. The challenge we had two to three years ago was we had a future-course network and a regular Army network and the challenge of bringing them together. Now, there will be one network for the Army — coming to the Army in capabilities packages.
The first increment is coming to the Army with a bang. This network is going to be inherently joint with radios and waveforms. The essence of it is to pass voice and pass amounts of data to the tactical edge like we have never done before. These are huge transitions that are coming to the force with incredible speed.
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/10/army_speakes_101109w/