I/ITSEC NEWS: Army Simulation, Training Shifts Acquisition Strategy in Light of Reforms

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ORLANDO, Florida — In the wake of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s sweeping Pentagon acquisition reform, the U.S. Army must pivot from being program-centric to being capability-centric, a senior service leader said Dec. 4.

In November, Hegseth outlined his goals to upend the Defense Department’s acquisition system to eliminate bureaucracy, speed up capability delivery and take more acquisition risks.

Army Brig. Gen. Christine Beeler, capability program executive for simulation, training and instrumentation, said her new title showcases an example of one of the Army’s change in response to Hegseth’s acquisition reform: "program executive officers" are now called "capability program executives." When reflecting on what the title change really means, Beller said it signals a shift from focusing on programs to prioritizing capability.

"We've already opened the door to the new way of doing business," she said, but her office has already been leaning in on some of the reform initiatives such procuring commercial off the shelf products and using Other Transaction Agreements to speed up deliveries of new capabilities, she said during an acquisition update at the National Training and Simulation Association’s Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference. 

Meanwhile, her office has not completely away with traditional Federal Acquisition Regulations-based contracts as they provide more "protection" than OTAs or commercial off the shelf solutions, she said.  

Another beneficial aspect of the new reforms will be how the service resolves "tensions," or disagreements. Normally, those are resolved at the highest levels, and it takes time for decisions to travel up the chain of command, and back down. In the future, these tensions will be resolved at the Transformation and Training Command or undersecretary of acquisition, sustainment and technology level. 

"In most cases, we'll be able to make those trades and those decisions down below that level," she said. "That's how we're going to measure speed, right? We're measuring speed in most ways because that friction is what slows down our ability to deliver and make decisions on what products we deliver out the door or what core services we're able to deliver."

She added: "I'm very excited about the culture shift. We've already gone through our initial phase of it. We're going to continue to get a little lighter and a little leaner. The Army is going to continue to path-find in the CPE PAE space, and where we see friction points ± where you see friction points, please do not hesitate to bring them up," she told industry members in the audience.

 

 

Topics: Army News