NEWSMJ99

On 16 February, Secretary of the Army Louis Caldera announced the transfer of responsibility for Army logistics missions from the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Installations, Logistics, and Environment [ASA (ILE)] to the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Research, Development, and Acquisition [ASA (RDA)]. The move will consolidate acquisition and logistics policy and oversight.

The two affected organizations have been renamed. The former Office of the ASA (RDA) is now the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology [ASA (ALT)]. The former Office of the ASA (ILE) is now the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Installations and Environment [ASA (IE)].

U.S. Army, Europe, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have joined forces to provide continued logistics support services to U.S. forces stationed in the Balkans as a part of Operation Joint Forge. The services will be provided through a 1-year competitively awarded contract with Brown & Root Services Corporation beginning 28 May 1999.

Logistics support services covered in the contract include life support, transportation, and maintenance services. Life support services include maintenance of temporary housing and facilities, laundry operations, water production and distribution, food services, and temporary construction. Transportation and maintenance services include shuttle bus and other transportation, road repair and maintenance, snow and ice removal, railhead operation and cargo handling, equipment maintenance, hazardous materials and environmental services, mail delivery, refueling, fire fighting, scrap sales and disposal, and redeployment, staging, onward movement, and integration operations.

Contracted logistics support for Operation Joint Forge has been provided since December 1995 when U.S. forces were deployed to support the NATO-led Implementation Forces. The original contract with Brown & Root Services Corporation to support military contingency operations was scheduled to end in May 1997. The contract was extended for 2 years to provide sustainment services for U.S. peacekeeping operations.

The Army's budget request for fiscal year (FY) 2000 maintains the Army's ongoing commitments to modernization and quality of life programs while seeking funding increases that are "largely targeted toward near-term readiness." As presented to Congress, the Army budget proposes total obligational authority of $67.350 billion, an increase from FY 1999's $65.509 billion. The budget submission also projects a spending request of $71.482 billion in FY 2001.

The military personnel request is $27.849 billion, which is an increase from the $26.818 billion appropriated in FY 1999. This amount will support an Active Army of 480,000 soldiers (the same as last year), an Army National Guard of 350,000 (a decrease of 7,000), and an Army Reserve of 205,000 (down 3,000). Army civilian employment will decline from 224,000 to 218,000. A pay increase of 4.4 percent is sought for both military and civilian personnel.

The budget request for operation and maintenance is $22.934 billion, up from $21.056 billion in FY 1999. Spending for Active Army logistics operations will increase from $1.498 billion to $1.648 billion. The operation and maintenance funding will support Active Army ground operating tempo of 800 miles for the M1 Abrams tank, 934 miles for the M2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicle, and 970 miles for the M3 Bradley cavalry fighting vehicle and a monthly average of 14.5 flying hours for each aircrew and 17.8 flying hours for each aircraft. It also will provide for 10 brigade rotations each (9 active and 1 Army National Guard) through the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California, and the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, Louisiana, and 5 brigade rotations through the Combat Maneuver Training Center in Germany, as well as training for 9 corps and division command groups and staffs through the Battle Command Training Program.

The procurement budget reflects a small increase, from $8.509 billion in FY 1999 to $8.570 billion in FY 2000. Among the procurement requests are $102.8 million for 8 UH_60 Black Hawk utility helicopters, $190.4 million for 450 vehicles in the family of heavy tactical vehicles (which includes the palletized loading system, heavy equipment transporter system, and heavy, expanded-mobility tactical truck), $425.9 million for 2,179 trucks in the family of medium tactical vehicles (an increase from 1,439 trucks bought last year), $91.7 million for 867 high-mobility, multipurpose, wheeled vehicles (up from 671 purchased last year), and $646.2 million to upgrade 120 M1 Abrams tanks to the M1A2 configuration.

The Army also seeks $4.426 billion for research, development, test, and evaluation (down from $5.032 billion in FY 1999), $695 million for military construction (down from $1.234 billion), $1.112 billion for family housing (down from $1.235 billion), $1.075 billion for all environmental programs, and $1.169 billion for chemical demilitarization. The chemical demilitarization request will support continued construction of disposal facilities at Anniston, Alabama, Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and Umatilla, Oregon; completing final designs and starting construction at Aberdeen, Maryland, and Newport, Indiana; and continuing environmental permitting and design at Blue Grass, Kentucky, and Pueblo, Colorado.

A Joint Deployment Training Center (JDTC) was established last December at Fort Eustis, Virginia. At its opening ceremony, Lieutenant General Roger Thompson, Deputy Commander in Chief of the U.S. Transportation Command, said that the center will "establish a positive paradigm for all the services in future deployments."

The JDTC will work with the Services to ensure that their schools follow a common core curriculum for deployment training in their schools. Thompson believes this will make the JDTC a "hotbed of joint deployment training and doctrine development. People will wonder why we didn't do this 25 years earlier. Commanders of unified commands and all Services will definitely benefit from the JDTC's contributions to improving the deployment process." Thompson sees the JDTC as the right idea for executing today's doctrine for projecting military forces from their continental United States bases.

The JDTC is an element of U.S. Transportation Command, the single manager of transportation for the Department of Defense, headquartered at Scott Air Force Base, Illinois. Like its parent organization, the JDTC will have members of all the armed services on its staff, as well as civilians. Its customers will be Department of Defense (DOD) forces worldwide.

Fort Eustis was chosen as the site for the JDTC because of its history of transportation and deployment training, as well as its proximity to other DOD and serv-ice schools and the military transportation units and facilities in Hampton Roads and on the East Coast.

The final phase of downsizing the Active Army to meet the goals recommended by the Quadrennial Defense Review panel is underway. The reduction and reorganization plan, which began last October and will continue through June 2001, reduces the active duty force to an end strength of 480,000 soldiers. Approximately 5,000 spaces will be eliminated in this final phase, completing the total planned reduction of 15,000 spaces.

Force structure reductions will be achieved by reorganizing units rather than eliminating them. This moves the Army toward the Division XXI design with minimal risks, while improving deployability and strategic mobility.

There are two major parts of this reorganization plan: a limited conversion of selected heavy divisions to the recently announced Division XXI design and a standardization of field artillery units into a three-battery, six-firing-platform configuration. The conversion reduces the number of armor and mechanized companies in each maneuver battalion and increases the number of dismounted infantry soldiers in the platoons. A reconnaissance troop is added to each maneuver brigade. Battalion mortar assets are reduced from six tubes to four tubes.

These limited conversions will occur in the 1st Infantry Division (Mechanized) and 1st Armored Division (both split-based in Germany and Fort Riley, Kansas); the 3d Infantry Division (Mechanized) at Fort Stewart and Fort Benning, Georgia; a brigade of the 2d Infantry Division at Fort Lewis, Washington; and the 3d Brigade, 4th Infantry Division (Mechanized), at Fort Carson, Colorado. The Army's first division to be digitized, the 4th Infantry Division at Fort Hood, Texas, began conversion to the new design last October. Ultimately, all heavy divisions will be fully digitized.

The second segment of the downsizing program, the artillery reorganization program, will begin in June. In this phase, 12 corps-level multiple launch rocket system (MLRS) battalions will be converted from 3 batteries of 9 launchers (or 3 by 9) to a standard 3 by 6 design in preparation for fielding of the more advanced M270A1 launcher. This conversion will improve firepower at the division level by reorganizing divisional MLRS's from 1 battery of 9 launchers to a battalion of 18 launchers. Eleven existing Army National Guard cannon battalions will receive the MLRS, significantly increasing their firepower.

The Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM) National Automotive Center, defense contractor Lockheed-Martin Control Systems, and truck manufacturer Stewart & Stevenson are developing a "hybrid" combat cargo hauler that uses both diesel and electric power. Its unique HybriDrive™ propulsion system can provide significant benefits for military trucks, such as enhanced mobility, increased performance, reduced signature and emissions, and extended range. Fuel consumption is 25 to 50 percent less than that of a conventional truck, which is significant, since 70 percent of the tonnage carried onto the battlefield today is diesel fuel.

Hybrid electric propulsion eliminates the conventional automatic transmission, which means that the truck driver does not have to shift gears. Drive shafts, axles, and other drive system components will last longer. On level ground, the driver does not have to apply brakes to decelerate; simply removing his foot from the accelerator causes the vehicle to slow. When moving downhill, brakes are necessary to stop the vehicle safely. Energy produced during this "regenerative braking" is stored in a pack of 12-volt, lead-acid batteries and is reused by the system rather than dissipated as heat in the service brakes. This will reduce brake wear up to 65 percent. Fuel-efficient, constant speed diesel engine operation reduces oil changes and overhauls.

The hybrid prototype is an M1085 5-ton truck from the Army's family of medium tactical vehicles. Its 290-horsepower turbocharged diesel engine powers a generator that, in turn, provides electricity to the electric drive motors. Sudden power for accelerations and hill climbing is provided by the battery pack.

The diesel engine/generator combination could enable a production version of the truck to act as a large portable generator. A production version also could use its batteries to drive a few kilometers in a stealthy, no-engine mode.

For more information, call the TACOM National Automotive Center at (810) 574-7806 or visit TACOM's website at http://www.tacom.army.mil/ tardec/nac/index.htm.

A representative of Lockheed-Martin explains features of the truck with hybrid electric propulsion to soldiers at Fort Lee, Virginia, one of several demonstration sites for the prototype.

The Deployment Stock Package Concept, an automated class IX deployment stock planning program, will quickly calculate and requisition stocks to maintain readiness of deployed units. The automated system is being developed by the Army Logistics Integration Agency (LIA), Alexandria, Virginia, the Army Materiel Systems Analysis Agency (AMSAA), Aberdeen, Maryland, and the Velocity Management Group's Stockage Determination Process Improvement Team led by the Army Combined Arms Support Command, Fort Lee, Virginia.

The system improves parts availability for deployed units by electronically providing information about what assets are available and where they are located and by providing more accurate requirements calculations based on improved data. The automated system quickly adjusts requirements and automatically prepares a requisition for additional stocks when force changes and other constraints impact the unit mission.

Accurate and timely generation and distribution of class IX deployment stock information are critical for today's smaller and more responsive Army. With Army streamlining initiatives that reduce order and ship times, fewer parts will be kept on hand during peacetime. When units are required to deploy, they must develop a deployment stock package (DSP). The deployment stock package analyzer (DSPA), which is part of the Deployment Stock Package Concept, quickly develops the initial DSP and adjusts it based on changes in the expected contingency.

More information about the Deployment Stock Package Concept and a demonstration and download of the DSPA software are available on the LIA and AMSAA homepages.

Positive results from recent operational testing of a new ultra-lightweight camouflage net system (ULCANS) may mean that it soon will replace the camouflage system now in use.

The new netting is 33 percent lighter than the light camouflage screening system (LCSS) now in use. It has significant thermal suppression capability, which reduces its thermal signature to enemy sensors, says Jeffrey G. Taylor, a project officer with the Army Communications and Electronics Command, Fort Monmouth, New Jersey.

"The old system is heavy, costly, and has no thermal infrared suppression capability. It solar-loads easily and becomes a hot target in the sun," Taylor said.

The old LCSS also is difficult to manufacture in custom sizes and shapes. Its steel hog ring assembly and small plastic lanyard pins can damage aircraft engines and canopies. The netting picks up debris and snags so severely on equipment that sometimes it must be cut to remove it.

By contrast, ULCANS is highly snag resistant, has no sharp or metal parts, and can be used over aircraft. It is easy to manufacture in specified sizes and shapes. ULCANS has radar-scattering and near-infrared background matching capabilities that are equal to or better than the old system. It is one-sided, so there is no confusion as to which side should be exposed.

ULCANS will be fielded initially as a general-purpose woodland screen and will be available in sets composed of hexagons and diamonds that are the same size and shape as the modules of the current system. These components can be joined together to configure screens in various sizes and shapes to cover just about any military item.

Type classification of the ULCANS woodland screen is scheduled to take place this summer, but funding for total package fielding is not yet available. Although no price has been set for the ULCANS, it will cost significantly less than the combined cost of the LCSS and its support system (approximately $1,000).

Under a pilot program for the Army's Residential Communities Initiative (RCI), Fort Hood, Texas, is working with a Department of the Army task force to privatize the installation's 5,482 units of family housing. Three other installations—Fort Lewis, Washington, Fort Meade, Maryland, and Fort Stewart, Georgia—will partner with the private sector later this year to develop plans to privatize their housing.

Over the next 6 years, more than 40 installations in the United States will privatize their housing under RCI, turning over an estimated 85,000 housing units to private developers. Housing at overseas installations will continue to be maintained by the local installation. Army officials said RCI will help to eliminate a $6 billion backlog in construction and maintenance for Army family housing caused over the years by inadequate funding and complex procedures.

Under RCI, the Army will join with private sector firms to develop plans to provide housing and service facilities for Army families. In most cases, responsibility for an installation's family housing will be transferred to a developer with a long-term land lease in return for an agreement to renovate or replace existing quarters and build new units when required. The developer also will be responsible for operating and maintaining the housing units for the term of the lease. The Army will maintain its jurisdiction over housing areas and will continue to provide fire and police protection.

RCI is an evolution of the Army's Capital Venture Initiatives program. That program, which is being used to privatize housing at Fort Carson, Colorado, requires bidders to submit costly, detailed proposals. Under RCI, the Army will select one developer for each future project through a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) process that will not require detailed proposals. Instead, the RFQ will focus on the developer's past performance, financial strength, organizational capabilities, and a preliminary project concept. RFQ's are expected to take developers less time to prepare and cost them significantly less than detailed proposals.

Congress provided legislative authority for the RCI program in the 1996 Military Housing Privatization Initiative. RCI will broaden use of the legislation by developing projects that focus not only on family housing but also on the community and supporting facilities. Community centers, childcare facilities, recreational centers, and storage facilities all could be considered under the community plan.

To increase customer awareness and facilitate access to its services, the Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC) is offering its Secure STINET until November 1999 free of charge to Department of Defense agencies, military services, and military schools.

Secure STINET provides access to the unclassified portion of DTIC's technical reports collection on the results of Defense-sponsored research, development, test and evaluation, and studies and analyses since 1985; the last 5 years of active technical effort and management system summaries of research and development efforts and studies; the latest unclassified documents added to DTIC's technical reports collection; access to the British Library's "inside web" and the Canada Institute of Scientific and Technical Information's SwetScan and document delivery service; and a language translator.

DTIC, an element of the Defense Information Systems Agency, contributes to the management and conduct of Defense research, development, and acquisition efforts by providing access to, and exchange of, scientific and technical information. Additionally, DTIC supports many World Wide Web sites. These Internet services provide a wide array of information as well as links to other relevant web sites. For more information or to register for Secure STINET service, call (703) 767-8267, DSN 427-8267, or 1-800-225-3842 or send email to bcporder@dtic.mil or ptillery@dtic.mil.

Tobyhanna Army Depot, Pennsylvania, is taking advantage of the full benefits of Joint Computer-aided Acquisition and Logistics Support (JCALS). Through a cooperative effort, the JCALS Integration Office at the Army Materiel Command (AMC), the Army Communications-Electronics Command (CECOM), and Tobyhanna Army Depot have implemented JCALS in managing the depot's mission work load in an integrated data environment (IDE). JCALS is a Department of Defense program designed to allow users easy access to global data bases and automatic information transfer in a common computer working environment.

JCALS consists of two systems—a workflow manager and a global data management system—that, together, quickly provide technical data needed to carry out projects and pass that information to those who need it. At CECOM, JCALS is used in two main programs: the IDE and the joint technical manual (JTM) program. At Tobyhanna, JCALS also is used for the IDE and soon will be used for the JTM's.

The JTM capability, when it is fully operational at both CECOM and Tobyhanna, will enable the electronic transfer of technical manual information among the personnel at these and other JCALS sites. The JCALS system also enables the electronic transfer of information for other areas such as engineering and finance, which will become part of the integrated data environment.

The pilot area for the IDE at CECOM and Tobyhanna is the flexible computer integrated manufacturing process. JCALS enables the custom design of automated process flows. Item managers at CECOM can model process flows to and from their work partners at Tobyhanna in the acquisition of spares. Tobyhanna personnel can respond to the item managers' requests for price quotes and subsequently the manufacture of spares. Different people working on the same project can share project data, and engineers and technicians can access previous projects to gauge past performance.

As with any new system, a few challenges must be addressed. These include ensuring that the appropriate hardware and communications equipment are available for the system to function as designed and training the staff at both sites on the architecture of the system.

In March, Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen introduced a CD-ROM, "Partnering for Excellence," that reports on the status of the 1997 Defense Reform Initiative (DRI) and new reforms underway in the Department of Defense (DOD). The same information is available on the World Wide Web at http://www.defenselink.mil/dodreform.

Although DOD has made progress in fulfilling the DRI, more can be done, and the department should "institutionalize" the process, Cohen said. DOD needs reforms because it does not have enough funds to pay for all of its high-priority readiness and modernization needs, even with promised sustained budget increases, he said. "It needs [additional] base closures for the same reason," Cohen added.

The CD also contains information for communities that might be affected if new base closure rounds are approved. It highlights notable success stories such as the 2,000 jobs that were created when Fort Devens, Massachusetts, closed in March 1996 and the Devens Commerce Center was established.

To obtain a copy of the CD, write to the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs), Directorate for Public Communications, 1400 The Pentagon, Washington, DC, 20301-1400, or call (703) 697-5737.

SOLE-The International Society of Logistics (formerly called the Society of Logistics Engineers) will hold its annual conference on 31 August to 2 September at Bally's Las Vegas Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. The theme of the conference is "Logistics and the Impact on the Bottom Line." Presentations will explore all facets of Government and commercial logistics operations, engineering, analysis, and acquisition. Attendees will include senior managers, systems and design engineers, production personnel, logisticians, acquisition personnel, and marketing managers.

For registration guidelines, prices, and other information, visit the society's website at http://www.sole.org, 6827, or send e-mail to ehrigg @hanscom.af.mil.

In conjunction with its conference, SOLE is sponsoring a transportation and logistics forum known as TRANSLOG International, which will be held August 30 to 2 September. Now in its fourth year, TRANSLOG International uses a holistic perspective in addressing near-, mid-, and long-term transportation logistics issues. The TRANSLOG theory is that people and products can be moved faster, better, and cheaper only when transportation, infrastructure, supply chain management, information technology, reliability, safety, and environmental issues are viewed, planned for, and implemented as an integrated whole. TRANSLOG International also encourages the creation of Government, public, and private sector partnerships to improve the efficiencies of transportation logistics systems. Because TRANSLOG International is interdisciplinary in character, individuals and groups outside the fields of transportation and logistics are encouraged to participate in the forum. Registration information can be found at http://www.sole.org. For more information, see the TRANSLOG International homepage at http://www.translog.nu.