I hope you have been following the news of our troops’ progress. In doing so, news of the recent Defense Budget announcements probably caught your eye also.
First, it is obvious that this administration is looking for adjustments in defense budgets. Second, the idea of resetting critical equipment and looking toward funding new equipment needed with the change in today’s wars is significant change. For my perspective of being amidst the conversation of experienced warriors and the leaders of our tech labs, it is good timing to have these new needs finally come front and center.
For over 8 years, the Jake program has been working to meet needs expressed by forward-looking leaders in Army Special Forces and Marine Corps relative to increasing shift to unconventional warfare and urban warfare — which includes stability operations and peacekeeping. In fact, in 2006 the Quadrennial Defense Review, that the DoD uses to map the direction of defense needs, clearly stated the need to move to smaller and more agile forces and more rapid response capabilities (though the acquisition focus remained on heavier and heavier equipment). The Jake Platform’s capabilities aligned with the needs listed in this review — almost as if the review were written for it. Yet, until now there has been little action on the obvious problems of our soldier’s load (other than trying to make his gear lighter so that he can carry more of the other stuff that he needs but can’t carry). As explained here at Operation American Agility, and we have found over and over in speaking with soldiers and Marines returning from tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, there is need of an agile carrier of the warrior’s gear and supporting protection — to open a new realm of capabilities.
The main point of my blog today is that when we visit the website’s page on the “History of Change”, we learn that the average time taken to get a revolutionary new piece of equipment into US military service is 14-28 years (the 50 Cal. Machine gun took 17 years to be accepted!! Even earlier, Lincoln was shooting a multi-shot rifle on the White House lawn during the Civil War and couldn’t get his generals to use it to advance from mussel loaders!! ). And, in most cases it has taken a significant fight to accomplish the shift — look at the story of landing craft, aircraft carriers and others — as noted in “History of Change”, change comes hard.
Now, with the Jake concept being prototyped and evolved over the last 8 years (starting before 9/11), and knowing that it will take another 6-8 years to get into the fight as the powerful networked system that it will be in final form — we are trying for rapid change to help our young warriors, but unfortunately may be just on line with the historic average.
The good news is that along this historic timeline, we are at the time of acknowledging the trends staring us in the face. We are now at the point on the average timeline for accepting the concept as a solution to a broad range of problems. The timeline is now calling for moving into the fielding and assessment stages. The new Defense Budget just helps us along, with emphasis on readjusting for change in warfare, and cost reductions. This highlights the need for new lower priced equipment, for more agile force, and with smaller logistical footprint across the range of operations. In the Jake’s filling these requirements, we move into congressional vote-getting — and this should help our young warfighters have a chance to adapt and innovate means for greater effectiveness.
These young Soldiers and Marines think different, and with a ton of new technologies — it is time to let them accomplish the needed paradigm shifts.
Let’s give them a chance — Let’s Power ‘Em Up
Russ Strong
