• 6 months ago
Earlier this month, Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS) questioned military officials on the digital engineering innovation efforts made with the Army FY2025 budget request durign a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing.

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00:00 Senator Moran.
00:01 Chairman, thank you.
00:02 Thank you, Ranking Member, Vice Chairman.
00:05 Secretary, General George, welcome.
00:09 Welcome to your debut hearing in the appropriations process.
00:14 Last October, the Under Secretary announced a digital engineering strategy
00:20 to optimize sustainment across the services.
00:24 I understand the Army just this morning signed a policy
00:28 to help accelerate the adoption of digital engineering.
00:32 My view is that these tools are incredibly important for designing
00:35 and building new platforms and sustaining existing systems.
00:40 Secretary, can you tell the committee a little bit more about the forthcoming policy
00:45 and how the Army's previous digital engineering work informs the adoption of this capability?
00:51 Thank you, Senator Moran.
00:53 I'm from the ECU, and we are excited about our new digital engineering policy.
00:58 Basically, what we're trying to do is make it easier for the Army
01:02 to adopt digital engineering approaches more broadly at scale across the Army.
01:08 This is the kind of work that allows us to do modeling and simulation
01:14 and explore engineering challenges using computer simulations,
01:18 which is more efficient and less costly.
01:21 For example, our program to replace the Bradley fighting vehicle, the XM-30 program,
01:27 is incorporating digital engineering in its development work.
01:32 The policy has a number of different components,
01:34 but its broad goal is to help us use that important approach more broadly
01:41 so that we can be more effective in our modernization programs.
01:45 Thank you for that answer.
01:47 General George, I would guess that the senator from Connecticut, Senator Murphy,
01:52 will ask you about the future long-range assault aircraft and its safety.
01:57 I want to inform you that I support the decision to award Beltextron the contract for FLORA.
02:06 This is an aircraft that maneuvers like a helicopter in vertical flight,
02:10 flies twice as far and twice as fast as current helicopters.
02:14 All of this needs to be done with a safe piece of equipment.
02:17 The aircraft competitively selected by the Army was the only one that fully met those requirements,
02:23 and that was validated by the GAO.
02:25 Would you highlight for the committee the importance of speed and maneuverability this aircraft provides,
02:30 as well as how the Army plans to leverage its open system architecture?
02:36 Yes, Senator.
02:37 I mean, it can't come fast enough for me.
02:41 So I think this is going to be a game-changing, you know, for this aircraft, just for what you talked about,
02:48 the range it's going to have, the speed it's going to have,
02:51 and then with open architecture what we can do with manned/unmanned teaming,
02:57 launch defects, all the other things that are going to come with this.
03:01 So I think it's going to increase our capabilities.
03:06 Thank you.
03:09 Secretary, TAA highlighted several capabilities requiring significant investments
03:16 at a time in which the Army budget probably for this fiscal year represents about FY22 levels.
03:23 I hear that there's the potential of establishment of new structures or a new structure,
03:30 like a drone branch or a permanent ABCT in Poland.
03:35 Would the simultaneous establishment of additional units not planned for in previous R-structs
03:42 be disruptive to the Army's current plans to modernize?
03:47 Thank you, Senator.
03:48 I think it would be challenging to generate, for example, a whole new armored brigade combat team,
03:53 you know, given the recruiting challenges that we're working through.
03:57 And like I said, I want to emphasize that we are, I think, going to make our recruiting goal this year.
04:03 But, you know, we have not built into our current TAA plans an intention to build a new armored brigade combat team.
04:13 Instead, we are looking at things like the counter-UAS battery that would eventually come to Fort Riley,
04:19 to the maneuver shore battalions, and the multi-domain task forces.
04:24 So at this time, we are not looking at building a new armored brigade combat team,
04:29 we want to focus on the integrated air and missile defense formations that are going to be so important
04:35 for large-scale conflict against an advanced competitor.
04:40 You have established your priorities and you believe in those priorities.
04:43 Is that what you're telling me?
04:44 I do.
04:45 And I mean, we do, we review our force structure every year,
04:48 so we certainly want to adjust to conditions and adjust, you know, as the strategy may require us.
04:53 But right now, I think we believe that what we've built in, in terms of new formations,
05:00 are what's right for the Army right now.
05:02 Thank you very much.
05:03 Can I make a comment just on the one topic that didn't come up?
05:06 Please do.
05:07 I know we're a little over, but on the--we appreciate the interest, for example, on drones.
05:13 And you mentioned, you know, drone branch.
05:17 You know, for us, this is a capability that's going to be, I think, resident in every formation at every echelon.
05:25 So we see this as integrated into our formation, not some separate piece,
05:32 and I think we need that kind of flexibility.
05:35 We're actually doing that right now with our formations.
05:38 We have--we've selected three units to kind of work this out
05:43 and start to transform in contact in doing this.
05:46 But I don't think it would be helpful to have a separate drone branch.
05:51 Understood. Thank you.

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