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NDTA-USTRANSCOM FALL MEETING WRAP-UP
The NDTA-USTRANSCOM Fall Meeting
Oct. 31-Nov. 3, 2016 • St. Louis, Missouri
NDTA-USTRANSCOM Fall Meeting summary material is intended to provide an overview of presentations and should not be considered verbatim. This information does not necessarily represent the official position of the US government or any of its entities, NDTA or any of its corporate members. We regret any errors or omissions. For more information regarding the meeting please visit NDTA’s website at www.ndtahq.com.
Disruptive Innovations Featured at NDTA-USTRANSCOM Meeting
New innovations and technology are rapidly reshaping established business models in logistics, transportation and passenger travel services. How do the military, the government and the private sector adapt to meet national security needs? Delivering amid disruption took center stage at this year’s National Defense Transportation Association (NDTA)/US Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM) Fall Meeting.
Hosted October 31-November 3 at the historic St. Louis Union Station Hotel in St. Louis, Missouri, the Fall Meeting featured high-level speakers, government/ industry meetings and more than 60 professional education courses on topics from cybersecurity and big data to acquisition and transportation policy.
“The Fall Meeting is our premier event, where professionals come together and exchange ideas to ensure we are all on the same page, serving the warfighter,” said NDTA’s President, retired RADM Mark Buzby. “There’s something for everyone to learn and become smarter on a segment of our industry. If you are in logistics, transportation, or passenger travel services and you care about our national security, this is where you want to be.” Gen. Darren McDew, Commander, USTRANSCOM, delivered this year’s keynote address, with a follow-on panel discussion by his component commanders and the Defense Logistics Agency. Other notable speakers and panelists included the Honorable Alan Estevez, Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for
Full video of all Fall Meeting speakers and panel discussions are available on the NDTA website at: www.ndtahq.com/multimedia-archive/videos/
Acquisition, Technology and Logistics; Brad Nail, Senior Manager for Insurance and Public Policy at Uber; Dr. Daniel Patt, Program Manager, Tactical Technologies Office, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency; and the Lexington Institute’s Dr. Loren Thompson. “Our commercial partners are a key national security asset, just one that too often goes unnoticed,” said McDew. “We need to correct that, and we also need to recognize the connection between us runs both ways. While we are working from an amazing foundation, the world we see on the horizon will demand even greater trust and transparency.”
Originally published on www.defense.gov November 1, 2016
The United States has the world’s mightiest military, but it faces potent challenges, a senior Defense Department leader said November 1.
Air Force Gen. Darren W. McDew leads US Transportation Command. He spoke today at the NDTA-USTRANSCOM Fall Meeting in St. Louis, Missouri.
IMPACTS ON THE BATTLEFIELD “It’s to deliver an impact on the battlefield. That’s what we’re about,” he said. “… [Our adversaries] know that immediately, we can get someplace at the time of our choosing and deliver an impact. And an overwhelming, decisive force will be right behind it.”
McDew said that since the attacks on 9/11 and the counterinsurgency-focused conflicts the United States has fought in Afghanistan and Iraq, the military picture has grown “foggier and foggier.”
“Our freedom of movement, and the dominance that we’ve enjoyed in all domains—air, space, cyber [and] surface— we won’t have that anymore. We’ve enjoyed pure dominance in every domain,” McDew said.
‘A DIFFERENT FIGHT ALTOGETHER’ Tomorrow’s conflicts could include a nearpeer nation, he said, which could “instantly involve” five combatant commands.
“We’re going to have contested strategic lines of communication everywhere,” McDew said.
“We’ve had a distinct technological advantage,” he said. “…But once you start talking about a peer, someone that could match us with technology [and] numbers, that’s a different fight altogether.”
The freedom of movement and dominance that the United States has enjoyed in air, space and cyber won’t be there anymore, the general said. “We’ve enjoyed
Department of Defense photo
pure dominance in every domain for the last 15 years,” McDew said. “So what’s got to change?”
One challenge facing the US military is “our own attitudes,” he said.
“What baggage are you carrying forward and perpetuating that adds no value in tomorrow’s fight?” McDew asked.
GLOBAL AREA OF OPERATIONS He credited Joint Chiefs Chairman Marine Corps Gen. Joe Dunford with creating a vision for the current and future joint force.
“The fight we will face is not a regional fight, it is a global fight,” McDew said. There are 196 countries in the world, and “the globe is our [area of responsibility].” Dunford, he said, “is forcing us to look at things in a different way.”
“In this global, transregional nature of war, we have to consider all the disruptive influences that we’re going to face,” McDew said. “We have got to better leverage speed, range and flexibility that is inherent in some of the things we do, and look at how we do things smarter, and how we command and control in a different way.” Command and control investments, he said, do not currently align with a global fight, and future adversaries won’t stop at a national boundary, he said.
FOCUSING ON THE CYBER DOMAIN Cyber should get “much more of our attention” than it does, the general said.
“Let me tell you where we are in Transcom,” he said. “We’ve gone from cyber awareness to cyber knowledge. Now, it’s scaring us. If you get to knowledge, it should scare you a lot more than it does. And if you think this is an [information technology] problem, you’re in the wrong place.”
Cyber is an important operational, commander issue, he said, and business environment evolution is another challenge.
“We’ve got shortages across the spectrum when it comes to manpower,” McDew said. Getting after having the right people in the right numbers for the right job is a future challenge, he said, as is baking cyber security into every process.
“We will have to get ahead of [our adversaries],” he said. “Matching them is no longer good enough.”
The nation is at a crossroads, McDew said. After 15 years of war, the United States has the most battle-hardened force it has ever had.
“But does it prepare us for the next war?” he asked. “We need to focus on some of the opportunities [and] find new ways to do business.”
By Terri Moon Cronk, DOD News, Defense Media Activity
Originally published on www.defense.gov November 2, 2016
Senior military leaders discussed potential challenges their commands may face in supporting future operations during a meeting of defense industry partners in St. Louis, Missouri, November 1.
Air Force Gen. Carlton D. Everhart II, Commander of Air Mobility Command; Army MG Kurt J. Ryan, Commander of Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command; Navy RADM Dee L. Mewbourne, Commander of Military Sealift Command; and Air Force Lt. Gen. Andrew E. Busch, Director of the Defense Logistics Agency, participated in a panel discussion at the NDTA-USTRANSCOM Fall Meeting.
INDUSTRY INNOVATION CRITICAL TO MILITARY “[We] can’t do our jobs without industry partners,” Everhart pointed out. “We rely on them for innovation, and to help open up new realms of possibility.”
As he looks to modernizing his command to continue meeting the nation’s defense needs, Everhart said he cannot tweak his budget anymore, noting “the continuing resolutions affect all of us.”
The General said his other challenges include a national pilot shortage, and today’s changing, complex global threat environment.
Department of Defense photo
VOLATILE SECURITY ENVIRONMENT The Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command’s military members and industry partners execute “our daily sustainment mission exceptionally well,” Ryan said. Yet, the General said he sees potential challenges in future deployment missions.
“I fundamentally believe our skills have atrophied in a number of areas, particularly in our ability and our mindset to deploy rapidly…to project national power to surge combat formations globally,” Ryan said.
He said the last massive US military deployment was to Iraq in 2003.
“As I look at my workforce, only 16 percent has a frame of reference to the scale and scope of that deployment,” Ryan said. The world’s security environment remains “very volatile, and demands a state of readiness that affords us the ability to project power globally in support of the combatant commands simultaneously,” he said. “Those threats can emerge very quickly…in Europe, across the Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and the African continent [where] threats can change the very security nature of our environment in those regions,” Ryan said.
For those reasons, Ryan said, the services are reinvigorating emergency deployment exercise programs to further test the military’s “fight tonight” ability. “What this means for the joint force is we will start practicing at the speed of war, so we truly are ready to fight tonight when the nation calls,” he said, adding he encourages “all of us to think about what that means for our organizations, to the enterprise, and to our current processes.”
WEAPONS FIELDING Busch said he wants DLA to discuss challenges up to 30 years in advance with industry partners for: 1. Cyber resilience against the trans-regional threats the United States faces today; 2. Future basing, which needs help from industry to develop concepts; and 3. The direction in which product-support strategies for new weapon systems is going.
“Gone are days when a new weapon system is fielded,” Busch said. “We need to consider what’s happening today in the productsupport strategies across the department.”
The DLA Director said he sees “immense pressure” on those who must deliver their programs based cost schedules and performance.
Without fielding a weapon system in a joint task environment, he said, “Will it be good enough to have a customized, optimized solution for that weapon system, when we’re trying to converge many different weapons systems, including many new weapons systems, on a JTF commander?”
STAYING READY, RELEVANT, RESOLUTE Challenges at Military Sealift Command involve retaining relevancy, continuing to change as needed, and adapting to the world today and into future, Mewbourne said.
“Ready, relevant and resolute is what I use to define [our] endstate,” he said of his command’s strategy.
The command rests on four pillars, the Admiral said, which comprise its people and continuing to “harness brilliance” at MSC; its ship platforms and maintaining them, its processes and staying cyber safe into the future, and its partners in government, industry, labor and academia.
Military Sealift Command relies on its partners because it cannot meet its challenges alone, Mewbourne said.
“We must use innovation so we do not become stale,” the Admiral said. “Through continuous improvement, we can make ourselves better.”
The Fall Meeting military-commercial partnership roundtable moderated by MG Duane A. Gamble, USA, Commander, 21st Theater Sustainment Command, asked What’s required to “push” from the US? The US is operating in Europe with a force structure that was “designed for a different reality than we live today,” said Gamble “so it’s all the more important that we have this great commercial-military partnership to increase our endurance, to increase our reach and to increase our ability to sustain our forces over long, contested lines of communication.”
Gamble introduced a case study scenario of a brigade movement to EUCOM as a basis for discussion among the roundtable participants who represented rail, sea, air, ports and IT. The scenario was one he said was likely due to US operations in Europe shifting from assurance to deterrence, and was similar to a movement he was currently working on.
Denis Smith, Vice President, Marketing and Industrial Products, BNSF, reported that the rail industry currently has ample capacity. The rail aspect of a deployment includes moving materiel from base to a strategic port, such as the Port of Beaumont or Port of Port Arthur. Smith assessed that in the case study deployment the rail piece could be accomplished in 12 hours with no issues regarding execution or speed.
Representing sealift, Chris Heibel, VP Sales and Marketing, American Roll-on Roll-off Carrier, emphasized the capabilities that ocean carriers bring to bear in support of lift requirements worldwide. “Liner services offer many advantages to DOD to include a regular port frequency, fixed routes, lift regardless of cargo volume, immediate and guaranteed access, and a reliable and tested network,” all of which he said help to reduce the footprint and logistics tail of the military globally. US flag partners support the military’s ever evolving needs, which include the movement of cargoes through non-traditional ports; the ability to rapidly expand connectivity through existing partnerships with rail, trucking, barge and air freight companies; and the ability to provide synchronized movements at multiple locations.
Speaking to the audience, Brig. Gen. Kenneth Bibb Jr., USAF, Commander, 618th Air Operations Center, said “we could not do what we do without our commercial partners, we are tied closely to our commercial partners, we work closely with TCAQ, and we could not get the job done without you.” Bibb explained that as US military logistics changed, it had less of a buffer to absorb setbacks. This means that the importance of speed, precision, and tactical movements have “a real strategic impact.”
SDDC is “focused on building readiness during peacetime and during contingency operations” in the homeland and around the globe, said SDDC Chief of Staff COL Jordan Chroman, USA. “We do this by leveraging the Army component reserve units through a vast network of strong bonds with our Nation’s commercial transportation providers.” In describing the end-to-end logistics process, Chroman described SDDC as essentially everything in between the point of origin and the point of destination.
Ken Jarrett, Area VP, Public Sector DOD Technology Sales, Oracle, described the need to practice cyber hygiene—mitigating some of the issues that we know are coming. “The [DOD] does a great job in protecting the perimeter,” he said but “one thing that keeps me up at night is the insider threat.” Objectives should include securing the data and securing the enterprise. We must get everyone to look at IT as an enabler that supports “everything from the tactical edge back to the back office.”
The Honorable Alan Estevez, Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology & Logistics told the audience that the budget that would be left for the next administration was nearing completion and as in the past, “we are going to present a budget that is well above sequestration levels.”
In Fiscal Year (FY) 2018, sequestration is the law as no budget deal yet exists for that year. This is likely to be one of the first items that the incoming president will tackle.
Congress had 10 days between the election and Thanksgiving to pass an appropriations bill for FY 2017. Estevez thought it a real possibility that the government could end up operating in a yearlong Continuing Resolution (CR).
“The reality is because of the way the budget agreement works a continuing resolution will more or less be at the cap that is in the budget agreement, at about $530 billion. But, what happens if you are in a CR is a whole bunch of authorities fall off the table [as well as] new starts so we would need essentially an appropriations act full of anomalies in order to do the business that we need to do.”
The DOD is working hard to reach out to industry on potential innovation including start-ups that may have a great technology, but do not know how it could be harnessed in the department. Estevez also said that despite the common misconception, DOD is capable of rapid contracting if a product is deemed worthwhile.
Estevez said that deterrence is important in America’s ability to avoid war. This was something he felt the US needed to learn to do again and something that would be challenging without NATO infrastructure that was once utilized in Europe.
Regarding innovation in the logistics space, Estevez recounted a visit to Camp DOD Official on Budget Woes, Innovations
Lejeune where he saw the Marine Corps utilizing additive manufacturing to create parts on demand. On that same trip, he also saw Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), with delivery of up to 300 lbs., in use.
Of these types of technologies, he said that they are “something that we in the [DOD] are thinking about it, but I know that the commercial sector is thinking about it even more and we need to team up with what the good ideas are in the commercial sector.”
But Estevez warned that before using these technologies, we must look at their implications on the transportation network. “If I don’t have to move as many parts, or parts at all for that matter, what does that mean to the capacity of the airlift and sealift sectors that we rely on?
Estevez continued that the digital age came with some great benefits, but also great risk in the form of cyber threats. “The network’s at risk, but its more than the network, it’s the platform, it’s the infrastructure around that.”
Moderator MG (Ret.) Dan Mongeon, President & CEO, Agility Defense & Government Services, set the tone for the panel saying that it would focus on “emerging technical innovations that impact those operating in the supply chain space now and in the future.” Simply stated, he said, “innovation drives disruptive logistics,” adding that just as Gen McDew and others had highlighted in other presentations, “yesterday’s thinking and yesterday’s solutions do not fit into today’s world and will not meet the needs of today’s warfighters.”
Jesper Thomsen, Vice President, Maersk Line, told the audience that “technology is changing how we are transporting things.” The unmanned vessel is one area of focus for Maersk. This is essentially a vessel “with no human beings there and if you can combine that with heavy duty drones you will have a system to deliver into very small ports even though you have too large of a vessel to get in there.” This concept is not as new and the technology not as far away as people may think. Thomsen also described advances in port automation, as well as cargo monitoring for both refrigerated containers and security. In discussing Maersk’s continued work on a common platform to share shipping data, Thomsen acknowledged that while a plethora of benefits surrounded implementing such technology, disadvantages related to cyber vulnerabilities were equal considerations.
“The thesis here is disruption is awesome,” said Jeffrey Stutzman, Co-Founder & CEO, Red Sky Alliance & Wapack Labs. He explained that while disruption is praised for its usability and return on investment, security risks often negate the benefits. “Everyone loves disruption…but build it in right up front, there is a cost to poor quality that is going to be computing at the end that is going to be significantly higher than if we build it in now as we are thinking about these disruptive new technologies and processes.”
Dr. Daniel Patt, Program Manager, Tactical Technologies Office at DARPA, explained the agency’s mission as trying to sponsor, create and/or foster breakthrough technologies for national security. As a program manager, Patt looks for opportunities that are high payoff. “We try to identify what areas in the future could be disrupted, could have just incredible payoff for national security and then to try to find ways to map technology to that opportunity and make those early pivotal investments.”
DARPA is looking at how logistics deliver operational value. A brigade movement from Ft. Lewis to Kandahar takes 78 days, an impressive timeline. DARPA looks at a challenge like this and seeks ways to make it faster.
“Uber, in many ways, has become the poster child for disruption in transportation…I think we can look at Uber as something of a case study in disruptive logistics,” said Brad Nail, Senior Manager, Insurance and Public Policy for Uber. The platform facilitated individuals using their personal vehicles to provide transportation services. This allowed “people to become service providers with very little overhead expense and allowing them to put to work an underutilized asset for themselves.” This has caused disruption in the taxi and rental car industries, among other areas including government regulation and oversight. Uber is also making strides in driverless vehicle technology, another potentially significant disruptor. An important application of autonomous technology will be in the long-haul trucking industry, a move that could improve cost, efficiencies, safety and holds tremendous potential for both military and government purposes.
Dr. Loren Thompson, COO, Lexington Institute, described two forces— one internal and one external—that drive all US demand for military goods and services, and dictate the size and composition of a defense budget. Global threats dictate priorities, shape strategy, and determine requirements. Domestic politics provide the resources and impose conditions. These trends are what “will drive defense demand for the remainder of this decade.” Significant changes to the global military landscape have occurred since the end of The Cold War: The rise of global terrorism, destabilization of the Middle East, Russian pressure on Eastern Europe, the emergence of cyber threats and, more recently, Chinese military modernization. Major economic developments in that same time frame were the digital revolution and internet, China’s rapid economic growth, globalization of the supply chain, slowing of Western economies and Japan, and expansion of the welfare state.
Threats have changed and global instability continues to spread. However, spending on defense and domestic discretionary will have only minimal increases through 2023 due to the Budget Control Act. The purchasing power of the defense budget is projected to stagnate, unless there is a political agreement to increase it. Threat levels don’t drive defense spending unless the political system responds. “Voting behavior in America typically is influenced more by taxes and entitlements than by security concerns. The big divide in our politics is between those who are pro-tax/pro-entitlement and those who are anti-tax/anti-entitlement.”
Congress has failed to deliver a complete federal budget by the deadline every year since 1997. Thompson expounded that conThe Emerging Strategic Landscape: Shaping the Defense Budget
tinuing resolutions have been in place for 16 straight years, and the 2015 October budget deal doesn’t improve the long-term outlook. Contested lines of communication and possible attrition are expected in future USTRANSCOM operations, according to Thompson. There are diverse logistics needs in multiple theaters, cyber vulnerabilities put military and civilian networks at risk, budget caps and continuing resolutions limit logistics spend, and excess capacity in air, sea and rail will be rationalized due to sector consolidation. These fiscal and threat pressures will force more reliance on commercial partners. At the same time, market forces such as pilot and driver shortages could limit commercial roles.
With enough money, the US could fix most of the problems it faces. But, the one problem money cannot fix is that “for the foreseeable future—every threat we face is going to have a geographical advantage over us,” Thompson said adding that is why “logistics and transportation is going to be crucial to our success.”
