Quality control problems at Boeing are just part of wider supply shortfalls that could hamstring Army helicopters in a major war.

The massive Army Materiel Command needs to get a lot lighter on its feet for future conflicts, its four-star chief says.

“When I was here before,” said Lt. Gen. James Pasquarette, who returned to the Pentagon last week for his fifth tour there, “the four-star commanders around the Army had no say, no input. They’re in the room now when the big decisions are made.”

The Army believes it has all the legal authorities it needs to reform. Now it just has to make the reform work.

Gen. Gus Perna, head of Army Materiel Command, is a brave man. He came to Pacific Command’s AOR and announced he wants the Army to stop building the transport ships and so-called watercraft that could be crucial to any conflict in the Indo-Pacific region.

“If you start a process with an org chart, you’re toast,” Army Under Secretary Ryan McCarthy said. “Focus on what you want to achieve.”

This is the second op-ed we’ve run by serving Army officials about how and why the service should be restructured so it can build its next generation of weapons and do it effectively. The Army, not known for going public with its internal (sometimes religious) debates, appears to understand that after getting so much wrong… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley says over and over that his top priority to getting the Army ready to “fight tonight.” What does that mean in practice? For Army Materiel Command, which keeps troops supplied, it means literally putting its money where his mouth is. If readiness for major combat operations is really the… Keep reading →

AUSA: The Army will start buying weapons the way Special Operations does, Army Chief of Staff Mark Milley told reporters here, bringing different specialists together in one streamlined team. The often-insular Army is also studying the other services, Milley said, particularly the rapid development of the nuclear Navy under legendary Adm. Hyman Rickover. A three-star… Keep reading →

WILLIAMSBURG, Va.: The next time the Army holds a conference on how to improve its relations with industry, it should actually let industry into the most important session, Maj. Gen. Bo Dyess told his four-star superiors at the Army Innovation Summit here. It just has to get around its own lawyers. This week’s conference — the third… Keep reading →