The Improvised Explosive Device (IED) became the Iraqi insurgents’ primary weapon against the Coalition Forces. General John Abizaid declared IEDs “No. 1 threat” in Iraq in June 2003. From June 2003 to December 2008, other than two periods of Battles of Fallujah and the “Surge,” IEDs caused majority of U.S. fatalities. Some U.S. defense officials stated that “countering IEDs was an operational, political, and even strategic imperative.” The MRAP program ended up occupying an overlapping position in the national and operational strategy. A plausible U.S. national strategic objective for Iraq could have been to create a stable Iraqi government that is friendly to the United States. One of the ways could have been establishing a secure environment with law and order. One of the means could have been the Coalition Forces. A plausible U.S. operational objective for Iraq could have been defeating the insurgency. One of the ways could have been to defeat the IED threat. One of the means could have been MRAPs. But, MRAPs became bigger than an operational mean. In 2006, President Bush declared that “defeating the IED threat was a top priority.” As a strategic leader President Bush’s priorities should have been the defeating the insurgency, not focusing on a tool used by the Insurgent. In 2007, Secretary Gates “made MRAP the top DoD acquisition priority.” The MRAP program is a good case study of the rapid acquisition process. The MRAP program followed the normal defense acquisition process, but there were several factors that cannot be duplicated easily. Conatser and Grizio outlined four requirements for a rapid acquisition process – mature technical solution, user’s acceptance of a short term solution, full support by the leadership,... ... middle of paper ... ...ed setting the priority, the defense acquisition program can adjust to send “11,500 mraps to Iraq in 27 months” and “8000 all terrain mraps for Afghanistan in only 16 months. However, although the requirement to provide better armor protection for soldiers was identified as early as 2003, the involvement by strategic leaders did not happen early enough. The MRAP procurement process should not be repeated for other major defense acquisition programs without meeting the requirements outlined by Conatser and Grizio. The MRAP procurement process can be replicated for urgent warfighting requirements. However a rapid acquisition process is ill suited to accommodate long-term modernization requirements, joint requirements, and emerging capabilities requirements. The defense acquisition process needs to improved and strategic leaders must has ownership of the whole process.
middle of paper ... ... Washington, DC: Army Publishing Directorate, 2012. —. ADRP 5-0 The Operations Process.
Teller, Edward. 1987. Better a Shield than a Sword: Perspectives on Defense and Technology. New York: The Free Press.
Past military events have demonstrated the importance of anticipation and preparation for a wide spectrum of missions and capabilities. To conduct these operations, the U.S. Military must prepare to move and conduct them anywhere in the world. The Military must also have the capability to conduct low intensity wars against an ill-defined enemy as well as major conventional style conflicts against major states.
While a large part of NGC’s strategy is devoted to prime contract development of capability-based systems for the Department of Defense, NGC also provides professional engineering services to provide value to its customers. Professional Engineering Services can be provided by Northrop Grumman in direct support contract or through inter-industry agreements. One such agreement is the participation on a large FFRDC effort known as the MDA Engineering team. This is an organization oriented around providing the best industry knowledge in the missile defense field to assist and guide MDA as it evolves the nation’s missile defense capability.
Sapient: Modernizing Military Logistics: USMC case study, (n.d.) Sapient corporate website. Accessed 10 August 2005 at http://www.sapient.com/case/usmc.htm
In a world where people rush to purchase lottery tickets in the hopes of hitting a jackpot worth a few million, these expenditures are incomprehensible and may seem excessive; however, not everyone feels this way. In an article found on the U.S. Department of Defense’s website, the “DoD has done its best to manage through this prolonged period of budget uncertainty, the secretary said, making painful choices and tradeoffs” and that in “today’s security environment we need to be dynamic and we need to be responsive. What we have now is a straitjacket” (Pellerin, 2015). At the end of the day, it is all about who is being asked whether the defense budget is excessive; for those that do not feel an imminent threat is looming, the budget would seem over-the-top, but for those that either feel that a threat is imminent, or those working in the defense sector, would most likely be in favor of sustaining the current budget or increasing it. Furthermore, another topic to look at is how the United States compares with other countries on defense spending and is the difference validated?
Leaders today need to have an appreciation for the operation process, understand a situation, envision a desired future, and to lay out an approach that will achieve that future (Flynn & Schrankel, 2013). Plans need to be created that can be modified to changes in any factors considered. However, plans should not be dependent on specific information being precise or that require things to go exactly according to schedule. Instead, the staff NCO should be flexible where they can and always be prepared for the unexpected. Today’s military members are fighting an unconventional war in Iraq and Afghanistan. The enemy constantly changes their tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTP’s) to counter the United States technological advances, making planning very difficult for leaders. There are multiple tools at a staff NCO’s disposal to try to anticipate an outcome of a current operation, but also assist with the development of concepts in follow-on missions. The Military Decision Making Process (MDMP) is just one tool a staff NCO can utilize. In order to stay ahead of the enemy, create effective plans and orders, it is critical for a staff NCO to assist the commander, and understand that the MDMP and planning are essential in defeating the enemy and conserving the fighting force.
The framework we will follow for the DoD is a descriptive control framework, which provides for governance at a high level. T...
a comprehensive research service. Retrieved May 2, 2004, from Terrorist Attack by Al Qaeda: http://www.fas.org/irp/crs/033104.pdf. Gunaratna, R. (2005, September). Retrieved September 2005, from http://strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pubs/parameters/articles/05spring/henzel.pdf. Gunaratna, R. (n.d.).
Roberts, H.J. and Barrar, P.R.N. (1992), ¡°MRPII implementation: key factors for success¡±, Computer IntegratedManufacturing Systems, Vol. 5 No. 1, pp. 31-8.
In order to protect national security interests as outlined in the 2014 Quadrennial Defense Review, the U.S. armed forces must rebalance and be capable of conducting operations across the spectrum of conflict in order to win against both a regular and irregular adversary, combating a wide scope of tactics and strategies ranging from terror tactics to full scale, multi-phased conflict against a peer or near peer by maximizing the capability of the force and nation. When comparing and contrasting U. S. military operations and capabilities with regard to regular versus irregular warfare, it is important to understand the definition of irregular and the spectrum of conflict. In recent history, the term “irregular warfare” has been used interchangeably with or alongside insurgency and counterinsurgency warfare. This usage and comparison is too narrow.... ...
In recent years critics have condemned the military’s research into new weapon technology, saying it only leads to death and war. However, the benefits and security from the research far out weigh the drawbacks.
Terrorism and Technology It wasn’t until the morning of September 11th that America began to question just how safe we really are. As the world watched the devastation on the news, everyone was looking for comfort. However, often times when something as horrific as this happens, the ones you look to for comfort are looking back at you for comfort. Many people found what piece of mind they could, through technology, during this horrible time. The September 11 terrorist attacks have had both positive and negative impacts on the use of computers and technology.
Insinna, Valerie. "National Defense Industrial Association." (18 April 2013). National Defense. Article. 10 December 2013. http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/blog/lists/posts/post.aspx?ID=1117
Terrorist organizations have been committing atrocities against innocent civilians throughout the world for hundreds of years. Terrorism has evolved in many different forms and from various motivations such as religious protest movements, political revolts, and social uprisings. Regardless of the motives for terror, the problem is the financing of terrorism and terrorist organizations themselves. Recent global terrorist attacks using high technology and extensive networks have shown that money is essential to provide the means behind all terrorist activities. Individual terrorists plan terrorist operations and require resources to live, prepare, and implement their plans. The use of money laundering and financial support schemes are the root of the cause. If money laundering were curtailed or even eliminated, and financial supporters of terrorism were identified terrorism would decrease dramatically. To achieve these goals would take monumental efforts. The United States, United Nations and all sovereign nations would need to take cooperative action that has never been accomplished. Terrorism, its' history, concepts, reasoning, methods, and financial roots are object of this research.