all right, good morning. wow, what a great crowd. good morning. i want to thank you all for being here. my name is alex brody. i am the director of meetings at the association of the united states army. and again, thank you for being here. i can't think of a better way to kick off the 2020 ausa breck fast series than to do so in this very special location with the chief of staff, general james mcconville. appreciate everyone being here and want to wish you a happy new year. to get started, i'm going to introduce miss tammy call, she's the director here at the knew seem. she'd like to say a few things about this wonderful museum that we're all in today. press help me welcome mrs. tammy call. [ applause ] >> good morning, everyone. thank you for being here. general mcconville, general ham, all of our guests, welcome to the national mu sooechl of the united states army. we look forward with great excitement of opening the doors to the public on june 4th, 2020, four and a half months away, but nobody is counting. you're getting just a glimpse today of what a phenomenal museum this is going to be, and we really encourage all of you to help us spread the word as we prepare to become the front door to america's army. so with that, welcome to the museum, where we will honor and welcome hundreds of thousands of visitors ever single year. so welcome. enjoy your day. [ applause ] >> well, thanks, tammy, thank you very, very much. for this wonderful facility. how many of you are here visiting the museum for the first time? for the very first time? look at that, general hart zblog, most everybody. how many of you are here for the last time? [ laughter ] nobody, not a single hand. this is truly impressive. and even in just this large opening area -- open area, you get but the a glimpse of the tremedendus history of our army. and so we are very, very proud to partner with the army historical foundation, the national museum of the united states army, and welcome you to this breakfast. we can't do ausa events without sponsors, to include even ones like this at this great museum. this morning's sponsor, general dynamics, represented this morning by mr. chris mar -- >>y, for you and the whole general dynamics team who's been such a great partner and for our association for so many years, thank you very, very much for this morning. [ applause ] i could spend about the next 40 minutes introducing the people, the luminaries who have gathered here this morning, but the chief has told me not to do that, so i'm not going do that. but with a couple of exceptions. i am going to single out a couple of very special guests, very special guests, joining us this morning. the 32nd chief of staff of the united states army, general denis rhymer. [ applause ] the 33rd chief of staff of the united states army, general rick shin sek. [ applause ] pleased this morning to have the civilian leadership of the united states army represented by dr. kasie wardinsky and mr. alex bealer, assistant secretaries of the army. [ applause ] two former sergeants major of the army, ken preston and dan daly. [ applause ] and our civilian aid to the secretary of the army from washington, d.c., mr. woody goldberg. woody. [ applause ] that doesn't mean the rest of you aren't special. you're just not quite that special, all right? but we're very, very thankful that all of you are here. our allies and partners who have joined us this morning, some of the troops are here, the certainlients major, representative across the total united states army, we really are very, very pleased that you're all joined us this morning, members of the congressional staff who are here as well, and important friend and 35ur9ner who keep the army on the straight and narrow, so thanks very much for that. before i introduce the chief, a couple of upcoming events to take note of, our february breakfast serros on the 18th of february with lieutenant thomas rolander. i think you know the budget will be delivered. thomas orlandoer is going to tell us exactly where all that army money is going to go. no pressure, general, no pressure whatsoer. we hope that many of you will join us in huntsville. i know dr. wardinsky will be there, in his home, 17 through 19, in huntsville, alabama. we look forward to that. if you need a break from this cold weather, plan on going out to hawaii in may for land pack 19 through 21, may, and in june for the first time we will host an event in partnership with army futures command in austin, texas, 23 to 25 june, in austin. general mcchristian would counsel me if i didn't remind anyone, 266 days until the annual meeting. [ laughter ] we are honored this morning as we are in most januaryies to welcome our chief of staff, the chief of staff of the united states army. many of you have had the opportunity to meet and serve with general mcconville in his many and varied assignments throughout his time in the army. we got to see him more publicly last october at the annual meeting, where he rolled out his vision for the army, his views for the army, his priorities. and i would tell you, chief, the word that i heard more often than any other from people who had not known you before, who had not heard you before, said, that man is genuine. i think one of the things we would recognize in this room, that soldiers have lots of attributes and characteristics. one of them is soldiers have pretty refined bullshit detectors. when the chief spoke, everybody recognized that he was speaking from the heart. he is a soldier's soldier, exactly the right leader that the army needs at this time. please welcome the 40th chief of staff of the united states army, general jim mcconville. [ applause ] >> appreciate that. well, good morning, and thank you, general ham where for that kind introduction. it's great to have the 33rd chief of staff here, the 34th here. that's all right. i -- chiefs do that. we got these numbers. i'm the 40th. you kind of work that around. i checked. it was on the information highway so we're okay with the numbers. but also, general allen, general campbell, general wagner, general hart zblzog, sergeant mayors of the army, daly and preston, you have left us a proud legacy that we strive to live up to every single day. and it's always a great day for the united states army because we serve with the world's greatest soldiers. if you saw their performance over the last couple of weeks, it was absolutely amazing. so how about a hand for our soldiers? [ applause ] and today is a great day because we get a sneak preview of our new army national mu sooechl. and adds was said, the grand opening is in in june, and i've had a chance to walk around. this is going to be a world-class facility. it's going to be a fitting tribute to the heroism and heritage of our soldiers and our army. so i really encourage everyone to come back. i'm certainly going to come back. you know, people first, winning matters. it's more than just a slogan. people first is a philosophy. i believe that the united states army is the best army in the world because we have the best people in the world. our soldiers, our civilians, our families, and our soldiers for life, our retirees and volunteers are the greatest strength of our army. and i believe that if we take qu care of our people, get them at the right jobs, the right time and place, they will deliver on ar army priorities of readiness, modernization, and reform. and winning matters is an attitude. it's antude that we send the united states army somewhere, we're not going to participate, we're not going to try hard. we're going to win. and there's no second place or honorable mention in combat. and that attitude was evident in the 82nd airborne division when we alerted them and they deployed on absolutely no notice on new years eve day to iraq. and they did it in incredible fashion. and it's that attitude that's in all our troops that is serving in harm's way around the globe. now, we are very, very blessed to have a great secretary, secretary mccarthy. he and i aren't trying to fight the last fight better. we're focused on winning the next fight. we recognize the need for transformational change. and we can't get that with incremental improvements. so i brought my lunch here, no, it's not my lunch. it's something you might recognize this, you know, for those who are over the age of 30, this is what a phone used to look like. okay? and when i was a kid, this phone was on the wall. you know? and many older people in the front rows, this phone was on the wall. all right? and, you know, if you made a phone call, you went up to the wall, you dialed this little thing, and that's what you did. okay? but then people said, you know, we want to be able to walk around the house with the phone, right? so what we did is put a cord on the back, it was a long cord, and we were able to walk around the house with the cord. and that was what i would call incremental improvement, not transformational. then people found we're knocking lamps over, getting caught on furniture. the company said, here's what we're going to do. let's get rid of the cord. then people said we can walk around the house, we had a cordless phone. this would be great if we could go outside and drive around and talk on our phone, right? and what happened was that ruined meals and dinners and anniversaries and birthdays forever, because we'd all be on our phone while we'd be out eating dinner. but anyways, what happened along the way was, you know, some would say that, you know, what if we could take a picture with a phone? and i like to imagine this in an army context. i can see a lieutenant coming to a general like me, and he or she saying, sir, i got a great idea. we should be taking pictures with phones. and i'm sitting there, a guy like me, saying, okay, how do you take a picture with this phone? really? a selfie? [ laughter ] or wait a minute, i think we could use this phone to navigate. how do you do that? we got these great things, they're paper, they're called maps, right? that's how we navigate. or we can watch tv on the phone. and, you know, i can see us going, you know, hey, lieutenant, that will be all. and when she -- he or she walks away, we're sitting there, these germs, these wise generals, we say something along the line, why that's why he or she is just a lieutenant. and -- but they were innovators and transformational change agents who gave us this. the mobile device. they transformed our understanding of what a phone could be. now it still makes phone calls, although most people have kids, they won't call, they'll text you. but it navigates, it takes photos, it does hundreds of other functions we never would have imagined 40 years ago. and the point i'm making is that as we go forward, the army needs help from our soldiers, our noncommissioned officers, our officers, we need help from civilians, from industry partners, our allies and partners, in achieving transformational change. not so much of this, but more of this. and, you know, we need transformational change not incremental improvements. that's what an incremental improvement looks like. and because transformational change is how we get overmatch and dominance in the future. it's how we compete. it's how we determine great competitors, and if required, it's how we win on the future battlefield. and it was the facility kind of transformational change i'm describing, it's important that we can't be constrained by our speenss. experience is important. it's great. but it's sometimes new and different perspectives are necessary for innovation. and know that innovation may come from a colonel, might come from a general, might come from a generalent, somebody from industry or ac2k50e78ia or a combination of many. so we have to encourage innovation. look for it unexpected places and embrace it when we find it. that's how we get to transformational change. i would suggest that the last major transformational changes in our army took place as we came out of vietnam in the late '70s and 80s. and many of the great leaders in front of us led that change. you know, we changed the way we fought with the development of dock trirn. new doctrine called battle. out of the ashes of a field rescue attempt in iran, we developed new organizations like ranger battal jonz, aviation regiment, some special units, look at the incredible work they've done over the last couple of decades. we built our combat training centers out of the national traini training center. where we honed the readiness. we modernized our fighting systems with the development of the big 5, the abe ramsz tank, the bradley fighting vehicle, the blackhawk helicopter, and the patriot, and there were quite a few other ones. we trans formed our people processes. and we take this for granted now, by instituting the all-volunteer force, which gave birth to our incredible noncommissioned officer core which every other country wants to have. our strategic leaders then recognized that we were a strategic and inflection points. we were engaged in great power competition with the soviet union and witnessing tech logical advances which were reshaping the character of war. the leaders of that day, and some of them are here, recognized that incremental change wouldn't deliver the army we needed to compete with the soviet union. so they resourced and built a new army. an army that deterred soviet aggression, and army that won desert storm in 100 hours. an army that has fought so well against terrorism for the last two decades. in fact, the transformational change of the post-vietnam era built the army today that has 187,000 soldiers committed to support of 140 countries around the world and accounts for more than 60% of our combatant requirements. think about it, we began building the army of 2020 more than 40 years ago. and since then, we're incrementally improved our weapons systems that we filled in 1970s and '80s. i would tell people we're starting to run out of letters. that's when you need to get new. when you get to the z model, you need something new. take the bradley, one of our key fighting vehicles. we've upgraded it to the m-2, a-1, and then improved it to one version after another. we added improved armor, increased the power, upgraded night vision sights, made many other improvements. lu although it's formid babble, i can't say that 40 years from now it will be the centerpiece of our mekkonized infantry formations. we are reaching the limits we designed in the 1970s. we can only add so much weight to our vehicles. only make our currently helicopters fly so fast and so far. and not only that, conditions have changed. we recognize that we will be contested in all five domains. onland, in the air, on the sea, and in space, and cyberin the future. we realize that we will have to penetrate robust antiaccess and eariel denial, we we call a 2 ad defensive networks. we know we will face epersonalent technologies like aurpt fishlt intelligence, hyper sonics, and the modern battlefield will look different than the one 40 years ago. which is why i would submit that we are in a similar point to the one our leaders faced out of vietnam. we have to ask ourselves, are we building the army that can compete and win for the next 40 years? i believe that only transformational change will build the army our future demands. that's what we're doing with the development of the multi domain operations concept. we're changing the way we're going to fight in the future and where it will be con toefted in every domain. that's why we're building new organizations. like the security force assistance bringing aids, like the multi domain tachk forces and the information warfare command which will enable us to compete below the level of armed conflict. that's why we're developing cyber rangers, so we can train cyber in a similar environment to our dirt ctcs. that's why we're developing synthetic training environments. that's why we're laser focused on developing and fielding the six modernization priorities, with 31 signature systems. and that's why we must implement a 21st century measurement system. one of those, the battalion command, is going on as we speak, and a lot of our majors are really excited about that. much is happening now, not in 10 or 20 years. an example of transformational change is the integrated visual augmentation system. you can see it up there. it's not just an inkroemtal improvement to night vision gaggles. it's like putting -- it's like putting on a slightly larger pair of oakly sunglasses. it has both night vision and thermal capability in that heads-up display, but it's much more than an improved night vision device. in this device, our soldiers can see a three flengsal map. they can receive video from drones or other sources when on the battlefield. they can link their weapons site for faster aiming, and they can shoot around corners or from behind cover. but what i would argue is one of the most transformational concepts about this system is that you could use it with one role terrain, to train in virtual reality. think about it. you're on your way to a real-world mission. and you can train with your team or squad or whatever echelon you desire on the actual simulated terrain that you're going to conduct the mission in virtual reality. with less time and fewer resouss. but not only that, and this is why i would encourage industry, the other thing that's transformationale about the i-vest is how we develop it. we took an idea from change agents like general donahue and general maria gervais. and we went from development to a real-world system being used right now, and the soldiers are helping develop this in less than two years. a and it has the potential on the way we train and fight, all from a heads-up display our solders are going to have. as this gets out there are be a whole bunch of things welk do. from how we operate under armor, how we interact with remote or thomas vehicles, is going to fundamentally trans form the way we are doing business. but we're also getting transformational results in our six modernization priorities. in the long-range precision portfolio, our number one priority, we're having early successes at the spied of relevance. we conducted successful tests and precision strike missiles last month. i'm confident we're going to be able to engage targets of ranges of more than 500 kilometers very soon. we project to have this fielded in the next two to three years. also in our portfolio, we have the extend the range canon, which has demonstrated the ability to engage targets precisely at 70 kilometers with potential for significant increases in the future. we project the systems in about two to three years as well. and i know there's a lot of interest in hyper sonics, particularly given some recent claims by our other near peer competitors. we are aggressively developing these capabilities and expect to start testing over the next three years. we're developing mobile sure app air defense systems because we know we're going to be con toefted from the air for our maneuver units, and we begin fielding them next year. we've had successful tests, battle command system, oorks bcs, which can be transformational and link mule approximate -- defense against enemy air, missionles and unmanned systems. we're developing next generation squad weapons, the rifle, and the machine gun. and they are have set to be sta next year. they'll significantly increase the range of our soldiers on the battlefield. we are flying before we are buying. we are pleased with the in know valgs we are seeing from industry in this area. we plan onto golfing and a future long range assault aircraft, a future attacking aircraft of the next eight to ten years. these are aircraft and not helicopters because the transformational requirements are not resonate in traditional helicopters. i want to mention the next generation combat vehicle. as many of you know just last week we made a decision, we had off for our vehicles. we committed replacing the bradley fighting vehicles in the future. like the future vertical aircraft, we want to drive these before we buy them. for industry, that's the strategy we are going to take. we'll experiment and prototype and we'll see what we have before we invest in a large amount of money in these programs. we find an early process after investments of our aggressive timeline did not commit industry to meet the rieequirements. we are going to reset the requirements, we are going to reset the acquisition strategy and timeline and then we are going to come out and aggressive pursue this critical weapon system that we need for the future. i know we have quite a few allies in partners represented here in morning. thank you all for being here. being united and with your partners allowing us to negotiate from a position of strength. our allies, are critical to what we do and i don't see that change. i met with 75 of my counter parts around the world and the last five or six months. all of them want to work closely with the united states army. it is important we work closely with our ally partners to help us innovate and realize transformation change but ensure that we maintain stability and security around the world. some of the high initiatives that builds strong relationships with our allies and partners. this includes the international military education in training program which i call i-med. i can't count the number around this senior leaders, of our country through this program. i find that the foreign military sales are great opportunity for our partners to prove their own capacities and capabilities. also a great opportunity to reduce cost and maintain organic industrial base. finally, the employment of a security force assistance brigades, combining with exercises with allies and partners is increasing in a capacity and capabilities along with building inner operability. we have defended 20 coming up in europe this year. it will be a lot of exercise in 25 years. the 20,000 troops are coming from the united states. a smaller number this year but a bigger number next year as well. these exercises will continue to be virtually used to strengthen our relationships and build capabilities both ours and our allies and partners. to all of our allies and partners today, you are important to us. we want to continue to move forward together. let me close by saying it is an exciting time to be in the army. we have a unique opportunity to set the army core reserve over match and dominance in the next 40 years and ensure we can compete with and deter great power competitions and it requires to fight and win. we are looking for a longer courts for our phones and faster horses for our cowboys. we are trying to fight better, we want to win in the next fiep fight. it is going to take transformational change to get there, it won't happen with increment improvements. i look forward to your report in this endeavor people first, we remain army strong. [ applause ] >> thank you. >> i think we are ready to take a few questions out there. >> allies in partner remaining strong. good morning. i spoke about the technological advancement ensuring the army remain relevance in a multi operation. the initiative to select the right person for the right job for the command and assistance program to achieve this. do you believe at the senior ranked levels, there is a deficit in understanding advancing ai and robotics and capabilities. how do we achieve better education for the senior leadership to maintain? >> a great question. one of the points i was trying to make during the speech was you know, if you don't know about artificial intelligence. if you don't know about robotics, get the right people surround you that do. don't be held hostage by your experiences. as i have learned in this job, i think one of the biggest things we could do that i want to learn about is data. you think about it. i want to talk to you about data. if you look at some of the things we are trying to do, command control system, if toupt ta you want to talk about machine learning. it is all data, the ability to secure data and all transformational advantage that we'll get involving data. if you don't understand that, you are not going to get there. what we can do is slow down maybe some of the younger people that have experienced that. so what ill li would like to do three thin throw things out there. help me find out and give me constraint. >> i don't want this. i want this. you know we need to get the right people that know about that stuff. that's what we are trying to do. thanks for the question. you talked about the fighting vehicles. it is highlighted through the situation that the acquisition community and the army features command and modernization community may have had some frictions when it comes to decision making. i am wondering what the army is doing to try to smooth things over with our future commands and modernization commands in the future so there is not any bumping heads and working together especially since time of the essence. >> i am not sure i want to go with friction. friction and heat makes you stronger. i will leave it at that. i think it is very important that one of the reasons that we want to cross-country teams is we wants to bring operators and techis techologyisists techologists. we want to move away from the process that we used in the past that would take us to use three or five years. we go to the process that takes three to five years, requesting and getting a program under contract and we take five to seven years later to feel that program and after days, you may have something that is no longer relevant. so what we are trying to do is bring people together in the process. some people are not as comfortable with this as they should be. they're getting that way because that's how they're going to do business. we are trying to show the value of working together early in the process with everybody involved and, i think what you are going to see and even during this is i have been with iraq professionals and futures command and they understand the importance of working together, they're going to reset. if there was a football game, going back in the huddle. they're going to call another play and they'll come out of the line of scrimmage and they're going to get throughout aere an touchdown. this is going to happen. >> thank you. >> hello, i am from defense one, good to see you again. can you talk about the transformation that you are trying to get underway as for the conventional cyber warfare operation of something that encompasses of the warfare operation of a big change. >> as we look into the future, we are standing up different types of organizations, you know, like one of them is a multi task force. what's a multi demand task force. what it does is it has the ability to deliver both long range precision of facts and long range precision fires. as we look around the world, people talk about information. the truth matters. what we see with some of our competitors is operating below the level of con flick, they want to put information out there and it happens every single day after, really throughout the world. we want to have the ability to make sure that we can get the truth out there. that's part of information operations and it is tied into cyber and electronic warfare, it is tied into space and all these elements come together. we want an organization that's going to synchronize those and that's what the information warfare command is going to do. >> sir, we got one more question over here. >> the warning from industry that the war problem with the timetable and the requirements, so as the service -- what are they going to do different to address shortcomings that have cropped up time and time again. >> what we learned going through the process was, it was an aggressive timeline. when we met with the industry, the feedback we got was they can do it. the difference of what we are doing now is after a middle investment time frame, we are going the say show us that you can actually do this. as we come back around with industry, we are going to say how much time will it take to get to the requirements that we need so there is more negotiation that's going to go on. the way we are prototyping it now is inform requirements. it is not necessarily we don't have requirements out there like in space. we meet with industry and we give them a problem set. we say we want a vehicle that should have this many people and should be able to do this many things and come back to us with a sketch of what it would look like. we take a look at what they come back. hey, if you can do this, how about come back with a design that shows us what it will look like and we can select from that. how about come back with a model that shows us we can do this and come back with a protype that we can see and drive it before we buy it. that's the process that we'll take. we'll continue the process. we'll make decisions on time verses requirements that hey, if you got six more months or one more year, we could have this capability in this vehicle. we want a transformation of vehicle. we want a transformational vehicle that has opened architecture that we can continue to improve over the next 40 years. i don't want to have a chief of staff trying to figure out the number. maybe chief of staff number 50, sitting here, how come a combo left you with all the old stuff. i want to have him or her in a position where they are looking at equipment 40 years from now, it is only 40 years old and not 80 years old. i think we need to do that. a round of applause. >> thank you, y'all. i appreciate it. [ applause ] thanks very much chief, thank you for getting us off to a great start this january morning, beginning 2020 and the army has been busy. i was saying before this crowd to you, chief, this association, we'll do all that we can to support you and the soldiers and civilians of the army as you move forward on behalf of the nation. thank you for sharing your time with us this morning. for all of you, one of the ways that we are able to sport tuppo army is through your membership. i consider you to join ausa. you can do so this morning more go online ausa.org. we value your membership and we need your membership in order to continue to support the army and the way that the army deserves. chris, to you and generthe gene again. thank you very much for doing this. tammy, for you and the team here at the national museum of the united states army, thanks for hosting us at your home this morning. we look forward to continue progress and each of us look forward with great anticipation that you and the official opening this magnificent facility. if you want to learn more of the national museum of the united states army, see tammy and any of the folks at the historic foundation or go to their website or the website of the national museum of the united states army, see all the goodness, the greatness that's being built and established here to recognize what is in arguably the most powerful land force in the planet, the united states army. i thank each and everyone of you for joining us this morning. let's have an army strong day. thank you. [ applause ] today ruth baiter ginsburg marks the 100 anniversary granted women the right to work. she will discuss the impact the