3 FORT DETRICK, Md. In order to bolster the current fight against the global pandemic, U.S. Army Medical Logistics Command has spent the last several months tailoring packages of essential COVID-19 supplies.
This initiative has been executed utilizing multiple procurement options in collaboration with both the Defense Logistics Agency-Troop Support and the U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity.
In a Dec. 11 meeting with Army Materiel Command leaders, AMLC Commander Brig. Gen. Michael Lalor said the teams have worked together to ensure unit deployment packages, or UDPs, are filled and configured to go should the Army need to deploy additional military medical resources to support the whole-of-government response to COVID-19.
Gen. Ed Daly
For years, Army Materiel Command has spread its limited modernization funding more or less evenly across its dozens of facilities, giving each of them enough for marginal, incremental improvements but never enough for a true top-to-bottom overhaul. The new modernization plan, Daly said, is meant to change that by prioritizing some facilities for higher funding – which means, in a “zero-sum” budget, that others will get less.
“If we do this correctly, we could do it as a zero sum,” Daly told me. “We don’t necessarily have to pay more money. All we have to do is invest… based on prioritization,” he explained, “as opposed to, ‘let’s just spread money across the OIB and give everybody a little bit so everybody can make some upgrades.’ That’s just not going to work for the future.
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Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. on December 15, 2020 at 6:26 PM
BAE Systems’s prototype for the Army’s Mobile Protected Firepower (MPF) light tank.
WASHINGTON: The pandemic has disrupted a second BAE Systems armored vehicle program, this time delaying deliveries of prototype Mobile Protected Firepower vehicles to the Army’s 18
th Airborne Corps at Fort Bragg.
Earlier this year, problems with COVID and quality control at BAE’s York, Penn. factory delayed delivery of BAE’s Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle – the replacement for the vulnerable, Vietnam-vintage M113 – by several months. Now I’ve learned that COVID has also affected production of the MPF, an air-deployable light-tank, whose prototypes are being built at a BAE facility in Sterling Heights, Mich.
In a year shaped by a worldwide pandemic, Army Materiel Command has put people first by contributing to the whole-of-government COVID-19 response, supporting the warfighter and improving quality of life for Soldiers, civilians and families.
Since April, AMC has leveraged the full force of the materiel enterprise in the fight against COVID-19. AMC supported through contracting, communications, storage and movement of Personal Protective Equipment and deployment support for medical units and personnel, among other functions. Organic Industrial Base facilities produced, repaired and repurposed equipment to augment the supply of PPE and other potentially life-saving medical equipment.
AMC Commander Gen. Ed Daly said the AMC workforce adjusted well to operating in the COVID environment, anticipating needs and staying ahead of the learning curve in many areas.
In future wars, AI, networks, and analytics won’t just help target precision weapons: They can also liberate combat units from long and vulnerable supply lines. But to make that work, AMC commander Gen. Ed Daly told us, frontline troops need a constant flow of data.
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Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. on December 15, 2020 at 12:33 PM