Throughout the past several years, the U.S. Army has continued to implement advanced technology priorities, from enhancing hardware, software, and infrastructure to expanding synthetic training environments, to improve the service branch’s acquisition and modernization processes. The Army has employed agile, responsive cross-functional teams to achieve its modernization goals and efforts.
During Potomac Officers Club’s 5th Annual Army Forum, notable federal and industry leaders will discuss the progress, innovations and accomplishments of the Army’s modernization renaissance over the last year, what challenges remain, and how industry can help in 2021 and beyond. Click here to register for Potomac Officers Club’s 5th Annual Army Forum on August 27th.
Join Potomac Officers Club for the 5th Annual Army Forum, featuring Bruce Jette, with the Army’s Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology (ASA(ALT)) will serve as the keynote speaker to address the latest initiatives and modernization plans for the U.S. Army. The event will also feature an expert panel to further discuss the latest plans and goals of the service branch.
Keynote Speaker: Bruce Jette
Bruce Jette, assistant secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology (ASA(ALT)) and 2020 Wash100 Award recipient, will serve as the keynote speaker at Potomac Officers Club’s 5th Annual Army Forum.
Jette serves as the Army Acquisition executive, the senior procurement executive, the science advisor to the secretary of the Army as well as the Army’s senior research and development official.
His responsibilities include providing oversight for the life cycle management and sustainment of Army weapon systems and equipment from research and development through test and evaluation, acquisition, logistics, fielding, and disposition.
He is also responsible for appointing, managing, and evaluating program executive officers and managing the Army Acquisition Corps and Army Acquisition Workforce. In addition, he oversees the Elimination of Chemical Weapons program.
Jette recently announced that he has been coordinating with Gen. John Murray, commander of Army Futures Command and fellow Wash100 Award recipient, to address issues related to weapons system testing during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We’ll probably move a couple Milestone Cs around, but generally testing and delivery have remained on schedule or we have a makeup plan,” Jette said. “It’s the testing that’s the long pole in the tent and we’re accommodating that.”
Jette said long-range precision fires, air-and-missile defense and the other four modernization initiatives remain the service’s top priorities. He noted that the Army is developing a “holistic” economic framework to look at the lifecycle costs of new weapon systems and other issues.
“We are taking some steps to provide additional data in case there’s a prioritization that does come down the road due to changes in the budget profiles,” Jette added.
Moderator: Kevin Leonard
Kevin Leonard, senior vice president for Army and Expeditionary Programs at Vectrus, will moderate the panel at Potomac Officers Club’s 5th Annual Army Forum.
With Vectrus, Leonard is responsible for the development and execution of short and long-term strategies for Contingency Operations and Army programs.
Prior to joining Vectrus in April 2017, Kevin served as the vice president of contingency operations for Fluor Government Group. In this role, his responsibilities included the strategic planning and global execution of services supporting commercial clients, the U.S. federal government, and select foreign governments.
His team supported a diverse set of clients to include the Department of Defense (U.S. Army, Air Force, Marine Corps and Central Command), Homeland Security, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Kevin is a retired U.S. Army major general with a distinguished 33-year career leading complex transportation and logistics organizations.
Panelist: BG Anthony Potts
BG Anthony Potts, program executive officer (PEO) Soldier with the U.S. Army, will serve as a panelist during Potomac Officers Club’s 5th Annual Army Forum.
The PEO Soldier’s mission is to rapidly deliver agile and adaptive capabilities to advance and become more lethal. The office’s mission is to be the world’s premier capability provider for the Integrated Soldier and Squad weapons platform, with three priorities: Deliver Capability, Take Care of Our People and Develop a Culture of Innovation.
In prior assignments, BG Potts assumed the roles of Deputy Commanding General, U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command, and Senior Commander, Natick Soldier Systems Center.
He served as acting deputy for Acquisition and Systems Management, PEO Missiles and Space; as director, Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense and Army/Navy Transportable Radar Surveillance, Sustainment Management Office, Redstone Arsenal and as deputy director for Acquisition and System Management, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology (ASA(ALT)), among others.
Panelist: Michael Wells
Mike Wells, chief innovation officer of the Operation Technology Group with Vectrus, will serve as a panelist at Potomac Officers Club’s 5th Annual Army Forum.
Wells joined Vectrus in Dec. 2016 from Tangible Security where he was the president. Prior to Tangible Security, he served as a vice president and partner at IBM, where he was responsible for their Smarter Installation of the Future and Cities portfolio and strategy.
Before his tenure with IBM, Wells served as senior vice president and general manager for the Siemens Corporation responsible for their US government solutions portfolio, world-wide.
As one of the largest partners supporting deployed Department of Defense (DoD) missions, Vectrus provides robust command, control, communications, and computer support. The company’s enterprise approach to systems engineering is tailored to meet customer requirements for surveillance, reconnaissance and fused information.
Vectrus provides mission-critical anomaly resolution, cyber defense, software maintenance, database development, computer engineering and programming, open-system engineering, integrated logistics support, depot maintenance and IT support development and life-cycle solutions.
Panelist: COL Joel Babbitt
U.S. Special Operations Command
COL Joel Babbitt, program executive officer (PEO) for Special Operations Forces of Warrior Systems with U.S. Special Operations Command, will serve on the panel during Potomac Officers Club’s 5th Annual Army Forum.
In his current role, Babbit supervises 10 joint program offices with a total annual budget of $1.8 billion. Prior to his position as PEO, Babbitt served for nearly a decade as a product manager, executing over $4 billion in programs during that time.
Notably, Babbitt delivered the Army’s first ‘flying command post’ to the XVIII Airborne Corps, bringing Secure Wi-Fi to the tactical army’s command posts, modernizing the Army’s tactical network and supporting special operations.
As the product director for Wideband Enterprise Satellite Systems (PD WESS), he provided ground infrastructure and control capabilities for the Wideband Global Satellite (WGS) constellation and other constellations in support of the USAF WGS Program Office, Missile Defense Agency, DISA and US Army Strategic Command.
Panelist: Keith Krapels
Keith Krapels, director of Sensors & Electron Devices Directorate, Combat Capabilities Development Command with Army Futures Command (AFC), will serve on the expert panel during Potomac Officers Club’s 5th Annual Army Forum.
Krapels is a member of the Senior Executive Service and serves as the Director of the Sensors and Electron Devices Directorate (SEDD) of the Combat Capabilities Development Command at the Army Research Laboratory (CCDC-ARL), the Army’s corporate research laboratory.
CCDC-ARL SEDD is the principal Army organization for basic and applied research in sensors and countermeasures, electronic/photonic materials and devices, power and energy, synthetic biology and quantum information sciences.
SEDD conducts foundational research to provide the Army with disruptive, game changing enabling technology in advanced electro-optics and lasers; displays; advanced RF technologies for sensors and EW; electronic materials and devices; autonomous sensing; electric weapons and vehicles; directed energy; and micro, Soldier, and portable power.
Panelist: Tony Frazier
Tony Frazier, executive vice president of Global Field Operations with Maxar Technologies and four-time Wash100 Award recipient, will serve on the expert panel during Potomac Officers Club’s 5th Annual Army Forum.
With Maxar, Frazier leads the company’s global sales, business development, services delivery and account management organization. His efforts will help unify the operations of DigitalGlobe, Radiant Solutions and SSL under a common Maxar brand.
Frazier works closely with Maxar’s national security and commercial customers to apply the company’s Earth Intelligence and Space Solutions capabilities to critical missions at scale. Prior to Maxar, Frazier served as president of Radiant Solutions.
He also served as senior vice president and General Manager of DigitalGlobe’s Services business from 2013 and led GeoEye’s Marketing and Communications team since 2010, prior to its acquisition by DigitalGlobe in 2013. Frazier has served as senior director of Product Management at Cisco Systems, where he brought to market emerging technologies core to Cisco’s video and collaboration strategy.
During Potomac Officers Club’s 5th Annual Army Forum, these leaders of consequence will further discuss the innovations and accomplishments of the Army’s modernization renaissance over the last year, what challenges remain, and how industry can help in 2021 and beyond.
Click here to register for Potomac Officers Club’s 5th Annual Army Forum.
