Episodes

  • Behind the Frontlines: Enabling the Warfighter - From the DACM: Rebuilding the Army Acquisition Workforce for Speed, Agility and Results

    Behind the Frontlines: Enabling the Warfighter - From the DACM: Rebuilding the Army Acquisition Workforce for Speed, Agility and Results
    Jun 24 2026
    FROM THE DIRECTOR OF ACQUISITION CAREER MANAGEMENT RONALD J. RICHARDSON JR. The Army stands at a pivotal moment, one defined not by incremental change but by deliberate transformation. At the center of this evolution is a concept often discussed but not always fully understood: workforce optimization. This initiative, tied directly to broader acquisition transformation, is reshaping how the Army Acquisition Workforce is structured, trained and employed. While the journey has not been without disruption, it is fundamentally about one outcome—delivering the right capability into the hands of Soldiers faster and more effectively than ever before.
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    9 mins
  • Behind the Frontlines: Enabling the Warfighter - Culture Eats Digital Engineering for Breakfast

    Behind the Frontlines: Enabling the Warfighter - Culture Eats Digital Engineering for Breakfast
    Jun 24 2026
    Somewhere in the Pentagon, an Army senior leader recently made a program decision informed by live data, instead of slide decks. That moment reflects a broader transformation: as more information moves into digital models, decisions that once required weeks of staffing are now being made in hours. This pattern is becoming more common, but it is not yet the norm.
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    10 mins
  • Behind the Frontlines: Enabling the Warfighter - Army Signs Streamlined MRP Aligning Authority with PAEs

    Behind the Frontlines: Enabling the Warfighter - Army Signs Streamlined MRP Aligning Authority with PAEs
    Jun 24 2026
    The Army has signed a new policy that fundamentally transforms the materiel release process, replacing decades of administrative friction with a risk-informed, enabling framework that delivers capabilities to Soldiers faster, without compromising the safety, suitability and supportability standards that protect the force.
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    10 mins
  • Behind the Frontlines: Enabling the Warfighter - Army Contracting Enterprise Leaders Chart the Way Forward

    Behind the Frontlines: Enabling the Warfighter - Army Contracting Enterprise Leaders Chart the Way Forward
    Jun 15 2026
    The Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Procurement (DASA(P)) convened its DASA(P) Advisory Board on April 22-23, 2026, for a pivotal two-day summit at the Pentagon. The summit focused on accelerating artificial intelligence (AI) integration and workforce transformation across Army contracting.
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    4 mins
  • Behind the Frontlines: Enabling the Warfighter - SSCF Class of 2026 Graduates

    Behind the Frontlines: Enabling the Warfighter - SSCF Class of 2026 Graduates
    Jun 12 2026
    On May 21st, nineteen fellows, along with their families and friends, gathered at the Warfighting Acquisition University’s (WarU) Scott Hall to celebrate the graduation of the Senior Service College Fellowship (SSCF) class of 2026. The SSCF program is a 10-month senior leadership development opportunity sponsored by the U.S. Army Acquisition Support Center’s Director, Acquisition Career Management Office. It provides leadership acquisition training to prepare senior-level civilians in the grades of GS-14/15 (or broadband equivalent) for leadership roles. Read the story at https://asc.army.mil/web/foundation-of-mastery-sscf-class-of-2026-graduates/.
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    3 mins
  • Behind The Frontlines: Enabling the Warfighter - CECOM ASIC Accelerates Help Desk Support via GenAI Integration

    Behind The Frontlines: Enabling the Warfighter - CECOM ASIC Accelerates Help Desk Support via GenAI Integration
    Jun 12 2026
    The Army is wasting no time implementing artificial intelligence (AI) into its enterprise structures. In recent months, the United States Army Communications-Electronics Command Army Software and Innovation Center (CECOM ASIC) has aggressively incorporated AI capabilities into its Enterprise Help Desk (EHD) that services the Army’s critical Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems—massive software applications that manage and track the Army’s budget and global supply chain. A subset of AI, Generative AI (GenAI) synthesizes answers from expansive knowledge sources to provide immediate answers to end users. The overarching mission of integrating GenAI into ERP systems is to increase readiness by automating responses for common fixes, enabling analysts to resolve more tickets faster. Because AI can automate routine fixes for users, it gives more time for analysts to prioritize their efforts on complex mission-critical problems.
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    5 mins
  • Behind The Frontlines: Enabling the Warfighter - ATEC Continuous Evaluation Campaign

    Behind The Frontlines: Enabling the Warfighter - ATEC Continuous Evaluation Campaign
    Jun 9 2026
    The Army Test and Evaluation Command (ATEC) is committed to doing better. As the Army moves at speed toward continuous transformation, ATEC is fundamentally changing how we support decisions to deploy new capabilities that defeat emerging threats. The linear, sequential model—contractor testing followed by independent government developmental testing, followed by an independent government operational test, with little feedback before a final summary evaluation report—does not support the Army’s need to exploit emerging technologies, quickly, to field new or improved capabilities.
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    13 mins
  • Behind the Frontlines: Enabling the Warfighter - Faster Decisions, Better Outcomes: NGSW as a Model For Modern Army Acquisition

    Behind the Frontlines: Enabling the Warfighter - Faster Decisions, Better Outcomes: NGSW as a Model For Modern Army Acquisition
    May 20 2026
    As the Army reshapes its acquisition enterprise to move faster and remain relevant in an increasingly contested operational environment, the Next Generation Squad Weapon (NGSW) program stands as a clear example of how Capability Program Executive–Ground (CPE Ground) is accepting and managing risk rather than avoiding it. Executed under accelerated acquisition pathways and fielded while testing and refinement continue, NGSW reflects a conscious leadership decision to prioritize speed, Soldier feedback and overmatch over the traditional pursuit of perfect certainty. In doing so, CPE Ground is demonstrating a modern acquisition mindset—one that treats risk as a tool to be governed and leveraged at the portfolio level, not a condition to be eliminated—while delivering tangible capability to the squad where it matters most.
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    9 mins