System Geared Against Military Technology

Military technology has not reached its full potential because the business of applying information technology is embedded in military acquisition-and that process is seriously flawed, according to a Tuesday panelist at MILCOM 2010. Dr. Robert Hermann, former principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for C3I and a former National Reconnaissance Office director, cited bad management policy and organizational structure for hindering technological progress in the military. A self-described advocate of former Defense Secretary Harold Brown's emphasis on high technology to boost defense capabilities, Hermann charged that the Defense Department has not given primary responsibility to those tasked with completing missions. For example, a combatant commander should have visibility into financial data for context, he said. The cause is structural. The department is a function of two elements, he stated. One element is the Army/Navy/Air Force, which supplies the force. The other is the combatant commanders, who accept those forces and arrange for them to operate in a coherent system. Both elements report to the secretary of defense, which has a role in both areas. Both organizations have different ideas, and they need to engage with each other and hold clear that they are responsible for separate things, Hermann said. The process has led to inevitable growth in cost and risk, and no one believes that it is acceptable, he continued. The result is a complex, technology rich, intensely interconnected system that only reaches the field as separate forces integrated upon arrival. This complex force must be managed accordingly. To resolve these complexity issues, combatant commanders should have the means of knowing and manipulating the force in the system, Hermann offered. Hermann implied that his points might generate controversy. "I look forward to your e-mails," he told the morning panel audience at the end of his remarks.