[vc_row css_animation=”” row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern” padding_bottom=”25″ z_index=””][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”1013″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image” qode_css_animation=”” qode_hover_animation=”zoom_in”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css_animation=”” row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern”][vc_column][vc_column_text]Following a three year tour leading the Project Manager Electronic Warfare (PM EW) team, Col. Joseph Dupont passed the reins of the organization to Col. Marty Hagenston during a Change of Charter ceremony hosted by Stephen Kreider, Program Executive Officer- Intelligence Electronic Warfare & Sensors on July 1.
The ceremony serves as another chapter in a month of multiple leadership changes for PM EW as in addition to Dupont leaving, three of the subordinate organizations under PM EW are also changing leaders. Product Manager Electronic Warfare Integration’s Col. Joyce Stewart departed and was replaced by Lt. Col. Marc Dorrer; Product Manager Prophet said farewell to Col. Jonathan Slater and welcomed Lt. Col. Eric Bowen and later this month Product Manager CREW will be renamed to Electronic Attack and welcomes Heidi Pavao as their new product director.
The post Dupont leaves at PM EW is the Army’s program management office responsible for supporting the Army, as well as joint, interagency and multinational (JIM) operations, by providing capabilities that enable full spectrum operations. EW capabilities when applied across the warfighting functions provide commanders the capabilities required to address the potential enemy spectrum and cyberspace threats within the joint operational environment.
Systems fielded by PM EW covers the gamut from those designed to protect Soldiers from improvised explosive devices (IEDs) to signals intelligence (SIGINT) assets that provide commanders and Soldiers in the field with an increased understanding of the environment. Programs that kicked off under Dupont’s tenure focus on providing the Army’s new crop of electronic warfare Soldiers with a tool to manage the wide range of EW assets that now proliferate the battlefield. Additionally, the role of cyberspace operations has become more paramount during the past few years and is amongst PM EW’s core missions.
Amongst the numerous successes, the PM EW team accomplished under Dupont’s leadership was the settling in of the overall PM team which at the time of his assuming command had only been at Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG), MD for less than a year following the Base Realignment and Closure move from Fort Monmouth, NJ. “There were just a lot of things that weren’t established, things weren’t well oiled,” said Dupont regarding the state of the organization in 2012. “We have really planted roots here at APG, and that is what it boils down to as we are fixed and I can honestly say that was one of the biggest challenges, but we have definitely overcome that.”
Project Manager EWI and its associated programs serve as another major success that came to fruition in the last few years under PM EW. “We stood up the PM EWI office, lost the money, awarded an Electronic Warfare Planning and Management Tool (EWPMT) contract, were protested three times while at the same time we are getting this mission for Radio Frequency Interference mitigation for the same office. It is impressive they made it through it all and we are now on track with the revised schedule and just recently got requirements for the EWPMT Capability Drop 2 that has gone through the Army and been approved,” said Dupont.
EWPMT is a battle management capability that will support the electronic warfare officer in collaborating and sharing information to decide upon different courses of action across G2/3/6 staffs to provide situational awareness for the brigade combat team (BCT) commander. It brings 29 Series Soldiers (EWOs, warrant officers and NCOs) into the virtual command post computing environment and decreases reliance on nonintegrated tools like PowerPoint and Excel spreadsheets that previously had been used to deconflict and manage a very congested spectrum. Over the course of the past three years while transitioning the CREW and Prophet systems and preparing for future needs with EWPMT and MFEW, PM EW was heavily involved in providing various quick reaction capabilities (QRC) to fulfill critical current needs in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The Thor III and Baldr systems were QRCs fielded which are designed to serve as dismounted CREW devices and due to the their effectiveness the Army ultimately decided to retain as formal Programs of Record (PoR). PM EW also introduced the Ground Auto Targeting Observation Reactive Jammer (GATOR) a system built by the Intelligence, Information Warfare Directorate and then fielded to Afghanistan, which is another asset the Army decided to transition into a PoR to serve as a fixed site offensive electronic attack system. PM EW redesigned the fielded GATOR V2 to V3 to improve its reliability, availability, and maintainability as an enduring solution.
Wolfhound, a direction finding signals intelligence dismounted system, was also fielded as a QRC, which is that the Army decided not to retain. However, since the Prophet program has a dismounted requirement it was brought over into the Prophet PoR to meet their dismounted requirements. In highlighting the value of the QRCs being utilized for continued programs by the Army Dupont noted there was an initial investment with these programs that didn’t go to waste.
As he departed from PM EW Dupont reflected on the work they have done and the road ahead and left the team with the message of, “It’s always about people. We have been successful because of the great team of experts dedicated to their jobs and serving their country. A change of leadership only represents a singular change, the team lives on and so will the success of the organization.”
Dupont’s next assignment will be to serve as the Cyber Acquisition Task Force Trail Boss, which will entail working closely with members of multiple project manager offices to include EW. Hagenston inherits the organization with the addition of cyber being added to the PM’s charter now making it PM EW & Cyber. This assignment will serve as a homecoming of sorts for him as he previously served as the Product Manager for Information Warfare (the fourth subordinate product manager under PM EW).[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]