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By John Higgins, PEO IEW&S Public Affairs

It is a challenge for any person or organization to live up to the expectations of others. But a greater challenge than that is living up to one’s own standards.

The Vision statement of Program Executive Office Intelligence, Electronic Warfare & Sensor (PEO IEW&S) is “Outpace the threat with technical excellence, adaptability, and rapid solutions that support a broad range of operating environments”

Now while that may be a long and complex sentence, it describes one of the most complex PEO’s in the Army perfectly.

For their efforts, the PEO IEW&S team has been awarded the Army Superior Unit Award. The award period was August 2014 to August 2016, and in that time the PEO has developed, tested and fielded Soldier supporting equipment from over 80 Programs of Record (POR) and Quick Reaction Capabilities (QRCs).

PEO IEW&S has supported, United States Central Command (CENTCOM), Special Operations Command (SOCOM), the Department of Homeland Security and many other defense and law enforcement organizations in the United States. The reach of their technology has spread to 13 countries with more than 800 personnel serving outside the continental United States (OCONUS). Those dedicated personnel of Soldiers, DA Civilians and contractors ensure equipment functions well, and that Soldiers have the right training to use that equipment.

That’s a common theme in PEO IEW&S’ successes. Team work. In fact, the PEO is a “team of teams” with six project managers fielding billions of dollars of equipment to ensure the odds are consistently in the Soldier’s favor.

Project Manager Aircraft Survivability Equipment (PM ASE) has provided some of the best systems for protecting rotary and fixed wing aircraft. The “best” is no exaggeration: from August 2014 to August 2016 there were no losses of either aircraft type to missile systems. This is no accident, as PM ASE works constantly to outpace threats, working with SOCOM to meet Joint Urgent Operational Needs (JOUNs) that closed critical gaps in aircraft defense.

Project Manager Distributed Common Ground System Army (PM DCGS-A) has been working hard to improve their flag ship system, fielding it to 56,000 Military Intelligence Corps Soldiers with more than 14,000 upgraded to system to improve readiness and effectiveness. In addition, PM DCGS-A fielded the Machine Foreign Language Translation System (MFLTS) to the 10th Mountain Division, augmenting their abilities overseas as part of Operation Inherent Resolve. MFLTS is a Solider mounted system and application that allows a Soldier to speak and understand a foreign language, such as Arabic, at the basic level, saving time and effort and freeing up linguists for more complex language missions.

PEO IEW&S also has a robust cyber warfare component in Project Manager Electronic Warfare and Cyber (PM EW&C). They field and maintain a critical piece of modern war fighting equipment, the Counter-Radio Controlled Improvised Electronic Warfare (CREW) systems, that block the remote detonations of improvised explosive devices. In addition, PM EW&C has developed the Electronic Warfare Planning and Management Tool (EWPMT) that can be used to plan coordinate, manage, de-conflict and synchronize electronic warfare mission command and electromagnetic spectrum management operations.

The Project Management office for DoD Biometrics (PM DoD Biometrics) designs, engineers, acquires, deploys, and sustains enterprise biometric solutions in multiple operating environments and also supports Department of Justice (DoJ), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and Department of State (DoS). Biometrics is a critical tool for stopping terrorism; when their biometric data is captured, they are rendered useless to completing a terrorist organization’s objectives. In addition, they can track personnel globally as needed.

While Biometrics gathers data on people, Project Manager Terrestrial Sensors (PM TS) gathers data about land and the people on that land. PM TS enables the Army to understand the battlefield by providing state-of-the-art intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) and survey capabilities to support the Warfighter. Their extensive portfolio brings in an abundance of high definition imagery and video to ensure Soldiers are always at least one step ahead of enemy forces. In addition, they also field the Husky Mounted Detection System (HMDS) a vehicle with ground penetrating radar that can detect buried IED’s that has saved countless lives in theater.

Another Project Manager that gathers intelligence in abundance is Project Manager Sensors-Aerial Intelligence. They fill the skies with manned and unmanned Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR), the workforce of PM SAI directly supported 50,000 hours of airborne ISR during the aware period for combat commanders in theater, having a direct, positive impact on National Security, Soldier safety and overall readiness.

This merely scratches the surface of everything the PM’s and PEO IEW&S does for the Army. “Stephen Hawking once said, ‘I think the next century will be the century of complexity’ his words could not have been more profound in the 21st Century.” said Maj. Gen. Kirk Vollmecke, the Program Executive Officer for IEW&S. “The men and women of this PEO are deeply committed to tackling the toughest military IEW&S equipment or solution problems by their tenacious will, technical excellence and abilities to deliver now.”[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]