By Megan Clark | PEO IEW&S Strategic Communications
Program Executive Office for Intelligence, Electronic Warfare & Sensors recently hosted its third-ever Voice of the Customer (VOTC) meeting online and at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland.
The event brought together PEO IEW&S stakeholders including Project Managers (PMs), Army Capability Managers (ACMs), Capability Development Integration Directorates (CDIDs), and representatives from the major Army Science & Technology laboratories to provide a forum for the customers (PMs and CDIDs) to present their wants, needs, and gaps. They were also able to have open discussions with other members of the S&T community, who directly supports PEO IEW&S missions. Over 140 attendees participated both online and in-person.
The VOTC meeting is similar to other industry-focused events that PEO IEW&S hosts, according to Adam Terio, S&T lead for PEO IEW&S, but with a special focus on the S&T community.
“These are opportunities for our PEO to reach out to organizations who can provide our PMs with new technology and capabilities,” Terio said. “The key difference is that the S&T community represents government organizations investing Army research and development resources into solving Army problems. Industry is well positioned to meet many warfighter needs, but some technical challenges require more specialized expertise than what industry is able to invest in. That’s where our partners at Army laboratories and research centers can provide world-class innovation to give Soldiers that technical edge.”
Nearly every customer organization in attendance identified needs for Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML) to aid in faster decision making and sort through sensor data being produced on the battlefield, according to Terio. Another common theme that came up was the need for systems to operate in Denied, Disrupted, Intermittent, and Limited environments.
Marc Busala, a technical director for Project Director Sensors-Aerial Intelligence and a presenter at the VOTC meeting, said it’s a bit too early to say concretely how this meeting will affect the future.
“What we do know is that we all share a lot of the same gaps,” Busala said. “We also know that the S&T community is listening.”
The two-day meeting concluded with a general consensus that there is a huge need to “close the loop” after labs generate the Program Objective Memorandum submissions to validate that the efforts they are pursuing are aligned to the capability gaps put forth during the discussions.
“For the PMs in our PEO to meet emerging warfighter needs, they need the S&T community to invest in those capabilities several years before they are needed,” Terio said. “It’s not always possible to anticipate what those needs will be. But this event allows the PMs to inform the S&T community of what technologies they anticipate needing in the next 5-10 years so that [S&T folks] can begin those investments today.”
It’s crucial to maintain an open dialogue between the user community, PMs, and the S&T community to ensure everyone is coordinated and working together, Terio continued.
“Looking to the future, I’m looking forward to keeping this dialogue going,” Terio said. “Because, as they say, acquisition is a team sport!”