Wednesday, May 4th

9:00 AM

Sustainment Technology Program Panel Abstract

In the current era of global strategic competition, the Department of Defense (DOD) is applying new ways to ensure that expanding capabilities are more rapidly brought to bear to improve readiness across our various platforms. Understanding that incorporating new and increasing capabilities at speed is not easy, the military services are working in a coordinated manner to deliver sustainment solutions.

Evolving and emerging technology sectors (e.g., robotics, artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing…) are reshaping many sustainment processes across the DOD. The coordination necessary to achieve maximum scale are underway to enable the speed and extent required. These ambitious efforts will impact the workforce, processes, cybersecurity, technical rigor, permitting, funding, and many other facets that must be expediently addressed.

Don’t miss this insightful panel discussion with the DOD’s Joint Technology Exchange Group principals, as they are on the frontlines honing the integrated approach to accelerate capabilities transition, and transform our readiness approaches. The panel will discuss the normal challenges associated with bringing new solutions to the DOD as well as the first sprint efforts being advanced to fast-track the learning for the Sustainment Technology Program.

10:45 AM

Modernizing the Organic Industrial Base (OIB) Panel

The National Defense Strategy calls for improving the readiness posture of DOD’s weapon systems through innovative and sustainable methods and processes.  A healthy organic defense manufacturing industrial base is essential to the strength of our armed forces, achievable by modernizing and innovating the organic industrial base (OIB) to remain relevant, competitive, and cost-effective.  The 19 major maintenance depots and arsenals that constitute DOD’s OIB need attention, since many have not had a major update since World War II.  Through novel tools that enable the modeling and simulation of process operations, many maintenance facilities across the OIB are now working to optimize MRO processes and are investing in tools and technologies that maximize production at the best overall cost.  Similar modeling and simulation tools are being employed to redesign maintenance facilities to accommodate these processes and tools.  Armed with these advanced forward-looking technologies, the OIB and supporting maintenance facilities can now plan for, prioritize, budget, and integrate maintenance process improvements and bring best-in-class technologies and tools to bear while sustaining America’s fighting force.  This session will identify various elements essential for the nation to maintain a non-commercially dependent, robust defense manufacturing industrial base and explore the steps necessary to mitigate any gaps using the organic industrial base—now and in the future.

1:00 PM

CBM+/Predictive Maintenance Panel

The DOD currently performs maintenance much as General Washington’s Continental Army did; unscheduled maintenance is prevalent and when a system breaks, maintainers react by troubleshooting and correcting the problem. This legacy maintenance scenario is the leading driver of weapon system non-availability and exorbitant sustainment costs. With rapid advances in sensor technologies, as well as artificial intelligence and data science, predictive maintenance is now within reach. The DOD recently completely revamped condition-based maintenance plus (CBM+) policy to accelerate the adoption, integration and use of these transformative capabilities and shift from largely reactive maintenance to proactive and predictive maintenance.  Service leadership is staunchly committed to implementing and executing CBM+ across their vast sea-going, aviation and ground-system enterprises. Legacy platforms like the KC-135 and new systems like the Littoral Combat ship are proving that predictive maintenance will become the new normal across DOD in the years to come. This session will discuss next steps for wider implementation of CBM+/Predictive Maintenance, so that more maintainers in the field and in the depots will have the insight necessary to pinpoint maintenance requirements and ensure they have the right parts, right tools, and the right skills to quickly and efficiently return equipment to operations.  

3:00 PM

Advanced Manufacturing/Additive Manufacturing Panel

Additive manufacturing (AM) is changing the very nature of what can be manufactured and how the manufacturing process gets executed. When effectively adopted and integrated into operations, AM and other advanced manufacturing capabilities provide a path for US-based companies to cost-effectively “on-shore” manufacturing and sustainment operations. Utilizing AM, in particular, results in low material waste, as well as reductions in design complexities, lead times, and overall weight.   It’s no wonder the DOD seeks more ways to modernize sustainment operations with advanced and additive manufacturing technologies and processes.  This session will explore recent successes and identify ways the DOD intends to next expand on these strategies.

Thursday, May 5th

9:00 AM

Energy / Environmental Health & Safety Panel

A robust and sustainable DoD Organic Industrial Base and field-level sustainment operations require the use of materials and processes that protect worker safety and health. Additional efforts are also needed to minimize hazardous waste generation and disposal costs, and to maximize energy availability and efficiency. Worker safety and health has been brought even further to the forefront during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the expanded need for (and shortages of) effective personal protective equipment (PPE) impacting maintenance operations and weapon system readiness. Rapid advances have been made in PPE technology, process automation, environmentally friendly materials and processes, and energy-efficient equipment, but implementation often gets delayed by outdated processes. Efforts are underway to further develop, validate, and deploy the latest technologies with the agility necessary to secure and maintain dominance in our rapidly changing world.

10:45 AM

NavalX and the Tech Bridge Network

NavalX serves the US Department of the Navy (DoN) and Marine Corps as the innovation and agility cell to address DoN challenges with expert solution providers. NavalX aims to be a guiding platform to facilitate culture change for the DoN to be a more agile and adaptable organization. The initiative comprises a network of 17 tech bridges and 6 centers for adaptive warfighting. This network serves as super connectors between the DoN and defense ecosystem partners (including nonprofits, non-traditional industry partners, and academia). This panel will look at NavalX goals, objectives, and recent successes via discussion with NavalX leadership and representatives of several tech bridges.

1:30 PM

Sustainable Modernization of Weapons Systems Panel

Obsolescence management at DOD has become an ever-increasing cost in terms of money, resources, and supply line security. DOD must equip our military with highly capable weapons systems, which requires the use of leading-edge technology that brings with it an elevated risk of obsolescence. When weapons systems components become unprocurable, that not only creates an inconvenience, but also can cause loss of life and operational mission failure. Continually re-designing and safely qualifying new weapons systems imposes long lead times that are at odds with increasingly shorter life cycles. A new approach to obsolescence-resistant design is required. Military weapons platforms require a more predictable and cost-effective supply chain, and the path for both factors begins with a design process that balances obsolescence management with performance. With today’s focus on reuse, recycle, and sustainment, the option to re-engineer and refurbish rather than scrapping an obsolete product is an economically sound one. The automotive industry has used this idea for decades, developing new vehicles on already existing chasses and platforms, thus saving some cost over a complete redesign. The computer industry has also utilized the refurbishment option by upgrading the software while maintaining the hardware. This session will discuss how the notion of re-engineering can become a long-term philosophy. It will explore how more cost-saving and environmentally friendly options can be transferred into military use.

3:00 PM

Improved Business Operations Panel

The US Industrial Base has spent billions of dollars on IT upgrades for logistics management, maintenance and sustainment, financial, and numerous other operational processes. Investment in these technologies is intended to improve and streamline business decision-making by giving stakeholders access to more relevant data on which to base their decisions. Use of up-to-date data from a synchronized set of systems allows cost reductions and lower turnaround times for repair and sustainment of critical assets and equipment.  The world continues to experience an ongoing information revolution with new IT capabilities that merge disparate data types and analyze information, which provides greater insight to decision makers.  New Industry 4.0 concepts, coupled with the Internet of Things (IOT), machine learning, artificial intelligence, and ever-expanding bandwidth and speed are enabling significant advancements in business IT and analytic capabilities.  These improvements can radically change the very nature of when and how maintenance is executed. This session will look at recent successes and opportunities for further improvements that can allow the sustainment community to further maximize weapon system readiness and reliability for every maintenance dollar spent.