R&D command seeks better coordination of research.

• Author: Kennedy, Harold
• Position: Army

* ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. -- The Army's Research, Development and Engineering Command, established here nearly three years ago, is concentrating on improving coordination of the service's sprawling science and technology programs, said its chief, Maj. Gen. Roger A. Nadeau.

The command is coalescing, Nadeau told National Defense, but it will be a while before everybody is marching entirely in step. "We're very much a work in progress," he said.

RDECOM is responsible for 75 percent of the Army's science and technology programs. With a budget of $3.5 billion and a workforce of 30,000 soldiers, civilian employees and contractors, it gathers under one umbrella for the first time a dozen or so major laboratories and research-and-engineering centers scattered around the United States, plus operations elsewhere around the world

RDECOM is part of the Army Materiel Command, the service's primary provider of technology development, acquisition and support, and it was cobbled together from existing units within the AMC.

"All of these organizations existed before this headquarters, and they all do good work," Nadeau said. "But they weren't always talking to each other. What this headquarters can do is facilitate communications between them."

For example, Nadeau pointed out, RDECOM has begun conducting quarterly internal program reviews attended by representatives from all of its facilities. The reviews are held at a different center each time. "That gives exposure to every center, one at a time, so they can see each other's resources," he explained.

RDECOM also coordinates its work with the AMC's life-cycle management commands for aviation and missiles, communications and electronics, and tanks, automobiles and armaments. The AMC created these commands in 2004 to consolidate in one organization the people responsible for developing systems and those who maintain them after they are built.

The idea is to speed up and simply the fielding and maintenance of equipment, Nadeau said. "We want to get the technology out of the laboratories and into the hands of soldiers in the shortest time.

He pointed out that nine of the 10 of the Army's "greatest inventions of 2005," which were announced in June, were developed by RDECOM. They included:

M1 Fixed-Site and M2 Vehicle-Mounted Gunfire Detection System. The GDS was designed to counter enemy snipers. It collects the acoustic waves of a gunshot in a complete 360 degrees of coverage and provides the exact...