Vendors convene in the desert for Army 'Rodeo'.

• Author: Magnuson, Stew
• Position: UPFRONT

YUMA PROVING GROUND, Ariz.--Informally, it's known as the "truck rodeo," but the Army prefers to call it the more official sounding "expedited modernization initiative procedure," or EMIP.

With 65 vendors over the course of five days displaying their wares here among the scrub brush and cacti in the Arizona desert, the EMIP resembles a trade show, except instead of booths in a conference center, sales reps stand along the road behind rocks waiting for program managers to stop by and check out their cutting edge technologies.

"The great thing about the EMIP demos is that it provides a focused and standardized approach," said John Mcleish, the Army's assistant project manager for EMIP. "This process allows us to identify technologies the Army might otherwise be unaware of and potentially insert advanced technologies having military merit as quickly as possible."

The tank-automotive and armaments command (TACOM) considers the EMIP a key part of its effort to identify and leverage industry's investments in advanced technologies and speed them to the field.

Chris Yakes, senior project engineer at Oshkosh Truck Corp., of Oshkosh, Wis., said that for potential contractors, the EMIP is a good opportunity to display the company's new technologies to Army program managers.

"They can see the technology operate, and they can provide feedback right away to the decision makers in the Army," Yakes said.

About two dozen Army acquisition officials, identified by black EMIP baseball caps, make the rounds throughout the day with clipboards, stopping to hear vendors make their pitch. Even though most of the briefings take place on the side of dusty roads, portable generators are available to provide electricity for PowerPoint talks.

The "black hats," as they're informally known, fill out forms, check off items on their list as they listen to presentations or watch the demonstrations, compiling what they call "market research."

The technologies can be everything from relatively low-tech new ways to hitch trailers to trucks to on-board computers and radars that autonomously steer 12-ton trucks.

TACOM is looking for previously undemonstrated technologies that can improve safety, survivability, reliability and mission readiness, and that can be available for production within six months of completing the verification process.

Some of the technologies are now available to commercial truck fleets. Many of them seek to address specific problems being encountered in...