The US Army held a TiC demo at its Project Convergence Capstone 5 event at Ft. Irwin, Calif., earlier this month. (Ashley Roque/Breaking Defense)
WASHINGTON — Now that lawmakers have signed off on a full-year continuing resolution (CR), US Army officials are weighing their options for how to pay for the second iteration of the service’s “transformation in contact” effort — one that they plan to be larger than last year, according to a three-star general.
“Is a full-year CR going to have an impact? Yes, it is,” Deputy Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Karl Gingrich told an audience today during the McAleese defense programs conference.
“Is it going to have a dramatic impact? In my opinion, no,” he added. “And why is that? Because we have worked with [the Office of the Secretary of Defense] OSD, and we really appreciate Congress and the allocation of replenishment funding.”
Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George launched the TiC effort last year, as a fundamental backbone of his service’s attempt to get new technologies into the hands of soldiers faster. At its core, the concept is that, rather than waiting for technologies to be proven out in safe research and development spaces for years before going out to the field, George wants to see soldiers operating these systems in real world conditions to better understand and develop how they can be used.
The first iteration provided three infantry units with newer equipment — Infantry Squad Vehicles, robotic mules, drones and more — and had them test it out in both hot and cold temperatures.
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“TiC is very, very valuable to us because we can do it in formation after formation after formation,” George told Breaking Defense during a March 13 interview. “We can also do it in every different environment, like Europe, [the Indo-Pacific Command] INDOPACOM, stateside [or] in the Arctic… that’s the real advantage of TiC.”
George and other service leaders want to expand that experimentation this year under the TiC 2.0 banner, and hand soldiers a slew of new technology to test out in the sustainment, automation and ground autonomy arenas. That plan also includes a larger footprint by expanding to two armored brigade combat teams, two Stryker brigade combat teams, and other units in the Guard and Reserves.
To do that, the Army needs dollars to acquire more tech for more soldiers. However, lawmakers have punted on approving a FY25 spending bill for the Department of Defense and, instead, last week approved a full year CR that provides the department with a slight funding boost over FY24 levels and the flexibility to proceed with new start new programs.
The Army, Gingrich explained, is now analyzing the FY25 CR alongside the capabilities it wants to buy and field soldiers under the TIC 2.0 umbrella.
“We’re still doing the analysis there of what does it mean, and what, how much and where can we move monies,” Gingrich said.
“If we need to go through the reprogramming or transfer, … that may slow us down a little bit there, but I think the replenishment tranche funding that we’re getting is going to allow us to kickstart [it].”
