Tactical Power Requirements Present Immense Challenge

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From meeting the energy needs of military personnel to the powering of small bases in the field, the challenges of meeting all tactical power requirements for the US military are both varied and immense.

 Michael A. Gallagher, Program Manager, Expeditionary Power Systems for the Marine Corps Systems Command (MCSC), recently spoke to IDGA regarding how the Marines confront these challenges.  The MCSC is the Commandant of the Marine Corps' agent for acquisition and sustainment of systems and equipment used to accomplish the Corps’ warfighting mission.

Mr. Gallagher says there are two primary priorities in acquisition:   to address immediate needs with known power solutions, while evaluating future concepts/experimentation in this area. The challenge, he says, is balancing those priorities—and doing so requires a three-step process.

 The first step, he says, is for the Deputy Commandant of Combat Development to act in response to requests from the operating forces—whatever urgent needs are communicated have to be addressed as efficiently as possible. Secondly, the Commandant of the Marine conducts an annual prioritization that seeks to balance the various priorities of the Corps, including the priorities governing tactical power. Third, there is an established planning, programming and budgeting process that “sorts, ranks and allocates future year program resources,” he says.  Collectively, these steps should provide a process for balancing known sources of tactical power with other emerging technologies.

 There are entities apart from the Marine Corps Systems Command that offers instructive prioritization as well, Mr. Gallagher adds.  For example, Science and Technology is executed by the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory and the Office of Naval Research.  These organizations have their own annual processes that prioritize technology objectives and investment strategy.

 Not surprisingly, rapidly rising energy costs impact the nature and extent of acquisition programs, sometimes significantly.

 At the macro level, says Mr. Gallagher, rising costs affect top line funding authority for what the Services are authorized and appropriated to procure.   “At the day-to-day execution level, new acquisition policy and procedures are very specific,” he says, so Program Managers (PM) must now “address affordability in all phases of a program, from research, to procurement, and during operational support.”

 The PM is directed to do trade-studies and address life cycle costs for all combat systems, he explains, and must now include energy costs in life cycle cost estimates.  In addition, during the early phases of program definition and technology development, the PM must also address and conduct assessments for energy consumption, with the goal of energy efficiency in all subsequent program phases.

 Increased energy efficient can perhaps be realized to the greatest extent through renewable energy technology. 

Renewable energy initiatives provide “an approach to efficiency achievement that can support our current and future energy requirements,” says Mr. Gallagher, adding that they also have ramifications on other program attributes, such as transportability, safety, human factors, and logistics supportability.

“All aspects are to be considered in arriving at a preferred technical solution, which eventually evolves into a system configuration,” he says.  “Renewable energy sources compete with other traditional (fuel fired, battery) and future energy sources to see which best meets the operational requirement, in a cost effective, affordable, and supportable programmatic approach.”

 According to Mr. Gallagher, in all of these areas the opportunities for business to address the acquisition needs of the Marine Corps Systems Command—and other analogous service entities—are vast.

Michael A. Gallagher is the Program Manager, Expeditionary Power Systems, for the Marine Corps Systems Command.  He will be a speaker at IDGA’s 9^thAnnual Tactical Power Sources Summit, to be held January 23-25, 2012 in Alexandria, Vir.

Contributor:   Christopher Dauer

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