Transcript

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Military Analyst Call lEDs
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Dec. 6,2005 OSD Public Affairs (2E556)
Hosts: Allison Barber
Briefers.
Transcriber: Murphy
ON BACKGROUND

Ms. Barber Hello folks Ifs Allison Barber. We are ready to get started. Thanks so much for
calling in today. I think you have the agenda. We'll open up with-& going to make
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some remarks for us this morning or thls afternoon, and then we'll turn it over to 1
Thank you. sir, for being with us today.

Ms Barter And wbh that, we Igel stanm Please remember i n s is on backgmno Bit we re
happy to lace OJF dest ons feio them and get oack to you with any thing n aooitwn to thls
a f t e r t n e c a l h'

Thanks Allison. In Iraq, over 214,000 members of the Iraqi Security Forces arm
engaged in operations to secure their country and prepare for the Dec. 15 elections. The Iraqi
Ministry of Defense has about 100 battalions -Army, Special Operations, and Strategic
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InfrastructureProtection that are in the fight today.

And over one third of these battalionsare leading operations with U.S. and other Coalition forces
1support

Yesterday, as anotner indicator of progress, the Iraq Air Force flew their frst C-130 m ssion ulth
anal -Iraq crew And eements of the iraq Army's first battalion, first brgaae B'%iviswn.
cornoletea !her T-55 and BMP-1 (80) QunnevQualificationsin oreparaton for the r CondJct of
operations in the western part of iraq.

Iraqi Mm stry of inter or forces are also progressing, with over 112 000 membeis in operat ona
mils ranging from the *el-known special police battalions. of wh cn tnere are 12 to border
forces n ghway palm dignitary protecton and civi mteNenton forces

Today, there are aowoximately 73.000 local and provincial police, which Is about half of what Will
eventually be required throughout the country. Each Iraqi unit has a Coalition transitionteam with
it, and, at both Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Interior there are Coalitionadvisoryteams
focused on strengtheningthese national-levelorganizations

For tne U S we have approximately 156 000 on the ground in iraq today This numbel wrll stay
at about this level mrorgn the (Dec 15) elections Shortly after tne e ections well lransrtmn as
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manv as fve braaoes neariv simuitaneo~sv so the actua n-countrv numbers w11 so he tor a
short time in ~anuaryuntil the outgoing units actually redeploy

In addition to the US., other Coalition partners have 21,000 personnel committedlo operations in
iraq.

As we help the iraq s pan an0 prepare for The upcomingelections,there are some very Fasll~ve
indicatorsof de-spread wmer panicipaton Still s e c ~ r t ypreparations are ongoing, an0 mere
are null ~e omrat oms onaoma in an effort to d s u m terrorists and other enemy forces from what
we believe will be an effortto interferewith the ele&ral process
And to be sure, there have been reports of threats and intimidation.We have seen Iraqi Security
Forces attacked across the country, including the attack on the police academy classroom today
in Baghdad.

But despite these attacks, Iraqi Security Forces continue to improve. There are occasional
setbacks, but the progress is evident and momentum is building.

Operation Sayaid in the Euphrates River Valley is a good example of what can be accomplished
when Coalition and Iraqi security forces work together. From November26th until December 3rd,
from el Qaim to Hadithah to Ramadi, Iraqis and Coalition forces conducted coordinated,
simultaneousoperations which resulted in the establishment of multiple outposts from which the
Iraqi Security Forces can now operate.

Together, Coalition forces and Iraqi Security Forces detained over 1,000, many resulting from tips
provided by local Iraqis.

Almost 300 weapons caches were discovered. But probably most importantly,the people of the
Euphrates River Valley saw their forces - Iraqi Security Forces - operating against the terrorists
in this critical area of the west.

Tne E-pnrates R i-er Va e , remains a a f f c ~ l area

t to secure out tnrodgn Operaton Saya-0
Iraq s nave rnaoe some notao e progress This type of progress s occur ng across me co-nlry
as enerv oa, iraa set-r t, Forces marc" toward the day *hen mew w i oe abe to secire tne r
people and their nation '

Thanks

Ms Barber. And with that-wel' open up to you to talk about the IED Task
Force

IOkay, Allison I assume everybody can hear me okay here.

Ms. Barber. Let me do a check real fast. Is the volume okay for our folks on the call?

Voices Yes Yes, it's good

Ms. Barber Thank you, sir

IOkay, great What Iwanted to do is just take a couple minutes - you saw, I suspect most
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of you saw an announcement that came out of public affairs naming retired four-star General
Montaomerv Meias. United States Armv. to take over as the new head of the Joint Improvised
Expl&ive ~ e v i c e ~ a Force
sk

And there's a couple reasons why we did this But first of all, it's clear to all of you, I suspect, as it
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is clear to us, that the single most significant threat that we face in theater and I say around the
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world, but particularly in Iraq, and we'll probably see more of in the future not probably, we
know we will - are these improvised explosive devices

how Anal Aanteo to -st te ,OJ .s s that bod mag not nave hear0 i n s ever oefore 0-1 I 001 at
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lnese lEDs 1 ,st nappens 10 be a name I cal them Aeapons of in0 sc' m nate 0estr.ct on
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An0 In nn. mat' Is mponani for an0 'TI not tel ng yo. he re cnangmg me name of in 8 task
force tecause everybcdy understands what an iED or this improvised explosive device is but -
i s used and iYs killing a lot dcbllians in addition lo military personnel.
W

ELI rhe prrmary source of U S casdall~esboth mjur es and deaths are from mese IEDS An0 the
h w, bLf
number of c w sn cawabes Wntlnues to Increase, in parlcular ln IWahons s ~ c as
obv~ousy pt. ve seen lnem -sea n other mmtnes arouna me world

Tne "omt !ED Tas6 Force s along w~thme S e ~ ~ c fand f i a1 of DoD IS OesQned lo take on this
en0 l ~ n threat
o Ann t m no1 taIRlngj~s1a b u t technolog~esI am talking abOJ1 mklng at nlel
fadcs l e c h n a m a d orocedures omrat~onalanalvs6 research an0 develoomenl meres a
whole variety of things (hat we're usiig here

Now along with Monty Melgs coming on bard on the ?2Ihof December, and he'll be working full
hme on tn s p a m ~ l ajob r we re gang to g m tne IED Task Force lmabout 175-lsh
m--n o to- o m -
-7-
.
somewhere an mere lo almost 300 peope And parl of tne reason why we l e dolng thls ,s we re
m omomveed..
Center at Fm I w m Cal~forn~a
.. exoloswe
. . . .dewce
. .. . of
. ..center . excelen-
. 021 at lne Nat~omTram na
Ann tns WI I help AS synchmn~zea wd help US lnlegrale
technolmv traom,no m a mncsot develooment franklv wdn not on v me NTC, b d other tram ng
centers g a l l of t h i Sewices ammd t h l country so c a t we in tact& bring about me bssl
, bst equipment, the best techniques the best tactics that we learn iM0 the training
p d ~ c e sme
regime In an even more wmprehms~vem d coherent way.

So, we broughtthat thrwgh the S e m w chiefs; we bmught that thmugh all of the k i m s and
washed it through the lbadership here in the Pentagon. And this is ali p a t of this bmader efbrl to
lmk at these evobing threats in the m&to long-term. in addition lo those that we're dealing wilh
immediateiy.

Just a remi& h e w Again I w i d md-tomd. Thii is meant to be a defeat of the entire IED
system agaln. Wear0 looking at just a b u t anyihing we can. We want to make sure that We
continue and do even a betterjust of sharing best practicesamongst all d o u r tmops, Our forces
that are deployed, and also on the training end of this.

Now for tJm sa6e of time, an0 I know yo4 all want to ask some q~ffitons,I m not go ng 10 go
tnrough r ght here tne history can answer Inat In one of the qLeslfons f w i d Ike of the
evo Lt,onof ln s lass force ELI weve done q. te a b t

We have signlficantiyremoveda l3t of speed bumps, mad blwks, whatever you want to mil il.
we've given General Votei ln the form ofdlrectives slgned by me deputy secretary quite a bit of
authority involvln!j cmtrectlng up to 525 million a pop for litemlly anything we need to execute
w~minthe IED realm

force "as expenned m FY '05 $1 345 ball on an0 agam m F Y 05 on IED In UalNeS a d
The f a s ~
them s a sdmtanua Increase I" tnat for F Y 06 ktween wnat weve got fLnoea manly out of
SuppIementaIs from the Congress, and we're w o ~ n to g spend mat In a very smarl way

I guess with that, rather than me continuing on and talk~nga b u t what this adaptive, innovative
enemy Is like and how we respond to this, and also what inltialives webe got going on, and
talking a b u t m e ofthe succ@ssstories, let me just open it up for quest'wns. Now IS U S W
we're going to get parl of that Is that reasonable Allison?
Ms. Barber P e w .

=OK,

Ms. Barber: T b r s great. Thank yau, sir

=And I think we've got about 15 minutes I& here. And that way we'li have agood 15
minutes afquestions.

Ms. Barber Great.

m o v e r to you

Ms. Barber Tbnks. And with that Vil o w n ~tup for questions, pl8ase.

Q: Alison Bob Waginnis, Questionon shape (7) charge that we saw Geneial Webster over in the
3d I.D. H; showed us one that he'd recovered Dowe have a woking soiution in that regard

-Let --
me just say one thing this .-si before i put-on here. Vm
-you're going to find that I don't like totalk about teohnoicqle that defeat anything. I am a
submarine m c e r myself, and there's an old expresston from WoPd War I1 that 'Loose lips sink
ships," and Vm not, quitefmkly, interesled in reading about shape charges, non-shape charges,
technique and l&nolegles that defeat these devices.

That's where I am And Ijust don't think iYs healthy for our folks, because there's too much that
gets put on the Internet, there's too much that gels distributed.So r m not going to s t in to any
details, and wither ko
-n any of these t y w of discussbns.

Even though you read fi, and somebody may show It to you, you're going to find les9 and less of
tn.s IS go,ng to be snarea &dh yo^ m m s e too much of it gels put in tne press Ana I need your
help fellows, becase we ose p p i e as a iesun of spreaamg some oi this Thls s a very reacbve
enemy, an0 they ~ s what
e they read ln me press ana nteracbvely on the mernet ta espond. in
addnoon to watch ng our m t c s So # s very lmponant to us not to gel lnto these d&a ts I am
sorry but we won't & it,

Ms. Barber: Nexi question?

0 Well let me as* anomer qLestlonthen A1 ason Tne T.72~ (spj that went mlo the 9' Dlvslm, I
heard- say that tne T.55 went tnmJgh s ~ c c e s ftank
~ gmnery a e we golng to find
t n m T.72~ ae ng ~ a s aOW? Thars teen a most two montns, nasn7 fl

T-72s arrNed last month and have k e n

have not yet been hdiy trained and Uuough the
gunnery wxerdw similar to the onelhe T-5% have been. We hliy expect that mat will occur, but I
don? have for you a timeline when that will o w r
Q D "ea Baoo n gong back to the I S S -.
~ OW you aon't want to tatk amdl
tecnnologm Can you ml LS n w y m t e organu ng w~IhGmma Mesgs to get new devwwpments
OLI mto me f &I faster o m contracts done? Yod d n w we hear about eflecwbased bl
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mntract~naand thmas i i e that but-are vou turnma DARPA on fun blast'? HOWare YOU w n g to

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get this st& out to tiie field fast?

Wei , !el me glve qod a w u p k 01 thoughts fmt I am going ta let -go t h l o ~n a WUPle
of t h e e ~ n yhu.,a h Farst of a I I la kec to y a scat
~ the Ihne-ltem author#qm a t d n a s as tne
head of tna Iasa forca an0 that General Melgs wd have to b aoe to slgn JP to $25 mlilon
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wnlracls There age also even lnmgh we have a conlmuing resoluLon gomg on rght now we -
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are making sure, like we do on a mutine daybday basis, mat the coffers are always filled so mat
me IED task force can draw on money wlthout having lo wait for the mm~rollersto fill UP m e
bin. Thats t ~ l c a l l ynot normal In evelyihing we do. So we've cut the time down substan~ailyto
about what when you process a requirement Joe?

?om
Usually we can get it wRhin a b M 13 days

So h a t Iwould tell m u is mats like light s w d here in the Pentagon to be able to get
lo pbt agamst almost any req~mm&t w i need In addmon lo that we nme removed
a n~mberof 1ne h ~ r o fork In s to get washed tnrough the b ~dmg l on- 1%son- 0y-
=Trims why Ins money gets squeezed OJI very iaproly And, d anyin ng exceeos tnm

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onno fi m lo tne .
tnresnolo of $25 mn lhon even on the short wrtod of bme- Joe or Monty Mags M I oe able to
.Deouh -
- . ., nke.thew .,have
..been
. .. 00. .na= and
- the D m-d v,w 1 .,
I o n v s ~ l,l vaulnonze the
expendlure of tnm mder n s personal s~gnatdrebecause he has lhe ne-nern autnonly to 00
that So there s no one an beween them So tnat s a reallv fast-track mecnan,sm ofqeN ng tnese
things out.

-you want to tslk about any other ad&tins?

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Yes S N Tnmk you One of me mmgs Itn n6 yo^ ?a sea a very g& porn1Inere
a b o ~engag
t ng tne otner Department of Defense, an0 qute nooastly tne olhw nalonat assets ln
tns mruc~lard o n an0 one of the trims fhat we are d m 0 n fact oLr f , m wsswn nere son
~ h u k d a vIS we are smnsor~noa nat10;al lab conference ;here we have called ln ail the
Deoartnientof Defenie D e ~ a h e nofl Enerav, the federallvfunded research and development
ceiters, to cane in and (in a sense?) - whal-wek going to.do in a classified sening is bring !heir
scienusls up to speed on where we are with the IED threat, inform them of how unlts are
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opeMing ~nIraq - and Afghanistan I might add and k i l them m e r e we neea mere help

And thn s me second ttme we've done m s wnh me national .obs Ano 11was v e v very tmWI
lhsttdne an0 so tn6 0s no# we reacn O Jto~ theselype of organuatons And of m L n e we nave
a vew m o o lono-tern &on
..,-....-.. . . wtn
. . Inem
. w e nave s m 20 a 1om1ab m r d Secretaw
~ ~

has askeo LS to 006 at me m~d-and bng-lerm research and development sc en- and
, En9 an0 -
technoloov efforts assoc ated wnh t h s em
ranm%l mas e gona to be a bng-Ierm fhleal that we
are g o ~ n $ odeal with. So we have levemgG tho& organiiati& in mat minner

Lel me ust fina ly add tnal tne other 6ey partner om here w th us IS ndusq One of tne fhngs we
are 00 ng and we WIIDe sponsor ng n Jan~aryoownbwn Wash~ngtonIS an nddstry conference
where w I br ng members 01 lno~stryIn In Dolh class~fiedan0 unclassrfw selbngs and aga n
br ng tnem JP to speed on wnere we are wnh the tnreat how we are op~ralogan0 tnen where
we need thmr nelp lo he p LS adoiesa CJnent and future evolv ng threas

= Gbys #f coulo .LSI add to the lnduslq pece, you sho~ldnot take hom wnat Joe satd
tnat we haven t been dealfng d ~ m t ywnh ~nadslqLet me jusl tell ~ O tnat
J I have nad bids ke
IBM come In lo see nle out olhei ma101wmpanles Ike tnal and wnen they talk to me Um s ng e
tn ng tnat want them to wom on IS on IED defeat from an end to.en0 PemFeCwa NOtihfLP -
Raylneon a I K nds of In- mmpanles have mme In to se8 me they go (n to see Jce Vole
conslantly An0 we have hem fmusm~#nlnn area, and have a wnole w oe bar8ety of nflal ves
go~ngon We don 1 ~ sreslnm
l thn to J S nd~stryand .I S partners we l e a so work ng wfln
forelgn partners #no have sane bldy goo0 oeas and wno have aea t wnh this n the Pas1

Finally, we've also expanded thls effort to bring a number of our fedemlly funded research and
development owrations. The Institutefor DefenseAnalysis has just conductedabout an euht-
week study for us on owratbns aspeas, and mefve supewised two other FFRDCS (sp) that
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we've brought In to assist in that the Center for N a a l Fmalysis CNA, and a h RAND
CorpoMion.
Ms. Barber: Great. Next question

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Q This !s Gordm C L Clu~ nave one mat I g& a I me t me t o m audiences A m I don t k n w that
tnls lals nto the technoog~calor mtel area that yo^ prefer not to OISCUSS 0-1 most Amencans

g ~ y ~ a r i g i ~ l n ~ & h i o b &~ ii ~ ~ o i - f t i r i i u ~ din""&,

ithe & do yoimink that most of this
is an indigenous development program?

Lâ‚ me answer il this way, First of all, I think it's implant, Gordon, that you m n i z e
that these improvised explosivedevices have been around in a variely of way%for a w r y long
time.

They are jdst- .n some cases they am another form of a m ne they are anmner b m of a boobp
trap A veh~ce-mnemprov8ed exposwe dewce d.nng World War I1 was a kamwaze WBve
ha0 vehcle svsmms mat have men used as vou know m Berut Northem Irebnd, Isma1 an0
many other &ions. So it lsn7 like these thiigs are new

Do we see some ofthe technologies coming in from olher country or other areas? AbsolUlely.
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And that's why and what I mean by other areas, we see this being proliferated on some of the
web sites.

Q: Oh, okay, so that - in effect a virtual technologicalsuppurl for thew thugs thars gbbal in
SCOp07

= Exactly And that$ why yodre see ng us k ng oncm bly sens~wean0 were trymg to
ma6e sum that oar fdks are sensnnve w not lalk a b u t the sce~if~cs
olwea~ons,me IYPS of
weawns the form of the Ieffects or any of tnat stuff h u s e th~ss t ~ lgets
f spread almost
instantly.

a: Yeah, I can see mat. Thank you.

=you're welcome.

Ms. Barber Next question, please.

Q Admual Cnwk Nasn Gnl a qLesvon a004 the rnakedp of the b k s who are W r h g n 1hlS
whole CID ( 7 ) task b c e rs thw a pnmary job? Is tn $ the~rf~ I ~GCLS?
Or are a lot of these fo ks

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wnrk~ngcollateralduties?

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Let me say to you this way, Chuck, the purpose of this task force IS their job 1s to wake
UD everv momina and work on this lull time. no other collateral assianments; they are s u m &
to go tcbed eve6 night worrying aboul whkthe hell they didn7&mplish dur~ngthe day Joe
Vote1 here has got veq significant personnel wntrol over the assignments; he can expnd people
-thats part of these set of authorities. Joe probably- how many times was m e b n d y going 10
transfer you, Joe, a detailer?

=
-Too many to count.

Too many to count He's a Ranger, and he'd like to k back with the Ranwrs, but he's

=
=TWO
T m and a half years.
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been dedicated to this now, what two years n w ?

and a hif years doing this. And mis is -just a b u t nothing else that I see thHS
more Imwrtantthan this job. In fact, we joke wlth Joe, the Deputy and I, that i f we weren'tdoing
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ourjobs, we'd be doing his job, because m#s how i m p l a n t we think this is, And that's the way
this task force is s u p p e d to deal with this.

So we want personnelstability, full-time d e d i i i o n l o it, and we want continully and bngevity in

me assignments. Joe?

oeoo
.. e.mat
srr I tn8nk wu\e covered most MIL Iwou~djustadd that the most m w n t resource
tha~we have in n e e - allhodgn we aremken care 01 vefy we1 wlth our financla aspects - ns tne
.we .nave
..w .m m-.on tne
. .IS% force
... And .we.have
. - been
-~~ o

res ae not bat In the Armv b ~Int the omer in nt S ~ N o I ~tnere

wmmuni$ as well, as w&e seing with ~ i n e r aMeigs

And we are reachln~

l here
~t
n a mnsmnt and wnslslent
search for peope *no have expenise m the vaflobs areas tnat are nvolved an th~san0 they
an0 n some of 0-r retored

out to get the very v e v k t people that we can, gel them Involved in this
and then keep them Involved In thls so mat we do presem continuity ofthe &d.

-Guys one as1commenl on the. pancular area Yob may be merested IJS~to read a IdUe
bjt a b u t Monty Megs backgmuno but ne wrote a book when he was at Nabona Defense
Unrverstv caled Sl& Rubs and Submarines A ~ IOknow 11s ava! ao e odt d vou reao 11 YOJ1 I
~robablv~learn one of the reasons whv we hired him to wme back and do this cn addltlonto him
b m g a i m star, in addtliin to him hiving served as a wmbatant commander in Korea, ln
addaim to him wmmanding troops and large formationsand the rest, you'll see hls analyiic skills
and the rest, and that's one of the reasons we why brought him back. So if you're interesled, you
might pick that b m k up, you'll k?am afwthings.

Ms. Barber: Great, And we pmbabty have time for one or two more questions if there's anyihing
else on your mind on the call?

Q:Allison, o m last auestion. Bob Maainnis. The IED lask forceon the wound in Iraq piovldins
t mdy fewback on the most rewnt -imaud~be ) are we capt~rlngthat i n 0 w I1tnal ce In& In lo
what -oe vote s do ng Inere on the gmuno 0 F O ~ Ilwm and feed oack ngnt a ~ a y WnaYs
? tne
sod of smse of t me1ness an0 w l ect ng exwrbse WB ve been able lo dlp ln to over In raq?

F R Look b b , that is exactly right. And me wrnerstone ofme whole elfad really are - IS the
onvar earns that we have in Iraq and Afghanistanwhoare out mere working wblh units,
gathering inlormatkm, helpingdisseminatefirst within meater and then dismlnatlng back here
to us. And we use a varietv of means to do that - s i m ~ l esoldcer solutions like newsietlersthat
can get out vefy qulckly tldisseminate Infomation in'theater, and then of course all the way to
the use of the classbl~dnet t h a we have available l o us to send lnfomatwn stralght to the
combat trainlng centers.

Interest ngly I ha0 an oppon~nllytoralk to Boo Conen (sp) the wmmander odt at NTC, last
week One of the thlngs we are work ng s mak ng SJE that we get some of he. ObSeNef
conto lers embedded mto out teams lo help tam Itale that pmcess and move Informaton very
very q. cky

We ho!d o u ~ A v e lo
s very h'uh standards moving money, and we want to dothe same Wmg with

=
mwing good w c t i m as well. That's awry, very imporlard aspect to what we're Wing to do.

m~ghtmmson one last tn ng I falea lo menbon oebre I" mclud ng lmd~stryn (an@tne
rest of !lThm s n w gownmen1 Eul we a so are m n g a s~gmficantamounl of me .olnt CentBr
for ODeratinal Analvs~skssons learned amm thars down I" Jomt Forces Command ln NodolK,
my oid wmmard. hey are woking with h ;e& federally funded research and development
operations, CNA, RAND and IDA, to help do the operationalanalysis on this piece.

Ms. Earber. Gmal And with hat -

 -
Q Chuck Nash To follow up on that admiral the analysis piece to this There are some
e s tnere mat prooablj nave no"-k n e w col atera effects Ana Anen yoi, IOOK
l e c n n o ~ ~ i 0-1 at the
ana fs s ana mov ng forwara * i n some of the new technologies inat are Present ng r.. es of
*
engagement tn nqs I <e that could VOL address now tnose 11 be defe opea ana tnen womea
into the training process?

I think the way to describe that, Chuck, is that you'll see us work through concepts out at
NTC, between there and places like the Yuma Proving Ground, where we put those together In a
way that we can test them out, we can train to them, and then we deploy.

We -e oone some of tnat a reaay I snod a say Joe "as done that w th n s ED l a m force an0 nas
dep oyea terns to tneater n inat fashion in usmg lhai basic construct a reaoy ..oe yoa want to
add anything to that7

-No, I think that's exactly the idea. And I think that's the power of what we're trying to
use the combat training centers to help us with. You know, each of the Services do have combat
training centers They can provide expertise into this and so our intention is to work through those
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very type issues that you raised the rules of engagement, the escalation of force, other type
issues associated with these solutions in a training environment so that we can provide not only
good technologies, but a good concept of operations to the fielded force

Ms Barber Great. And with that we'll close for today. Folks, thanks for calling in. Admiral, thank
you for your time.

-Thank you very much Good talking to you guys