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WASHINGTON, D.C. (April 3, 2009) - A new Army
task force is focused on ensuring continuity and synchronization
across the procurement process for Soldier protective gear.
Task Force Soldier Protection, announced March 12 during a media
roundtable at the Pentagon, falls under Program Executive Office
Soldier -- an Army agency responsible for developing, procuring,
fielding and sustaining virtually all things carried and worn by
Soldiers. Al Dassonville heads up the new task force.
"I look forward to the challenge of running this task force --
synchronizing all of our resources across the Department of Defense
-- to make sure we maintain the highest standards for our Soldier
protective equipment and to ensure we have got all the appropriate
resources synchronized to bring the best world-class equipment to
Soldiers," Dassonville said.
The new task force will ensure that Army standards and policies
for procurement of Soldier protective gear -- including such things
as body armor, helmets and eyewear -- are followed across the
entire chain of agencies and organizations involved in fielding
such equipment.
"We are trying to ensure we maintain synchronized and
well-communicated and well-integrated actions associated with
Soldier protection items," said Brig. Gen. Peter N. Fuller, Program
Executive Officer Soldier. "We are stepping up the game."
According to Dassonville, top priorities for the task force
include ensuring that contracting, testing and quality control of
protective gear are conducted appropriately and efficiently; and
ensuring that quality control continues to follow Army standards
across all agencies involved in procurement of protective gear.
"It is easy enough to write a standard," Dassonville said. "It
is one thing to write it -- it is another thing to go back and make
sure everybody involved in the process understands it and does it.
That is the other part that this task force is going to do."
Across the Department of Defense, there are multiple
organizations involved with getting a new idea for Soldier
protective gear into the hands of a Soldier, Fuller said. He
explained that from the inception of a new piece of gear to the
placing of that gear into a Soldier's hands, there are agencies
that develop items, write contracts, produce equipment and test
it.
Not all of those organizations are strictly Army organizations.
But the goal of Task Force Soldier Protection is to ensure they all
know what their mission is, and that they all are following the
same set of strict Army guidelines for Soldier protective gear,
Fuller said.
"The point of TFSP is to synchronize and integrate all the
stakeholders working on Soldier protection items," said Fuller. "We
want to make sure everybody is working on the same thing and
understands what the left and right are doing in relation to what
they are working on. The Army wants to ensure that the highest
standards are consistently applied to all processes related to
Soldiers' survivability equipment."
Task Force Soldier Protection is currently intended as a
temporary organization. In June, the results of the task force will
be reviewed, officials said. A decision to dissolve or continue the
task force will be made at that time.
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