Acting Army Secretary Adam R. Telle said Monday that each military service has its own strengths, but the Army is the foundation of the joint force.
All strategic power begins and ends where humanity lives — on the land, Mr. Telle told a ballroom filled with soldiers and defense contractors during the opening ceremony of the Association of the U.S. Army conference in Washington.
“Controlling the land is fundamental to humanity,” he said. “The Army does that better than anyone.”
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Over the past 250 years, the technology used to support the American soldier evolved gradually, from muskets to machine guns. Today, U.S. troops can link into a constellation of battlefield sensors, providing them with more real-time data than ever before, Mr. Telle said.
“The pace of change is accelerating faster than humans can comprehend. Both for our soldiers and for those who wish to do them harm,” Mr. Telle said.
He said it is up to the defense industry leaders to provide soldiers with the high-tech weapons and support systems that they need to win the battles of the future.
But that requires doing something about government bureaucracy that all too often is choking off defense innovations, he added.
“Cut the red tape so we can win again,” Mr. Telle said. “We can’t evolve the Army at the speed of government. We have to evolve it at the speed of business. That’s easy to say but really hard to do.”
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