File:CERDEC CP&I Director talks Mission Command (23380620160).jpg

Gary Blohm, director of CERDEC's Command, Power & Integration Directorate, spoke to local government and industry representatives at the AFCEA Aberdeen December luncheon yesterday.

Blohm shared how his previous position in Office of the Army Chief Information Officer/G-6 as the Army IT Architect and Chief Data Officer contributed to the direction of IT and Data in the U.S. Army and how that direction impacts CP&I's work in enabling Soldiers to Mission Command the Operation. He discussed the importance of the Army Network and Data Strategies, the Army Information Architecture, and the Common Operating Environment, explaining how the associated Computing Environments will impact science, technology, and iterative design and testing.

All this work is pertinent to key stakeholders throughout the Army - such as the Maneuver Center of Excellence at Fort Benning, the U.S. Army Mission Command Battle Lab at Fort Leavenworth and the U.S. Army Cyber Center of Excellence at Fort Gordon - as it will enable Joint, expeditionary mission command that is securely connected to the network, thus requiring new approaches to ensure that data is visible, understandable, trusted and interoperable. Blohm also emphasized the need for industry feedback on these architectures that span all of the Army Enterprise.