Command Profile: PM TRASYS
MT2 2008 Volume: 13 Issue: 2 (March/April)
Colonel Frank Kelley, USMC, PM TRASYS
The mission of the command is to improve the warfighting effectiveness of the MAGTF and globally deployed maritime expeditionary forces by providing training support and developing and sustaining training systems and devices.
Q: PM TRASYS’s role has changed significantly since its establishment in 2001. What are the drivers behind the current mission, and how are you organized to execute the mission?
A: Well the world has changed significantly since 2001. The events of 9/11 have changed our country and the international security environment forever. We have been a nation at war for quite some time. Our Marine Corps will grow to 202,000 Marines. As a program manager for Marine Corps Systems Command [MARCORSYSCOM] it is our responsibility to meet the demands of this dynamic national security situation.
I did not want to be accused of being the new guy that was going to come in and change the squadron patch and move some furniture for what amounted to a cosmetic fitrep bullet, but I did think that our mission statement needed to be refreshed within the context of where the Corps finds itself now and where it is going in the future.
Our current mission statement is:
“To improve the Warfighting effectiveness of the MAGTF and globally deployed Maritime Expeditionary Forces by providing training support and developing and sustaining training systems and devices”
I am actually pretty happy with this version and it will no doubt change as time goes on and as another colonel comes in to take my place. There are some important and carefully chosen words that are significantly different than the previous mission statement. The words warfighting, MAGTF [Marine Air-Ground Task Force], globally deployed, maritime and expeditionary intentionally appear to capture the unique warfighting contributions of the Navy-Marine Corps team and the requisite training demands. These words are chosen to orient the PM TRASYS team. I feel very confident that this statement is consistent with where our commandant [General James T. Conway] is taking our Marine Corps.
At our recent offsite I promised no immediate reorganization. I did reserve the right to move members of our extremely talented team around where I need their expertise. I hope I will get a chance to talk about our emphasis on systems engineering and featuring the talents of our instructional system specialists. So we will continue to be structured under the live, virtual and constructive model flanked by advanced distributed learning, which will allow us to reach every Marine no matter where that Marine is deployed and our training technology development division, which has us oriented on the future while taking advantage of today’s technology for today’s fight. Our aviation and reserve liaison teams keep us plugged into the total force. We also have a network of training liaison officers at our bases and stations that provide customer support. These individuals are critical to our success. They are our eyes and ears and are the PM TRASYS voice to our customers on site.
Our boss, Brigadier General Michael Brogan, has directed us to transition to a competency-aligned organization. We are excited about this transition because it empowers our competency leads in budget, contracting, logistics, systems and facilities engineering, instructional systems and program management. It gives us greater flexibility by allowing us to move our talented professionals to where they are needed.
Of course we would be nowhere without the support we get from contract partners. In the beginning it was very difficult for me to tell the difference between our government and contracting staff…now I no longer worry about the distinction. Their complementary leadership is a true force multiplier for the entire PM TRASYS team.
Q: Explain your command’s role within the broader Marine Corps training and education community.
A: First, let me set the record straight, this is not a command and I am not a commander. However, as a Marine, I am a leader 24/7 and PM TRASYS is the leader in providing training solutions to the Corps. I want PM TRASYS to be the icon of Marine Corps training solutions.
We at PM TRASYS have many customers but only one boss and that is General Michael Brogan, commander, MARCORSYSCOM. The mission of MARCORSYSCOM is to serve as the commandant’s principal agent for acquisition and sustainment of systems and equipment used by the operating forces to accomplish their war fighting mission.
I think it is important to first understand how PM TRASYS fits into the broader Marine Corps acquisition system. We are one of six independent program managers in MARCORSYSCOM. All but two are located outside of Virginia and only one, PM AMMO, is located at MARCORSYSCOM headquarters at Hospital Point in Quantico, Va. Traditional programs are led by eight product group directors [PGDs] all located at Hospital Point.
All program managers are responsible for the cradle-to-grave management of their individual programs to include training. This is considered standard training. We are currently working on policy with the deputy commander for systems engineering, interoperability, architectures and technology, assistant commander for life cycle logistics and the assistant commander for programs that will formalize PM TRASYS’ role with the PGDs and the program managers. PM TRASYS will likely remain the lead program manager for non-standard training such as our MOUT facilities, role players, tactical languages and many of our constructive programs.
Our principal customer and resource sponsor is Training and Education Command [TECOM]. TECOM’s mission is to develop, coordinate, resource, execute and evaluate training and education concepts, policies, plans and programs to ensure Marines are prepared to meet the challenges of present and future operational environments. We are teamed with operations, aviation and ground training branches, College of Continuing Education, Center for Advanced Operational Cultural Learning, technology division, Security Cooperation Education and Training Center, and Range Training and Area Management. Through our network of training liaison offices, that I mentioned earlier, providing regional support, we continue to build strong relationships with our bases and stations that host the equipment and solutions we deliver. We typically receive validated requirements from TECOM, which we then turn into training solutions.
Q: Discuss PM TRASYS’s top three goals for 2008.
A: This is always tricky and the only thing I am guaranteed is making number four very angry.
The first goal is to continue to develop our work force. I told my team that I wanted them to succeed in a job they know and understand. By allowing PM TRASYS personnel to attend courses that increase their professional knowledge we can add to the collective expertise of the training enterprise. I believe it is in the best interest of industry to work with a professionally trained acquisition work force that is not only technically proficient but also comfortable within an acquisition system that at times can be complex. Specifically, Defense Acquisition University offers courses that allow students to apply what they have learned in realistic exercises.
My second goal would be to grow our research & development [R&D] budget. The funding profiles of the last four- to-five years have allowed us to produce some remarkable training programs such as our MOUT facilities, role players and other enhancements to our ranges. This was realized through supplemental funding particularly in our procurement and operations accounts. This no doubt saved lives. However, I do not think we necessarily kept pace with the R&D accounts. We need to make sure we are prepared to accept the Science & Technology [S&T] and experimentation results from the Office of Naval Research [ONR] and the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab [MCWL]. We have established good working relationships through the Virtual Technologies and Environments program and the Infantry Skills Simulation Working Group, but we need to fortify the R&D accounts through the POM. We will continue to work with our TECOM partners, particularly the G-8, in making our R&D accounts consistent with our complete funding profile in order to meet the future training needs.
Finally, I want to make sure we have institutionalized an operational advisory group [OAG] chaired by the commander, MARCORSYSCOM and the commanding general, TECOM. The OAG is a forum where the resource sponsor/requirements developer and the material developer work with the fleet in developing a strategic road map for training. This will become a tremendous asset in prioritizing fleet needs and applying resources. It may also become the vehicle where we develop a business model to standardize the way we plan and execute training. Our industry partners would be invited as well so that they could share the same vision.
Q: How does PM TRASYS respond to warfighters’ requirements from Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom?
A: The most important thing we do with respect to fleet requirements is to ensure that we demonstrate discipline by responding to validated requirements that are properly vetted through the requirements process. That is not a process that material developers, such as MARCORSYSCOM, own. In the Marine Corps that process is owned by the Marine Corps Combat Development Command [MCCDC]. TECOM is a subordinate command to MCCDC and is the traditional generator of training requirements.
We have had success in providing role players for fleet exercises. The role players typically perform in the MOUT facilities that our live team has provided. The role players take their job very seriously and are extremely proud of the vital training that they provide. Of course they get paid, but I get a genuine sense of patriotism when I have had the opportunity to thank them.
Recently I had a chance to visit our ranges at Twenty-Nine Palms. As we descended into the MOUT facility and the dust began to clear I could see a few women walking into the village…it was a very tangible sense of “being there”. Later I had a chance to meet the mayor of the village where he offered refreshments and we discussed life in the village and how it could be improved. Before I realized it I was being trained, and very effectively. The coyotes [White Force (referees)] do a great job and have established a tremendous relationship with our role players.
We have also had an opportunity to respond to the tactical language training needs of the fleet. In September I participated in a ribbon cutting ceremony for a tactical decision center [TDC] in Camp Lejeune. We host tactical language training on our deployable virtual training environment [DVTE], which is one of the tools provided in the TDC. After the ceremony was over I noticed a colonel sitting down at one of the DVTE terminals. He had logged onto the “Tactical Iraqi” language application and did not care that the rest of us could hear him practicing — and he needed the practice like we all do — to speak the language. I later found out that he was on his way to Fallujah for an individual augmentee staff tour.
A unit recently returned from Iraq and instead of allowing for a little down time immediately hit the tactical language program so that they could get as many Marines trained as possible for their next deployment.
We are also providing tactical Dari for potential deployments to Afghanistan, tactical Saheel French for Marines at the embassies in Africa and other languages as we prepare for contingency operations.
DVTE, which I mentioned earlier, is a Marine Corps training system that provides combined arms tactical level simulation based training and educational training support for the embarked MAGTF. DVTE provides air, ground and amphibious operations training support to all levels of embarked MAGTF elements. DVTE provides training support in these areas: command, control, communications and computers integration [C4I], fire support [FS], maneuver, intelligence, operations, logistics [LOG], combat support [CS], combat service support [CSS], and special operations capable (SOC). DVTE training scenarios provide a realistic portrayal for MAGTF combined arms training.
We have also provided operator driving simulators (ODSs) and vehicle rollover/ escape training for a variety of vehicles. The ODSs were initiated by the Marine Forces Reserve in order to provide sustainment driving skills to Reserve Marines. The ODSs have since evolved into a reconfigurable driving simulator, training both the Active and Reserve Component on MTVR, MTVR-MAS, HMMWV, uparmored HMMWV, and Category I MRAP vehicles. These ODSs are used for pre-deployment training and familiarization of vehicle handling. The HMMWV egress assistance trainers were initiated by the commandant of the Marine Corps and are now a critical component of pre-deployment training. Since the initial fielding of rollover trainers, CENTCOM has mandated that all Marines be trained in HEAT prior to deployment. We are actively engaged in fielding eight additional trainers to support this mandate.
Q: Describe PM TRASYS’s outreach strategy to the training systems industry, including planned industry briefings for 2008.
A: Personally, I enjoy talking with industry. Frankly we can do very little without our industry partners. When we enter into a dialogue with industry we negotiate the art of the possible. Since arriving at PM TRASYS I have had more than a few opportunities to address industry, and it has been very productive. I don’t think I have had to decline any invitation yet.
NDIA and NTSA conferences and conventions have been an extremely effective way to get together with industry. I also like to look for opportunities that we may not have taken advantage of in the past. This past fall I attended the Expeditionary Warfare Conference in Panama City, Fla., which specifically supports our new mission statement. 2007 I/ITSEC was enlightening. I was very impressed with the scale and tempo of I/ITSEC but more important was the indisputable evidence of a strong relationship between government and industry due in no small part to the efforts of NTSA and Admiral Fred Lewis [president]. I look forward to I/ITSEC this December.
The next big encounter for us will come this spring with the advanced program brief to industry. We will participate as a member of MARCORSYSCOM. I would encourage industry to visit the MARCORSYSCOM web site [http://www.marcorsyscom.usmc.mil/] for details. Our executive director, Barry Dillon, has emphasized over and over that this is a great opportunity and maybe even an obligation to help industry focus on what we need.
Any engagement strategy needs to have a consistent message. I need to be realistic in what requirements PM TRASYS will try and solve. Industry needs to be realistic in what they propose. Our credibility is at stake. When given an opportunity to enter into a dialogue with government, industry needs to show up. Nothing irritates me more than when I am in a room full of potential suppliers and they don’t utter a word. Dialogue is a two-way street.
To facilitate this dialogue PM TRASYS has a central business line and e-mail address for industry partners to establish contact: 407-381-8762 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Perhaps to the displeasure of the front office staff I will be bold enough to say that my door is open and my phone number is 407-380-8108.
Q: What training technology challenges does PM TRASYS need industry’s help to solve?
A: The good news is that we have a training technology division and as I have stated before, we have a good relationship with ONR [Code 30, HPT&E], MCWL and the technology division at TECOM. I am also very excited about the relationship we have with the Institute for Simulation and Training [IST- Applied Cognition and Training in Immersive Virtual Environments Lab] at the University of Central Florida. So, much like meeting warfighter requirements it is best when we support the S&T vision of our government and academic partners. The S&T Roadmap is available at ONR’s web site [http://www.onr.navy.mil/]. Like warfighting requirements the elements of the roadmap have been rigorously validated and vetted.
With a question like that, the tough part is where do you start? Clearly the immersive infantry trainer [IIT], known more popularly as the Tomato Plant, has been the recipient of a lot of attention. The IIT provides a 30,000 square foot facility for squad-level training and inoculation of Marines with the sights, sounds, smells and chaos of close quarters battle. Presented in a mixed reality format of life-sized virtual display, actors and battlefield effects, the IIT is an adaptive, interactive, immersive trainer. The next generation of IIT is trying to move beyond the fidelity that the aviation community has enjoyed in their simulators and produce technology that allows live entities to interact in real-time with the virtual environments [man-made structure, people, weapons, sensory cues, etc.] to create an immersive training environment.
Our leadership is also interested in being able to determine or measure if training was actually accomplished in order to determine the readiness of their units. A tool like this would also help us in the acquisition community determines the most efficient and cost effective training solutions. In other words it could help determine where to invest. Many of the items that would need to be measured fall within the human system integration and human performance domain and this is where I feel our emphasis on systems engineering and featuring the talents of our instructional systems specialists will pay big dividends, but there is plenty of work for everyone to do.
Perhaps combining the features of a training effectiveness measurements tool with a training resource management tool would be a logical thing to do. Perhaps I will mention that if I get a chance to address the OAG audience I spoke about earlier. ♦