Critical Technology Events in the Development of Selected Army Weapons Systems: A Summary of Project Hindsight Revisited

摘要

In 2004, Dr. Thomas Killion, the Army Science and Technology (S&T) Executive, requested a series of reports detailing technology development for selected Army weapons systems. Dr. Killion was interested in studying the genesis of successful, fielded systems to gain insight into common factors that promoted technology development and integration. He was inspired in part by a similar study conducted by the Department of Defense (DoD) in the 1960s, called 'Project Hindsight.' Dr. Killion hoped that the findings of the studies could help guide decisions in managing the Army's S&T portfolio. The 'Hindsight Revisited' reports covered four Army weapons systems: (1) the Army's premier ground combat vehicle, the Abrams main battle tank; (2) the Apache attack helicopter; and (3) two manportable missile systems, the Stinger antiaircraft missile and the Javelin antitank missile. This report collects and summarizes the findings from these three studies. Included here are findings related to the contributions of the Army's in-house laboratories, the Program Managers' (PM) offices, and industry. The authors compare these findings to the findings from the original 'Project Hindsight.' The report then offers recommendations, based on their findings for the four systems, for managing today's Army science and technology work. The paper concludes with commentary on two issues of current interest in today's environment: the problem of attracting and retaining talented technical staff for the government's in-house laboratories, and the implications of recent changes in the acquisition process, as seen in the way the Future Combat Systems (FCS) program is being developed. The three 'Hindsight' papers had a common unit of analysis: the critical technology event, or CTE. CTEs are ideas, concepts, models, and analyses, including key technical and managerial decisions, that had a major impact on the development of a specific weapons system.