Telle says Army will ‘find the weak links’ in the industrial supply chain through ‘manufacturing rodeo’

The Army will attempt to stress test the industrial base early next year in an initiative meant to help identify weak links in its supply chain and improve them, the acting secretary of the service said Monday, dubbing the effort a “manufacturing rodeo.”

Acting Army Secretary Adam Telle provided few details about the initiative at the annual AUSA conference in Washington, D.C., Monday, but said the rodeo constitutes a “race” between companies that support the defense industrial base.

“We’ve invested a lot in our organic industrial base,” he said in his opening remarks at AUSA. “Now we need to strain it, and the nation’s larger industrial base.” 

Over the last two years, Army leaders — initially championed by Telle’s predecessor Dan Driscoll — have endeavored to modernize the service quickly, leaning on commercial companies, new entrants and primes to help the land force keep pace with modern combat.

Part of that effort includes shedding the service from unique, lengthy and hard-to-connect projects the Army has embarked on for decades and instead turning toward a more “flexible” industrial base, including through public-private partnerships, according to a press release accompanying Telle’s announcement.

Pentagon leaders have frequently touted that these changes will put the industrial base on a “wartime footing.’

Now, “we’re going to stress test the supply chain, the manufacturing processes and see where it breaks,” Telle said. “We’re gonna learn by doing, not by sitting around postulating at the Pentagon.”

The Army press release framed the announcement around a service commitment to “American ingenuity,” for the purpose of scaling new technology on demand.

“We’re gonna find the weak links, we’re gonna make them stronger and we’re gonna keep iterating,” Telle said.