Training Tomorrow's Leaders Through STEM

Steve Adubato goes One-on-One with Brigadier General Alfred F. Abramson III, Commander General of Picatinny Arsenal to discuss the role of Picatinny in keeping our nation safe, as well as the importance of STEM education in training tomorrow's leaders .

9/13/18 #2160

 

 

 

 

Excerpt:

"Hi, I'm Steve Adubato. This is a program where you meet the most interesting people who are doing the most important things. He's on camera right now. He is Brigadier General Alfred Abramson, Commanding General of an interesting place called Picatinny Arsenal. Yes. Located? In Dover, New Jersey. You guys do amazing stuff. What is it? We do. We do fantastic stuff. Picatinny, really, I call it the "Center of Excellence for Lethality" right? So we're in the military, and I wear an Army uniform, but not only the Center of Excellence for Lethality for the Army, but really, the Center of Excellence for all services - the Department of Defense services. So we have Navy folks there, we have Marine folks there, and we do the munitions. When I talk about munitions, talk about guns and ammunition, that go out to our war fighters... Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine folks, receive the munitions that we manage at Picatinny Arsenal. It is being argued, by many who know more about war than I do, that wars are being fought so differently largely because of technology? Oh absolutely. Talk about it. So... And its connection to Picatinny. Sure. So technology really is moving out faster, and so what we have to do in the Department of Defense is our ability to keep up with the change of the technology, which equates to the change of the threat that we need to engage upon. And so a quick example is, I say that our munitions are getting smarter. Meaning so we know when we fire a munition, it knows where it is in time and space on the battlefield. About 10 to 15 years ago, you would fire a munition, whether it's a mortar round, or an artillery round, and you would kind of gauge it based off of the propellant that you are using to hit a spot. But now, we fire it, it looks... it acquires a GPS satellite signal, and will go to that particular target. How does it change...? How does what you're describing change the way the Army prepares... Yeah. ...to engage... Yeah. ...in warfare, and also the impact it has on men and women... Right. ...who are in the Army itself? So exactly to the... I know it's a complicated question, but I've been thinking about that. No... yeah, but so... the Army has to change to keep up with the threat, the pace of play, the pace of change, the speed of relevancy, and so the Army is undergoing what they call the Army Futures Command. We are in the process of standing that up, and that is only going to focus on modernizing..."