TAMPA, Fla - The Army’s accelerated push to transform and reimagine its Organic Industrial Base was front and center at the National Defense Industrial Association’s Logistics Forum, February 17-19.
During a panel discussion on OIB modernization, Brig. Gen. Gail Atkins, Army Materiel Command deputy chief of staff for logistics and operations, discussed the results of a comprehensive 90‑day review of the OIB, directed by the Secretary of the Army last August. The rapid assessment revealed challenges and opportunities that the command is addressing to meet future readiness demands, including strengthening the supply chain, upskilling the workforce, updating governance structures and increasing enterprise‑wide data visibility.
“We recognize that right now we are out of position. We are focused on strengthening these capabilities to ensure we’re going to be able to deliver the combat formations we’re going to need into the future,” she said.
Atkins highlighted digital transformation as the Army’s most immediate modernization priority. She explained that the Army in close partnership with industry to meet this priority, leveraging commercial best practices and new authorities granted to AMC to accelerate parts qualification and source approval.
“We are all in on digital twinning,” she said about the command’s extensive efforts, including creating smart factories. “We are literally mapping our factory floors and censoring them so that while we are manufacturing or repairing, we are iterating and planning for what the next piece needs to be.”
A key takeaway from the 90-day assessment was AMC’s decision to establish an OIB Integration Cell, located in the Pentagon, to better align long‑term OIB planning with Army strategic objectives, and the OIB Operations Center at AMC headquarters, designed to synchronize and accelerate OIB modernization.
“We embarked not only on a modernization plan, but a re‑imagination, and we must completely iterate and reimagine what our industrial base needs to be. What we need to start talking about is what we’re going to do here in the next 6, 9, 12, 18 months,” said Atkins “We’re going to have to change how our business is set up.”
She said the Army is aggressively pursuing partnerships that will allow OIB sites to have more resilient business models, including enhanced use leases that create investment in the OIB and years-long commitment from the surrounding community and industry.
“We must control our costs, and we must manage our business. It’s about sharing risk and investing together.t is something that Army leadership is been all in on, private investment on public land, and we are pursuing it aggressively,” said Atkins.