The
United States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national secu ...
Office of Force Transformation (OFT) was established October 29, 2001 in the
Office of the Secretary of Defense
The Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) is a headquarters-level staff of the United States Department of Defense. It is the principal civilian staff element of the U.S. Secretary of Defense, and it assists the Secretary in carrying out aut ...
.
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld
Donald Henry Rumsfeld (July 9, 1932 – June 29, 2021) was an American politician, government official and businessman who served as Secretary of Defense from 1975 to 1977 under president Gerald Ford, and again from 2001 to 2006 under Presi ...
called for the creation of this new office to support his transformation vision along with President
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
’s broad mandate to transform U.S. military capabilities. The transformation process intends to challenge the status quo with new concepts for American defense to ensure an overwhelming and continuing competitive advantage. The Director, Force Transformation serves as advocate, focal point, and catalyst for transformation among the Department, reporting directly to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Defense.
On October 1, 2006, the Office of Force Transformation was disestablished, and its functions spread between the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, and the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics.
Leadership
Vice Admiral (ret.)
Arthur K. Cebrowski
Vice admiral (United States), Vice Admiral (ret.) Arthur Karl Cebrowski (August 13, 1942 – November 12, 2005) was a United States Navy admiral. He also who served from October 2001 to January 2005 as Director of the Office of Force Transform ...
(often called the "Godfather" of
Network Centric Warfare
Network-centric warfare, also called network-centric operations or net-centric warfare, is a military doctrine or theory of war that aims to translate an information advantage, enabled partly by information technology, into a competitive advanta ...
br>
was appointed by the Secretary of Defense as the 1st Director, Force Transformation, October 29, 2001 to February 2, 2005, a position which reported directly to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Defense.
Terry J. Pudas became the Acting Director until October 1, 2006, when he became the Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Forces Transformation and Resources.
Defense Transformation
OFT transformation plan includes changing the force and its culture from the bottom up through large amounts of experimentation, increased sharing of new knowledge and experiences, and by broadening military capabilities while mitigating risk. One of the pillar theories driving OFT is
Network Centric Warfare
Network-centric warfare, also called network-centric operations or net-centric warfare, is a military doctrine or theory of war that aims to translate an information advantage, enabled partly by information technology, into a competitive advanta ...
(NCW), also known as
Network Centric Operations, which according to OFT is a theory of war in the
information age
The Information Age (also known as the Computer Age, Digital Age, Silicon Age, or New Media Age) is a historical period that began in the mid-20th century. It is characterized by a rapid shift from traditional industries, as established during ...
and the organizing principle for national military planning and joint concepts, capabilities, and systems.
According to Cebrowski, "
efenseTransformation is foremost a continuing process. It does not have an end point. Transformation is meant to create or anticipate the future. Transformation is meant to deal with the co-evolution of concepts, processes, organizations and technology. Change in any one of these areas necessitates change in all. Transformation is meant to create new competitive areas and new competencies. Transformation is meant to identify, leverage and even create new underlying principles for the way things are done. Transformation is meant to identify and leverage new sources of power. The overall objective of these changes is simply—sustained American competitive advantage in warfare."
The Defense Department's April 2003 "Transformation Planning Guidance" document defines ''transformation'' as "a process that shapes the changing nature of military competition and cooperation through new combinations of concepts, capabilities, people, and organizations that exploit out nation's advantages and protect against our
asymmetric vulnerabilities to sustain our strategic position, which helps underpin peace and stability in the world."
OFT engaged in several project aimed at transforming the Defense Department through experimentation within exercises. Some of its major projects included Operationally Responsive Space and Stiletto, and it produced strategies that helped to form DeVenCI. OFT was also engaged in funding projects and developing concepts for reconstruction and stabilization as early as 2003.
What sets OFT apart
According to OFT, they:
* Are the only office solely dedicated to transformation;
* Strive to link creativity to implementation;
* Work at the intersection of unarticulated needs and non-consensual change;
* Identify and manage disruptive innovation;
* Work outside the normal course of business activities;
*
Entrepreneurial mindset
Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...
;
* Use concept-technology pairing to explore; and
* Experiment with new ways of operating.
See also
*
M80 Stiletto
The M80 Stiletto is an American prototype naval ship using advanced stealth technologies. The M80 was designed by the M Ship Company then built by Knight and Carver, as an experimental testbed ship for The Pentagon’s Office of Force Transforma ...
References
External links
The Command and Control Research Program (CCRP)(Wolf PAC)
Transformation Planning Guidance(April 2003,
PDF
Portable Document Format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. ...
file)
* Colin Robinson
Fact Sheet - Office of Force Transformation Center for Defense Information
The Center for Defense Information (CDI) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization based in Washington, D.C. It specialized in analyzing and advising on military matters.
History
The Center for Defense Information was founded in 1971 by an indepen ...
, June 14, 2002
{{DEFAULTSORT:Office Of Force Transformation
United States Department of Defense agencies