DEVCOM commanding general tours Picatinny’s armaments legacy and future
The Commanding General of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM), Brig. Gen. Robert Born, and his senior enlisted advisor, Command Sgt. Maj. Thinh Huynh, visited the DEVCOM Armaments Center to view a showcase of life-cycle engineering and sustainment support for current Army weapons systems, munitions and software.
Upon arriving at Picatinny, Born met with Chris Grassano, director of the DEVCOM Armaments Center—one of seven technology centers falling under the commanding general’s purview—along with other key Picatinny Arsenal leaders.
Grassano also serves as the Program Acquisition Executive Agile Sustainment and Acquisition (PAE AS&A) System Center lead, providing the PAE AS&A with a direct interface into DEVCOM’s full gamut of scientific expertise.
The PAE AS&A was established to manage and oversee a comprehensive capability area that consolidates ammunition development, logistics and sustainment. The organization flattens the procurement bureaucracy, combines research and development with production, and rapidly delivers next-generation lethal capabilities to the warfighter at scale. It shifts the focus from rigid procedural compliance to rapid, mission-focused contract execution and delivery.
Under the leadership of Maj. Gen. Christopher D. Schneider, the PAE AS&A oversees an entire capability portfolio, including all conventional ammunition requirements—such as direct and indirect fire ammunition, close combat systems, explosives and pyrotechnics—in addition to logistics, fielding and sustainment.
Because Picatinny Arsenal is designated as the Department of Defense's Joint Center of Excellence for Guns and Ammunition, establishing the PAE AS&A on-site unites the engineers designing the weapons, the contracting officers purchasing them and the leaders managing the industrial base.
“When you look at all the realignment that has occurred, Picatinny Arsenal has historically been the central focal point of all munitions and energetics,” said Col. Jason Bohannon, PAE AS&A Chief of Staff, as he addressed Born. “We have been building cannons here since the Revolutionary War.”
While at Picatinny, Born toured the Armaments Center’s Ballistic Evaluation Center, which accommodates the ballistic firing of conventional and experimental weapons systems, munitions and propellant for 40 mm through 8-inch caliber munitions.
The general was also briefed on the Soft Catch Gun, or SCat Gun, a highly specialized, 155 mm Howitzer-based tactical research system. The SCat Gun fires advanced munitions and then "softly" catches them intact, allowing engineers to retrieve, disassemble and analyze how electronic components, fuzes and precision-guidance systems survive the extreme, high-G forces of a cannon launch.
Born was also briefed on emerging technologies that U.S. Army engineers are increasingly leveraging, including advanced manufacturing techniques like 3D printing and additive manufacturing capable of rapidly prototyping drone lethality and drone defense technologies.
“The general’s visit highlighted the depth of our unique national defense capability—from full life-cycle armaments engineering and automated test capabilities to safety-critical armaments software, advanced fire control, and integrated unmanned aerial systems (UAS)/counter-UAS technologies,” said Bhavanjot Singh, acting executive director for the Armaments Center’s Weapons and Software Engineering Center.
The DEVCOM commanding general also spoke with subject matter experts in explosive ordnance disposal and visited various software and testing laboratories during his visit to Picatinny. This provided a firsthand look at how Army engineers manage projects from concept to completion, integrating planning, design, construction, sustainment and closeout to deliver capable, resilient infrastructure in support of the mission.
“Brig. Gen. Born saw how our civilian experts work closely with industry to ensure armament systems are designed, tested, matured and sustained to deliver precise, reliable and effective lethality for the Warfighter at the speed of relevance,” Singh said.
Born’s visit underscored Picatinny Arsenal’s enduring role as a critical hub for the Army’s armaments enterprise. By bringing together research, engineering, testing, software, acquisition, production and sustainment under an increasingly integrated approach, the DEVCOM Armaments Center and PAE AS&A are positioned to accelerate the delivery of reliable, lethal and adaptable capabilities to soldiers—today and for future conflicts.
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