Army Aviation

Information, Context and Speed

Director of Army Aviation / By BG David J. Francis: A more lethal, resilient, and rapidly innovating Joint Force, combined with a robust constellation of allies and partners, will sustain American influence and ensure favorable balances of power that safeguard the free and open international order. 2018 National Defense Strategy

Soldiers assigned to Nemesis Troop, 4th Squadron, 2d Cavalry Regiment board CH-47 Chinooks during a joint operation with a rotational combat aviation brigade unit at the Hohenfels Training Area, Germany, July 12, 2018./ U.S. ARMY PHOTO BY SGT TIMOTHY HAMLIN, 2D CAVALRY REGIMENT

Army Aviation is the largest, most well trained force of its kind that provides an asymmetric capability to the Joint Force at a scale that no adversary can match. The leaders and Soldiers of our branch continue to demonstrate that capability to commanders on the ground around the world every day. They accomplished this while engaged in continuous combat for the last 17 years, simultaneously executing the largest transformation in recent history, and while modernizing the fleet across all components (COMPOs). While 83% committed, we continue to build readiness for Large Scale Combat Operations, and the synchronization of our deployment, fielding strategy, and modernization is critical to achieving the lethality required of future warfare.
As a part of the Aviation Enterprise representing the Army G-3/5/7, DAMO-AV supports the vision of the branch chief by providing information, context and speed to senior leadership across the Army Staff, Department of Defense, the interagency community, Congress, industry, and the media. DAMO-AV coordinates across all facets and COMPOs of the aviation community, to include the Army’s major commands, service component commands, direct reporting units, and headquarters’ staff sections to synchronize the continuous demands on our branch. Speed is of utmost importance; negotiations are influenced and decisions are made at a swift pace across our nation’s senior leadership. Whether on the Hill defending Army aviation decisions, answering audit requests, engaging senior military leadership or publishing execution orders that affect change throughout the Army and our branch, DAMO-AV is routinely called upon to provide information, context, and speed on behalf of the G-3/5/7 and aviation enterprise.

As a key maneuver element of the Joint Force, the demand signal for Army Aviation is as strong as ever, even as we develop the military of the future and our concepts of joint warfare. Regardless of the increased commitment – readiness, personnel, policy, modernization and leader development challenges continue to be focal points for our Army as we continue to increase the lethality of the force and steward the resources provided by the American people. The ability of our organization to synchronize these efforts for our branch, communicate a succinct path forward to senior leadership, and act decisively, will ensure the most coherent plans, policies, and utilization of our resources across the enterprise.

DAMO-AV conveys Aviation equities to multiple audiences, which requires continual communication and detailed coordination with all entities of the aviation branch. Two venues where DAMO-AV facilitates synchronization across the branch are the Aviation Enterprise Synchronization Model (AESM) and the Quarterly Aviation Synchronization Meeting (QASM). The AESM was designed to accommodate the flow of information and establish an executive committee to facilitate major decisions affecting our branch. QASM brings together representatives from across the AESM and force providers, to discuss and synchronize efforts across the branch, with focus on modernization efforts, fielding plans, force structure, operational plans, unit readiness, and general aviation issues/topics as necessary, and nominates topics and solutions for the general officer approval. Both the AESM and QASM enable HQDA to draw from expertise around the branch, develop effective plans, and gain general officer approval on critical decisions, and this synchronization is of paramount importance as we modernize the fleet for the future. Integrating our teammates on the Future Vertical Lift (FVL) Cross Functional Team (CFT) into the broader aviation enterprise will ensure that the branch speaks with one voice as we lay the foundation for the next generation of aviation systems. Our synchronization through these and other venues is essential to enabling the information, context, and speed that we transmit up and outward.

The new DAMO-AV team is up and running after the summer transition, and we are fortunate to welcome a number of new members to the team – COL Phil Ryan as the Deputy, COL Whitney Gardner as the chief of Force Analysis and CW5 Jon Koziol as the Chief of Standardization. We remain at the service of the branch and the Army, and look forward to working with our Aviation teammates on the challenges ahead to continue to provide our ground force commanders the very best Aviation force in the world!
Above The Best!

BG David J. Francis is the director of aviation in the office of the deputy chief of staff G-3/5/7 of the U.S. Army in Washington, D.C.