Army bids adieu to ISR Task Force, stands up Strategy and Transformation Directorate

WASHINGTON — The Army is standing up the Directorate for Strategy and Transformation inside its intelligence shop as part of a larger shake up that involves dissolving the ISR Task Force, according to a senior official helping lead the charge. 

“This institutionalizes this role of transformation that we’ve been doing in the ISR Task Force, makes it more permanent, and also combines it with the important role of strategy and strategy formulation for the Army Intel Corps,” said Andrew Evans, who headed up the former task force before being tapped as the new director for the Strategy & Transformation Office inside the Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence shop (G-2).

Stood up during the first Trump administration, the ISR Task Force was charged with modernizing the service’s airborne ISR fleet at a time when the larger department focus was pivoting from terrorism towards large-scale contingency planning in the Indo-Pacific. The task force’s work included shepherding in several high-profile, Greek mythology-themed development and acquisition programs like the Athena-Sensor, centered around two converted Global 6500s, another pair of converted Global 6500s dubbed the Athena-Radar initiative, and the High Accuracy Detection and Exploitation System (HADES).

“We [also] expanded beyond sensing, and looked at what it meant to modernize training in new ways and make it more accessible for soldiers,” Evans told Breaking Defense on Friday. “We did a lot with pilots … and a lot of coordination with units.

“What we discovered along the way is that transformation is not a one and done thing,” he added. “You don’t transform to achieve some end state and say, ‘I’m done transforming’ in the world where threats continuously change, you also must continuously transform.”

Evans has worked to sunset that office, but its work will now be carried out by a transformation division inside the G-2. And above that new division is now the Directorate for Strategy and Transformation, with Evans at the helm. 

“I have executive oversight of that as one division, but also strategy engagements and the performance acceleration and business transformation,” he explained. 

“We haven’t fully settled on what this [S&T directorate] will look like,” Evans added.  “It’ll be a combination of military, civilians and contracted workforce. And the exact numbers are still being discussed … but it will be a lean team.”

The goal, for that directorate, is to reach initial operating capability by mid-October before hitting full operational capability within a year. Ultimately, Evans explained, his directorate will focus on developing an assessment capability for programs, ensuring that investments are returning the right value for the Army’s intel community, and getting prototypes into soldiers’ hands at a fast clip.