2023 Assessment of the DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory (2024)
Chapter: Summary
Summary
The U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM) Army Research Laboratory (ARL) is the U.S. Army’s sole fundamental research laboratory focused on cutting-edge scientific discovery and technological innovation that offer great potential to strengthen the U.S. Army. The mission of ARL is to operationalize science for transformational overmatch in support of persistent Army modernization.1
In the fall of 2022, the ARL’s scientific research efforts were reorganized into 11 competencies, which include the following: biological and biotechnology sciences; electromagnetic spectrum; energy sciences; humans in complex systems; mechanical sciences; military information sciences; network, cyber, and computational sciences; photonics, electronics, and quantum sciences; sciences of extreme materials; terminal effects; and weapons sciences. Each competency has within it varying numbers of “core competencies,” which are specially defined areas of research focus. See Appendix A for the full list and descriptions of ARL’s competencies and core competencies.
For this 2023 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine assessment, the Army Research Laboratory Technical Assessment Board (ARLTAB) examined the following four ARL competencies: electromagnetic spectrum sciences, energy sciences, mechanical sciences, and military information sciences. The review was entirely focused on answering nine assessment criteria questions (see Appendix C) and was guided by an overarching statement of task:
An ad hoc committee to be named the Army Research Laboratory Technical Assessment Board (ARLTAB), to be overseen by the Laboratory Assessments Board, will be appointed to continue the function of providing annual assessments of the scientific and technical quality of the Army Research Laboratory (ARL). These assessments will include findings and recommendations related to the quality of ARL’s research, development, and analysis programs. While the primary role of the ARLTAB is to provide peer assessment, it may offer advice on related matters when requested by the ARL Director. The ARLTAB will provide assessments over a four-year cycle. Years 13 will each examine ARL’s work related to 34 different technical “competencies” for which ARL is responsible, producing in each of those years an interim report that provides an assessment of a portion of ARL’s program. In year 4 the ARLTAB may produce, when requested, an interim report on selected cross-cutting aspects of ARL’s work, plus a final report that summarizes the 4-year assessment. The ARLTAB will be assisted by up to 11 separately appointed panels that will focus on particular portions of the ARL program.
The ARLTAB was assisted by four panels, the Panel on Assessment of Electromagnetic Spectrum Sciences; the Panel on Assessment of Energy Sciences; the Panel on Assessment of Mechanical Sciences; and the Panel on Assessment of Military Information Sciences who contributed important observations and writings for the ARLTAB’s development of this assessment report after making site visits to ARL’s Aberdeen Proving Ground and Adelphi Laboratory Center in the summer and fall of 2023. This report presents the ARLTAB’s assessment of only the projects and programs presented within these four competencies and is not intended to portray the entirety of the science and technology work
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1 U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM) Army Research Laboratory (ARL), “We Are DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory,” https://www.arl.army.mil, accessed December 20, 2022.
across ARL. The complete assessment of the work presented in ARL’s 11 competencies will be built over a 3-year period, with this report being the second in a series.
In 2022, ARL was also reorganized into three directorates—the Army Research Office (ARO) Directorate, the Army Research Directorate (ARD), and the Research Business Directorate (RBD). The RBD centralizes laboratory business operations and fosters intramural and extramural strategic decision-making. The ARO, which has been operational since 1951, is composed of more than 100 engineers, scientists, and support staff, who manage the ARL’s extramural research program. ARO drives cutting-edge and disruptive scientific discoveries with an eye toward enabling crucial future Army technologies and capabilities through high-risk, high-reward research opportunities.2 The ARD is a largely intramural research directorate that manages the laboratory’s essential research programs, which are flagship research efforts focused on delivering defined outcomes. ARD also co-manages the core competencies within the competencies, which are discussed in greater detail below.3
Both the ARO’s and the ARD’s extramural and intramural work exist, and often integrate, together under the holistic umbrella of each competency and its core competencies or research thrusts. Under the advisement of ARL, the approach to this assessment was not to tease out what was the ARD versus ARO’s research, but rather to review the competency and its core competencies without specific focus on whether the research originated from ARO or ARD. Instead, the writings make note of extramural, intramural, and integrated research efforts.
Chapter 1 provides the conclusion and recommendations for each competency and across competencies. It also provides four summary boxes (Boxes 1-1, 1-2, 1-3, and 1-4) with the most actionable management-level opportunities that were identified across the four chapters (Chapters 3–6) focused on the assessment of the electromagnetic spectrum sciences competency, energy sciences competency, mechanical sciences competency, and military information sciences competency. Excluded from these summary boxes is commentary on individual projects, which can be found in each competency chapter. Chapter 2 provides an overview of the assessment process.
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2 DEVCOM ARL, “Who We Are,” https://www.arl.army.mil/who-we-are, accessed December 20, 2022.
3 Ibid.
