From the top down

Various factors have played a role in making transformation a driving force at the Pentagon, including the maturity of the technology, an administration with heightened business acumen and the demonstrated successes of such measures in real-world situations.

But the key change has been at the top, observers say, beginning with Defense Department Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his ability to sell the department on his vision.

"The new leadership is saying that we have to change," said Anthony Valletta, vice president and director of command, control, communications and intelligence (C3I) systems for SRA International Inc. Valletta, former acting assistant secretary of Defense for C3I, added, "He's at the point where they are able to really push it."

"I think the secretary of Defense had a clear understanding in his mind that he wanted to transform the military," said retired Air Force Gen. James McCarthy, whom Rumsfeld appointed last year to lead a group that made broad recommendations about transforming DOD.

"It has taken awhile for the department to understand that he really intended to do this, see the results of his commitment," said McCarthy, a professor at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Under Rumsfeld, transformation has become the mantra for DOD, and department officials stress that they are making a significant commitment to the effort. Many mention retired Navy Vice Adm. Arthur Cebrowski's appointment as director of the new Office of Force Transformation as a significant step.

But the Bush administration also seeks to fund transformation programs. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, testifying before the Senate Appropriations Committee's Defense Subcommittee, said that transformation programs, in one form or another, account for more than $20 billion in the Bush administration's proposed DOD fiscal 2003 budget.