Photo of M1A1 VPS (Vehicle Protection System)

  • What is it?

    The U.S. Army Environmental Command provides environmental expertise to help ensure acquisition compliance with Environment, Safety and Occupational Health requirements. Environmental constraints and requirements may influence weapon system design, modification, testing, production, operation, maintenance, repair, demilitarization and disposal. Weapon systems' materials, processes and uses may all impact the environment. Incorporating environmental considerations into the process early is important to prevent schedule delays; minimize costs that the Army might incur to modify and support weapon systems; meet military readiness needs while protecting the environment; and ensure compliance with applicable environmental laws, regulations and DoD/Army policy.

  • What has the Army done?

    To assist the Army acquisition community with understanding and meeting the ESOH compliance requirements for weapons systems acquisition, USAEC has developed and provides the following support:

    • Represents and coordinates installation interests regarding new/upgraded Army weapon systems and their impact on installation operations.
    • Ensures that known or potential environmental impacts are identified and mitigated in the system development where possible, prior to any Army System Acquisition Review Council and Cost Review Board (CRB) reviews.
    • Provides the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Installations, Energy and Environment) ASA (IE&E) with an independent Environmental Quality Impact Assessment (EQIA) for all major milestone decision reviews for weapon systems. The EQIA includes, but is not limited to: review and evaluation of Programmatic Environment, Safety, and Occupational Health Evaluations, National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) documentation, acquisition strategies, statements of work, fielding plans, test and evaluation master plans, and life cycle cost documents.
    • Reviews capabilities documents for compliance with environmental requirements on behalf of the Deputy Chief of Staff, G-9 in their role as Army Requirements Oversight Council advisor.
    • Represents the DCS, G-9 and the ASA (IE&E) at various Integrated Product Team's (IPT) and CRB Working Group meetings for Acquisition Category (ACAT) I and selected ACAT II weapon systems.
    • Provides support to the Cost and Economics Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army in the development of valid environmental life cycle cost estimates in support of the Army Cost Position.
    • Communicates installation environmental concerns to the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Environment Safety and Occupational Health (DASA-ESOH), the Program Executive Office (PEO) and/or the Program Manager (PM) and the Installation Management Command.
    • Upon PEO/PM request and in coordination with DASA-ESOH, will assist PEOs/PMs with the integration of environmental quality considerations into all aspects of their program.
    • Acts as a liaison between installations and Army weapon systems to facilitate smooth integration of ESOH considerations during weapon system fielding.

  • What does the Army have planned?

  • Why is this important?

    USAEC support to the Army acquisition community helps reduce environmental impacts on installations from fielded systems, ensures pollution prevention is integrated into the acquisition process and prevents environmental requirements from adversely impacting schedule, performance or budget of an acquisition program, saving both time and money.

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