Fireside Chat with Admiral Grady

By Kate Finkel, Staff Writer

On the 2nd day of the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference (I/ITSEC), Sean Buck, NTSA President, had a Fireside Chat with Admiral Christopher W. Grady, Vice Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff.

I/ITSEC is the world’s largest modeling, simulation and training (MS&T) event that occurs every year during the week immediately after Thanksgiving. It draws thousands of MS&T professionals to the Orange County Convention Center, to include high-ranking civilian and military government officials, C-suite industry executives, and senior academics from leading research institutions.

When Buck asked Grady to explain his role as the vice chairman incase some audience members are not completely aware of how responsibilities are, he said that he finds that he lives in four worlds. “The first is policy, as a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, I spend a lot of time in the White House, especially through the Deputies Committee with participation in high-level national security discussions, such as those held in the Tank (the secure space where senior military leaders meet). If you jump over to the next word, requirements. Serving as the head of Joint Requirements Oversight Council (JROC), where I work closely with the four-star vice chiefs of the military services, we establish requirements that will help bring more fighting concepts to life. Then, we move to budget where I am the co-chair of the Deputies Management Group (DMG), where we take all the inputs and we put the budget together across the field. The last world that I live in is in acquisition. I am a member of the defense acquisition board where we look at the major defense acquisition programs as they hit their milestones, and we take a look at cost schedule and performance as they move forward.”

“I heard you use the word decision making. You and I have talked on the phone a couple times and lead up to this, you’re very much interested in getting modeling and simulation to help the decision maker, to do the role of possibly creating budgeting, would you mind addressing some of that?” Buck asked. “As I answer this questions, I ask you to consider those four worlds I mentioned (policy, requirements, budget, and acquisition). I think we all can agree that every decision we make should be threaded for risk-based and data-enabled. Modeling and simulation can help us perhaps, define policy or certainly help us optimize policy whether it’s at a strategical operation or a tactical point of view, and certainly in execution. It can help us model what the right ways are and the right places to go,” says Grady.

As Admiral Grady emphasized, the integration of modeling, simulation, and data-driven decision-making is crucial for optimizing military readiness and execution. The ongoing advancements in these fields, showcased at I/ITSEC, are paving the way for a more agile, informed, and effective military force in the face of future challenges.