SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

The DoW is renewing the ASB in accordance with chapter 10 of title 5, United States Code ((U.S.C.,) (commonly known as the “Federal Advisory Committee Act” or ( printed page 25347) “FACA”) and 41 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 102-3.50(d), and DoW policies and procedures. The public or interested organizations may submit written statements about the ASB mission and functions. Written statements may be submitted at any time or in response to the stated agenda of planned meetings of the ASB. All written statements shall be submitted to the ASB Designated Federal Officer (DFO), and this individual will ensure that all written statements are provided to the membership for their consideration. The ASB's DFO is Ms. Ellen Holthoff, and she may be contact at (703) 697-0427, or ellen.l.holthoff.civ@army.mil. Consistent with 41 CFR 102-3.65(a), the DoW is publishing the ASB's Public Interest Determination.

Pursuant to 41 U.S.C. 102-3.60(a), to establish, renew, reestablish, or merge a discretionary (agency discretion) advisory committee, an agency must first consult with the General Services Administration's Committee Management Secretariat (the Secretariat) and, as part of the consultation, provide a written public interest determination approved by the head of the agency to the Secretariat with a copy to the Office of Management and Budget. In addition, pursuant to 41 U.S.C. 102-3.35, an agency shall follow the same consultation process and document in writing the same determination of need before creating a subcommittee under a discretionary committee that is not made up entirely of members of a parent advisory committee.

Information on the following factors for the committee is provided to the Secretariat to demonstrate that merging the committee is in the public interest:

1. Annual Budget: The estimated annual operating cost of the ASB, to include personnel, travel, meetings, and contract support, is approximately $3,300,624.00.

a. Federal personnel on a full-time equivalent basis: The estimated ASB's annual fully burdened personnel cost to the DoW are 5.0 full-time equivalents at $953,990.00, which includes basic pay with cost-of-living allowances.

b. Other Federal internal Costs: Estimated program elements to support ASB parent committee administration, operations, meeting support, contractor costs, and contracted services is $299,846. Estimated meeting space, facility support, and FRN notices are $71,362. Estimated program elements to support the following subcommittee administration, operations, meeting support, and contract support costs:

(1) Basic Sciences and Enabling and Disruptive Technologies Subcommittee: $200,000.00.

(2) C5ISR and Digital (Information Technologies) Subcommittee: $230,000.00.

(3) Environmental Advisory Subcommittee: $180,000.00.

(4) Intelligence and Assessment Subcommittee: $150,000.00.

(5) Medical Operations Subcommittee: $220,000.00.

(6) Systems Engineering and Sustainment: $200,000.00.

(7) Weapons Systems Subcommittee: $150,000.00.

c. Proposed payments to members: Consistent with 10 U.S.C. 173, members of the ASB are not compensated for their services, except for travel and per diem reimbursement for official ASB-related business.

d. Proposed number of members: As authorized by the Secretary of War (SecWar), the ASB will be composed of not more than 20 members and subcommittees, if authorized, will be composed of not more than 15 members.

e. Reimbursable costs: The estimated reimbursement costs, to include travel, for ASB staff and members are $645,426.00.

2. If applicable, the total dollar value of grants is expected to be recommended during the fiscal year: N/A.

3. Criteria for selecting members to ensure the committee has the necessary expertise and fairly balanced membership: As described in its proposed charter and membership balance plan, the ASB will be composed of members who are eminent authorities in the fields of science; technology; manufacturing; acquisition; logistics; science-related business management functions, natural ( e.g., biology, ecology, etc.), social ( e.g., anthropology, community planning, etc.), and related sciences; and other matters of special interest to the DoW, germane to DoW scientific, technological, and innovation matters. Membership will consist of talented private and public sector leaders possessing a multiplicity of experience, background, and thought in support of the ASB's mission.

In selecting members, the DoW seeks to capitalize on recognized talented, innovative private and public sector leaders to provide the broadest knowledge and expertise base in a balanced ASB membership composition. The ASB's membership balance is not static, and the SecWar may change the membership based upon work assigned to the ASB by the SecWar and Deputy Secretary of War (“the DoW Appointing Authority”) or the Secretary of the Army, as the ASB's DoW Sponsor.

4. List of all other DoW Federal Advisory Committees: A complete listing of DoW Federal advisory committees can be located at: https://www.facadatabase.gov/​FACA/​s/​account/​001t000000DCAooAAH/​department-of-defense.

5. Justification that the information or advice provided by the Federal advisory committee or subcommittee is not available from another Federal advisory committee, another Federal Government source, or any other more cost-effective and less burdensome source: The ASB was initially established by the Department of the Army in August 1954, and subsequent to the enactment of the FACA, it was re-established as a DoD Federal advisory committee. As described in the ASB's charter, the ASB provides independent advice and recommendations on matters pertaining to the Department of the Army scientific, technological, and innovation enterprises by focusing on matters concerning science, technology, and innovation as they pertain to the United States Army's clear mission: to protect the American people and the homeland as the world's most lethal and effective fighting force. In addressing these matters, the ASB will support the administration's priorities of rebuilding the U.S. Army, prioritizing the protection of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the U.S., and reestablishing deterrence as envisioned by: Executive Order (E.O.) 14167, “Clarifying the Military's Role in Protecting the Territorial Integrity of the United States,” dated January 20, 2025; E.O. 14179, “Removing Barriers to American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence,” dated January 23, 2025; E.O. 14186, “The Iron Dome for America,” dated January 27, 2025; E.O. 14307, “Unleashing American Drone Dominance,” dated June 6, 2025; SecWar Address, Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, September 30, 2025; and SecWar Memorandum, “The Warrior Ethos and Standards at the War Department,” dated October 6, 2025.

As currently structured, the ASB focuses on injecting fresh perspectives from the private sector into DoW and Department of the Army practices, emphasizing rapid innovation, software acquisition, leveraging emergent technologies, and ways the Department can align structures, processes, incentives, and human capital best practices to accelerate and scale innovation adoption to catalyze a Department-wide innovation and experimentation mindset. This provides the strategic and tactical advantage ( printed page 25348) options needed to compete and overmatch in the technology- and innovation-driven environments that define modern competition and conflict; as well as enhance national security efforts, maximize lethality, and boost warfighting capabilities. The ASB serves as a key advisory body tackling some of the most complex technical challenges in science and technology (S&T), innovation to provide advice and recommendations to inform the SecWar and Secretary of the Army on achieving national strategic priorities through increased lethality. The ASB's work is driven by an emphasis on making America's warfighter successful in any mission on any battlefield. Its value is reflected in DoW stakeholder adoption of advice and recommendations resulting in the creation of significant new capabilities, policies, architectures, and investments. The ASB focuses on prioritizing the revival of our defense industrial base, leveraging low-cost and agile commercial opportunities, reforming acquisition processes, rapidly prototyping and fielding emerging technologies, as well as establishing S&T options to reenforce deterrence in the face of any opponent. Because the ASB acts as a specialized, independent conduit for agile commercial innovation directly focused on maximizing U.S. Army lethality and modernizing the defense industrial base, no other existing Federal advisory committee or internal government source can provide this specific expertise as effectively or efficiently.

6. If the consultation is a committee renewal, a summary of the previous accomplishments of the committee and the reasons it needs to continue: In Fiscal Year (FY) 2025, the ASB deliberated on the findings and advanced its recommendations to DoW stakeholders from its “Transformation of Intelligence Processing, Exploitation, and Dissemination (PED)” study. The Army adopted 75% of the Board's recommendations, as outlined in “HQDA EXORD 033-25 CONTINUOUS TRANSFORMATION-TRANSFORMING PED” (21 May 2025). The Board deliberated on the findings and advanced its recommendations to DoW stakeholders from its “Data-Centric Command and Control (C2)” that informed CG AFC (GEN Rainey) memo “Next Generation Command and Control (NGC2) Capability Characteristics of Need” (2 December 2024). The Chief of Staff of the Army (GEN George) endorsed the memo and used study data to refine key elements of the Decision Optimization CONOPS 2024. Finally, the ASB's Medical Operations Subcommittee completed the final draft of its “Assessment of Combat Ready Medical Forces” for submission to and deliberation by the ASB. The study's findings informed “The Surgeon General's (TSG) Initial Assessment and Strategic Direction” (8 July 2024) which stated, “I assess we are unable to meet the medical demands predicted in LSCO.” In FY2023 the “Surge Capacity in the Defense Munitions Industrial Base” study provided findings and recommendations regarding munitions requirements, governance, sustainable procurement, capital investment, contracting while the ASB's report “An Independent Assessment of the Army Implementation of Digital Engineering (DE)” examined progress, challenges, and opportunities to enable successful adoption of digital engineering by the Army.

Prior to the suspension of its operations in March 2025 the ASB was engaged in five studies. “Army Technology Adoption” was examining the ways in which Army requirements, testing, and acquisition communities can support ongoing changes as operations exploit the advantages of emerging technologies. For the Army to take advantage of robots, automated target recognition, and other software-dependent technologies (which require continuous updating), the acquisition and sustainment become more like DEVOPS, with testing, experimentation, training, fielding, and Soldier feedback all in a rapidly refreshing cycle. “Data-Centric Command and Control” was assessing the Army's strategies and obstacles associated with implementing a dynamic, data-centric command and control (C2) framework. The assessment focused on Army capabilities in a Multi-Domain Operations (MDO) environment. The objective was to ensure that the Army is properly aligning Science and Technology acquisition to support C2 Systems, meeting MDO mission command needs, and using `best practices' across government, industry, and academia. “Transformation of Intelligence Processing, Exploitation, and Dissemination (PED), Phase II” was analyzing the Army PED requirements and resources, identifying gaps between the two, and determining how best to mitigate any shortfalls and assess risk. “Training Opportunities Related to Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) for Staff at U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE)” was to provide a summary of training and professional development opportunities relevant to different Communities of Practice within USACE that address aspects of NBS and hybrid approaches across different systems and applications. “Recommendation for Evaluation to Streamline USACE Planning Model Approval and Review Process for use in Civil Works Water Resource Development Projects” was working to provide recommendations on how to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of USACE planning model review and certification process.

A full list of ASB accomplishments can be found here: https://asb.army.mil.

7. Explanation of why the committee/subcommittee is essential to the conduct of agency business: As described by the SecWar, the DoW mission is “warfighting, preparing for war and preparing to win” the Nation's wars with “victory our only acceptable end state.” A strong, viable military is essential to the defense of the U.S. homeland and hemispheric security. The ASB provides the SecWar, Secretary of the Army, and other senior DoW officials key advice and recommendations on strategies, capabilities, technologies, and innovations to win the Nation's wars, protect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the homeland and our access to key terrain throughout the region, restore American military dominance in the Western Hemisphere, deny adversaries' ability to position forces or other threatening capabilities in our hemisphere, maintain a favorable balance of military power in the Indo-Pacific, support commitment to allies and international partners, and ensure the lethality and readiness of America's fighting force to further the goal of peace through strength.

The increasing threat of attack by ballistic, hypersonic, and cruise missiles, and other advanced aerial attacks, remains the most catastrophic threat facing the U.S. As described in this memorandum, the ASB's independent advice or recommendations to the SecWar, Secretary of the Army, and other senior DoW officials cannot be duplicated, whether inside the DoW or the Executive Branch. Its advice is tailored toward broad aspects of the Department of the Army's S&T enterprise to ensure we have the strongest, most powerful, most lethal, and most prepared military on the planet. It will provide a force multiplier for Army innovation that bolsters national security. This office is unaware of any U.S. government or non-government entity that could provide the same level of national security S&T enterprise expertise necessary “to ensure the American military remains the most lethal and dominant on the planet, not merely for a few years, but ( printed page 25349) for the decades and generations to come.”

91 FR 25346