IED Q&A with Brigadier General Anthony R. Ierardi
GCT 2010 Volume: 1 Issue: 2 (August)
Anthony R. Ierardi
Director, Force Management
Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, G-3/5/7
United States Army
Brigadier General Anthony R. Ierardi was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pa., and entered the U.S. Army as an armor officer in 1982. The general has served throughout his career in cavalry and armor assignments, and also as a Latin American foreign area officer.
Ierardi currently serves as the director, Force Management, Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, G-3/5/7. Prior to his current assignment, he served as the executive officer for the Department of Defense’s Counter-IED Senior Integration Group.
In prior assignments, Ierardi served as the director, Joint and Futures, Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, G-8 and as deputy commander for Programs, Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan. He commanded Joint Task Force North at Fort Bliss, Texas, and served as director of Capabilities Developments, U.S. Army Capabilities Integration Center, U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, at Fort Monroe, Va. He also served as the chief of staff of the 2nd Infantry Division at Camp Red Cloud, Republic of Korea and as commander of the 2nd Infantry Division’s First “Iron” Brigade at Camp Casey, Korea. While assigned at Fort Hood, Texas, he served as the Operations Officer (G-3) of the 1st Cavalry Division and Commander of the 1st Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment.
Earlier in his career, the general served as a Cavalry Troop Commander in the 2nd Squadron, 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment in Bamberg, Germany and participated in Operation Desert Storm while assigned to the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment. Ierardi has trained and served as a Latin American foreign area officer, first as a student attending the Mexican Army’s Command and General Staff College (Escuela Superior de Guerra) in Mexico City, and later as the aide-de-camp to the commander of the U.S. Southern Command.
He graduated with a degree in business administration from Washington and Lee University, holds a Master of Arts degree in Latin American studies from Georgetown University and is also a graduate of both the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College and the U.S. Naval War College.
His awards include the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star, the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Army Commendation Medal, and the Army Achievement Medal.
Q: Secretary of Defense [Robert] Gates set up the C-IED Senior Integrated Group to look at the issues of IEDs and their defeat at the OSD level. Tell me about the work of the group to date. Is the group working under any timelines or goals that it is supposed to meet?
A: In November of 2009, the Secretary of Defense charged the Under Secretary for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, Dr. Ashton Carter, and the Joint Staff Director for Operations, J-3 Lieutenant General John Paxton, to integrate, prioritize and accelerate activities across the Department of Defense to counter the IED threat in Afghanistan. This effort came to be known as the Counter-IED Senior Integration Group, or “CSIG.” Secretary Gates’ decision to stand up the CSIG occurred in the context of increasing troop levels in Afghanistan coupled with increasing casualty rates due to IEDs.
CSIG does not represent the creation of a new organization or the duplication or replacement of an existing one. Rather, CSIG includes the participation and effort of all key organizations involved in supporting the counter-IED effort. Its primary purpose is to reduce the time it takes to get from C-IED requirement identification to the delivery of a capability in the field. CSIG works closely with CENTCOM and supporting COCOMs, the services, the OSD and Joint Staffs, the Joint IED Defeat Organization [JIEDDO] and other Defense agencies. Essentially, Secretary Gates charged Dr. Carter and Lieutenant General Paxton to break through bureaucratic obstacles in order to increase the department’s overall level of responsiveness to meet urgent C-IED requirements. As such, CSIG is not developing, procuring and delivering capabilities per se, but rather is focused on the necessary actions to forge rapid decision making and resource allocation, and to stimulate the process to deliver capabilities faster.
Consistent with the intent of the Secretary of Defense, CSIG has focused on prioritizing, integrating and accelerating the required enabling capabilities and activities to disrupt homemade explosives; to accelerate the delivery of critical C-IED enablers; to augment intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities that will enhance C-IED and force protection; to assist coalition forces in their preparation and execution of their missions in a challenging IED environment; and to work with the MRAP Joint Program Office, CENTCOM and relevant staffs to accelerate delivery of MRAPs to U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan.
With regard to a timeline, the CSIG is squarely focused on this critical period as the ramp up of forces to Afghanistan occurs, and will serve until the Secretary of Defense is satisfied that sufficient progress has been achieved.
Q: Should a greater emphasis be placed on defeating the IED or disrupting the infrastructure that orders, builds and places them?
A: There has been and will continue to be a concerted effort to apply resources and to employ capabilities and methods to attack and defeat or disrupt IED networks and to defeat IEDs. This requires the services to continually assess and adapt their pre-deployment training programs to prepare our service personnel to operate effectively to attack IED networks and defeat IEDs in a very dynamic and challenging environment.
Q: Should there be a single joint entity that manages C-IED efforts? Is JIEDDO best suited at this time to lead that effort?
A: In fulfilling the task to expedite C-IED capability to Afghanistan, CSIG has performed the role of “master integrator” among Department of Defense organizations responsible for delivering and supporting C-IED capabilities. CSIG’s value is that it is a single point of integration for C-IED efforts. For the past several years, JIEDDO has and continues to deliver critical C-IED specific material and non-material capabilities faster than the institution as a whole would otherwise provide. Departmentlevel task forces established by Secretary Gates work closely with the Joint Staff, CENTCOM and the services to expedite and integrate the delivery of ISR capabilities and lifesaving MRAPs; the Joint Staff and the services have adapted processes to decrease the response time for urgent C-IED requirements. Whether JIEDDO or another agency will be responsible for master integration following CSIG has yet to be decided.
Q: How much of the C-IED work should be done in theater, where it is closer to the threat?
A: The work to disrupt IED networks and to defeat the IED itself is a comprehensive effort that must continue to occur at all levels. In theater, there are robust C-IED and force protection programs that support commanders in the accomplishment of the mission. It is absolutely critical that we continue to provide everything that our deployed units and troops require to counter the IED threat as close to the enemy as possible. Conversely, as we know happens, ISAF forces will fight, learn and adapt to the environment in which the enemy employs IEDs. In turn, the requirements and acquisition processes of the department must be attentive to these changes occurring on the ground, and be nimble enough to respond to urgent requirements in days and weeks, not months or years.
Q: Is there any coordination or sharing of information, data and solutions with coalition partners to take advantage of their work in the field?
A: An important step in this area has been the migration of all the coalition partners in Afghanistan to the same network and communications nodes. This is absolutely crucial to the ongoing improvement in the coordination of C-IED efforts, information and lessons learned. ISAF and CENTCOM are working hard to expand coordination and information sharing among the coalition partners. Additionally, at the direction of Secretary Gates, EUCOM and the services are providing C-IED pre-deployment training and equipment to our NATO partners as appropriate. The COCOMs, JIEDDO and the services will continue to collaborate with NATO Allied Command Transformation to properly support NATO train and equip initiatives, and to expand access to relevant operation information to increase the C-IED preparation of our coalition partners. ♦