Portfolio Acquisition Executive Agile Sustainment and Ammunition (PAE AS&A)
PAE AS&A owns ammunition and combat sustainment as one capability area, from the energetics plant to the truck that carries the round forward. It gives a single authority control over ammunition requirements, development, testing, contracting, production, maintenance, and foreign military sales, which is the specific fragmentation the reform was designed to fix.
| Type | Portfolio Acquisition Executive (PAE) |
| Location | Picatinny_Arsenal, NJ |
| Portfolio Acquisition Executive | Christopher_Schneider (MG), since June 2026; also Commanding General, Picatinny_Arsenal |
| First PAE | John_Reim (MG) |
| Deputy PAE | Sean_Davis (MG) |
| Reports to | ASAALT for acquisition and materiel development; T2COM for requirements generation |
| Consolidates | JPEO_Armaments_and_Ammunition and most of PEO_CS_CSS |
| Established | Activation ceremony 20 January 2026 at Picatinny_Arsenal |
Mission
Own the agile sustainment and ammunition capability area: requirements, science and technology, contracting, acquisition, test, programming, production, sustainment, and international sales. Consolidating ammunition authority under one leader was the explicit goal, with industrial base modernization and production scale-up as the near-term problem.
It carries an embedded Senior Contracting Official with award authority.
Subordinate Organizations
- CPE_Ammunition_Energetics (CPE A&E) — Jason_Bohannon (COL); Picatinny_Arsenal, NJ; the joint Single_Manager_for_Conventional_Ammunition
- CPE_Combat_Logistics (presenting as CPE Combat Sustainment) — Michelle_Link (SES); Detroit_Arsenal, Warren, MI; tactical wheeled vehicles, engineer equipment, watercraft, expeditionary energy
In direct support: Army_Contracting_Command-New Jersey and ACC-Detroit Arsenal, ATEC, AMC and Joint_Munitions_Command for plant operations, and DEVCOM_Armaments_Center for science and technology.
Program Element families
See the two CPE pages. Ammunition production runs through the dedicated Procurement of Ammunition, Army appropriation; sustainment equipment through Other Procurement, Army. Industrial base capital sits in 0708045A End Item Industrial Preparedness Operations.
Why it matters
This portfolio holds the munitions industrial base problem. Plant modernization, energetics capacity, solid rocket motors, and 155mm rates are the most congressionally scrutinized industrial questions in defense, and this is the office that answers for them.
Two very different CPEs. Ammunition at Picatinny is chemistry, ordnance engineering, and government-owned plants. Combat sustainment at Detroit is commercial-derivative trucks and field equipment. A supplier will engage one or the other, rarely both.
“Agile sustainment” is a claim about contested logistics. Pairing ammunition with sustainment reflects a judgement that in a contested theater, the constraint on fires is not the launcher but the resupply chain. See Dispersal_Sustainment_Paradox.
Picatinny is a dual-hat installation now. The PAE is also the installation commanding general, which concentrates unusual authority in one place.
See Also
- ASAALT — acquisition chain
- T2COM — requirements chain; Sustainment_Center_of_Excellence
- CPE_Ammunition_Energetics, CPE_Combat_Logistics
- AMC, Joint_Munitions_Command, DEVCOM_Armaments_Center
- PAE_Maneuver, PAE_Maneuver_Air, PAE_Fires, PAE_C2_CC2, PAE_Layered_Protection_CBRN
- Army_Acquisition_Reform_2025, Defense_Industrial_Base, Defense_Acquisition_System