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Reports from AUSA Winter Symposium
03/04/2008
Ford: Army Budget Must Increase Because of Mission
In regards to current and future budgets, the Army will need to stretch every dollar to buy more capability with the same amount of money, according to Nelson Ford, acting under secretary of the Army and assistant secretary of the Army for financial management and comptroller.
Addressing the dinner audience Feb. 28 at the Association of the United States Army’s Winter Meeting and Exposition, Ford speculated that the “money is probably going to dry up,” and he urged defense and industry leaders to find equipment that’s cheaper to buy, operate and maintain.
“That does not mean junk,” Ford said. “That means Toyota and Honda, who already build more than 20 percent of the vehicles built in this country. That means squad leader radios the size, weight and cost of a Blue Tooth headset.”
Ford said the base budget needs to be increased because the Army’s mission exceeds its budget.
The Army is gaining new missions overseas and homeland defense costs are skyrocketing.
“It is unrealistic for Congress to task expanded expectations without expanded resources,” he said.
The Fiscal Year 2009 budget coupled with supplemental funding will set the Army on the path to restore balance while building future strategic flexibility, Ford said.
This will require modernized equipment and technology as well as better organization, doctrine and training.
Despite the bleak budget outlook, Ford noted that “tens of thousands continue to volunteer.”
Adding, “If you need your faith in this country restored, go talk to some muddy boot soldiers, and ask them how they’re doing.”
Ford said the Army is “stretched but not broken,” and soldiers remain committed to missions and those they protect.
Please CLICK HERE to read Ford's speech in it's entirety.
New Army Operations Manual – FM 3.0 -- Debuted
What likely was “the most reviewed and vetted manual since Airland Battle,” FM 3.0 Operations officially debuted Feb. 28, and the Army described its “impact on the force and the application of the doctrine is likely to be revolutionary.”
Gen. William “Scott” Wallace, speaking at the Association of the United States Army’s Symposium and Exposition in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., said one premise of the manual, 2 ½ years in the works, is that “National security is inextricably linked to global security” and “local security requires land power.”
The manual “is about the commander,” Lt. Gen. William Caldwell, commanding general of the Combined Arms Center and Fort Leavenworth, Kan., said. The last time the Army updated its operations manual was during the summer of 2001 before the “notion of persistent conflict” began to take hold in the wake of the terrorist attacks on the United States on Sept. 11.
The manual also takes into account lessons from the continuing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
To succeed in that changing environment requires “a whole government approach,” employing diplomatic, information, military and economic tools.
Caldwell said drafts of the manual were taken to the media, academia, think tanks, junior officers, noncommissioned officers and retirees for comment. In addition drafts were sent to the other services, the Defense Department and meetings were held with other governmental agencies and non-governmental agencies to solicit their comments about the manual’s content and approach.
As an example of other department’s input, Lt. Col. Steve Leonard, one of the manual’s authors, said, “The State Department laid out the tasks, articulated who ought to be there and at what stage.”
The manual also recognized “operations in the next several decades will be amongst people,” Wallace said Feb. 28. Adding, “The threat will be unpredictable, sometimes asymmetric” that will require the simultaneous use of offensive, defensive and stability operations.
The manual states: “Army doctrine now equally weights tasks dealing with the population – stability or civil support – with those related to offensive and defensive operations. Winning battles and engagements is important but not alone is not sufficient. Shaping the civil situation is just as important to success.”
Clinton J. Ancker, director of the Combined Arms Doctrine Directorate at Fort Leavenworth, said, “This articulates what we’ve been doing for five or six years.”
In the foreword to the manual, Wallace wrote, “FM 3.0 institutionalizes this recognition that stability operations are part of military operations and ensures that stability ops are a more conscious portion of what we prepare for and execute in the future.”
“It will not change the Army into a bunch of herbivores, but strikes a balance,” he added in his AUSA address. Adding, “One has to understand the environment, the problem you are trying to solve. One cannot visualize unless one understands” and “must constantly assess the environment” in which the operations are taking place. That assessment includes cultural awareness, history, politics and the economy.
The manual predicts: “The operational environment will remain a dirty, frightening, physically and emotionally draining one in which death and destruction result from environmental conditions creating humanitarian crisis as well as conflict itself.”
At the same time, the manual recognizes the central role of information now and in the future.
Col. Wayne Parks, also from the Combined Arms Center, said “Information is an element of combat. … Every operation requires an information element.”
The manual divides five information management tasks and assigns responsibility for military deception, command and control warfare, information protections operations and information engagement.
As to using military deception with the press, Caldwell said media were not to be lied to. “The media are only used to inform. … There is a clear black and white line.”
Parks said recognizing the power of information in the spectrum of military operations raises questions, such as: Do we need an information platoon? -- What is a cyber warrior in the future?
Ancker said that the Army is already putting resources toward implementing 3.0. He cited human terrain teams, red teams who advise commanders with different points of view, increasing the number of psychology operations and civil affairs specialists. “We expect to re-look all our headquarters.”
While the manual lays out requirements for skills in the future, Caldwell said, “Current force structure is finite. … Some tough decisions lay ahead in Army and defense.”
To succeed over time in attracting recruits who have or can be taught these needed skills, “You have to develop a career path” for them “to maintain the skill set,” Leonard said.
Wallace said that he expected the manual to be updated in about five years. Caldwell added that the center is seeking additional comments for follow-up manuals and a later revision of 3.0. The manual is available at www.adtdl.army.mil.
Upcoming Training Manual – 7.0 – will Parallel 3.0
When the Army publishes in a few months its new manual on training, it “will be evolutionary” and in “parallel with 3.0,” the recently released operations publication.
Col. (P) Robert Abrams, deputy commander for training at the Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., said, before the writing began the approach was: “Let’s not throw out the baby with the bath water.”
Another difference from past practice was “Instead of doing [a standard] staffing of the document, we went to the field” beginning in 2006. The result “is a much better product” that “focuses on the ‘what’ of training” and “is written at the level that the captains, the lieutenants, sergeants can understand it.”
He said a follow-up manual, 7.1, will be devoted to tactics, techniques and procedures in training.
In 7.0, Abrams said there will be a distinction made between a standardized Core Mission Essential Task List established for every brigade and a Directed Mission Essential Task List when the unit receives a mission.
Full implementation of this change remains in the future “until we can get sufficient dwell time.”
“Everyone of the warfighting functions [such as stability operations, civil support and the operations process] will have their own manual,”
Clinton Ancker, director of the Combined Arms Doctrine Directorate at Fort Leavenworth, Kan, said, “We need to re-look the military decision-making process and the five paragraph field order” to meet future needs.
Cody: ‘Your Army has not Taken a Knee’
“Your Army has not taken a knee” in combat operations, base realignment and closure, modernization and transformation since the fall of the Berlin Wall almost 20 years ago, the Army’s vice chief of staff told attendees at the Association of the United States Army’s Symposium and Exposition in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Gen. Richard Cody, speaking Feb. 29, said, “We’re going to be in this type of fight” for decades.
But, he added, “We can’t go into the next fight with a decline in resources … and end strength. We’re going to have to make the case” for continued support from the public, the Congress and future administrations. “If we don’t get our Army modernized, we’ll go into the next fight with the same issues” of readiness facing it as it did in the early days of World I, World War II and Korea. “It takes money.”
He said the Army has led the way from its Force XXI experiments in the mid-1990s through the experimental task force at Fort Bliss, Texas, that will lead to the Future Brigade Combat Team.
“The people are the center” of all this activity to ensure that “lessons learned” become “lessons applied.”
He said soldiers today in Afghanistan and Iraq are already applying concepts embodied in the Army’s new operations manual that links stability operations, offensive and defensive operations.
Cody said that since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 the Army has conducted more than 40 operations that tied together all those elements of operations.
“To say they are an impressive group doesn’t do [company and battalion commanders] justice.”
Adding, “There’s no lack of confidence and competence in our young leaders.”
As examples of this, Cody cited a battalion’s distribution of radios to Afghanis in rural areas to help spread information from the central government as an example of moving back and forth between stability operations, while defending a mountainous section along the Pakistan border, raiding Taliban safe houses and working with local officials on their problems and concerns.
Cody, who will be retiring in the fall, said he asks himself and invited his audience to do the same: “Am I doing everything I can for these young soldiers?”
Transitions Under Pressure will Continue
Reflecting on the changes in Army civilian and uniformed leadership over the past year, the service’s senior acquisition official said, “We’re going to continue to be busy” as “transitions under pressure will continue” and the current administration winds down.
Dean Popps, acting assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology, told attendees at a special and technology forum sponsored by the Association of the United States Army, we are transitioning in 2008 to be in synch and aware of what the Congress thinks and its schedule.”
Speaking Feb. 27 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., he said it was essential that the handoff to a new administration be seamless when it occurs the next year. Popps added that senior civilians in the Army are constantly asking: “How do we transition to a new team, to a new administration?”
What is also changing is the use of the acquisition force, he said, especially its work in Iraq reconstruction efforts.
Popps said using laws first given to the Coalition Provisional Authority, more than 4,400 reconstruction projects valued at $45 billion have been undertaken in Iraq.
Among other things, two projects have translated into production of 3,000 barrels of oil a day and supplying electricity to Baghdad 80 percent of the time.
“This is the largest Army project since World War II, possibly ever.”
Maj. Gen. Richard Formica, director of force management for G-3/5/7, said internally the Army’s largest transitions are coming over the next few years in growing the force by 74,000 soldiers and moving the reserve components from a strategic to an operational reserve.
“We found that [the Quadrennial Defense Review] force wasn’t enough” and “a feature of this growth was six brigade combat teams” and more combat sustainment brigades. “This takes into account lessons from current requirements.”
For the reserve components, the lessons included the new yearlong mobilization policy “and a shift from tiered readiness to cyclic readiness” for all components.
Mine Protected Vehicles are being Fielded
The fielding of the 1,600 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles in Iraq is setting new standards for lifecycle management, the senior noncommissioned officer with Army’s Tank-Automotive Command’s lifecycle management command told attendees at a science and technology forum sponsored by the Association of the United States Army.
Speaking Feb. 27 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Command Sgt. Maj. Otis Cuffee said, “We are taking it from the factory, taking it to country, training the unit, then that team will stay with them to sustain them and the team will train the next unit coming in.”
In Iraq, they are giving operators 40 hours of training in handling the vehicles and also training and performing field level maintenance on the vehicles “to make sure [soldiers] understand everything that is going on.”
At the same time, the command is cataloging vehicles and stock numbers on parts to keep the supply lines open in and out of theater.
As more MRAPs come off production lines and units have enough time, Cuffee said that the same training for operators and maintainers will be offered at home station before deployment.
Globalization – Good News, Bad News
The good news about globalization has made the Army far more effective. The bad news is that U.S. adversaries can use globalization in much the same way.
Maj. Gen. Barbara G. Fast, deputy director and chief of staff for the Army Training and Doctrine Command’s capabilities integration center, said the reach of telecommunications – specifically the Internet – has enhanced the capabilities of terrorist organizations.
While the Army has benefited from the use of networking systems, the enemies of the United States and its allies can more effectively spread their word and global reach.
Speaking Feb. 27 at the science and technology forum before the Association of the United States Army’s Winter Symposium and Exposition, Fast said the information highway has led to poorer areas, and people now realize what they don’t have.
At the current rate of urbanization, 60 percent of the world’s population will have migrated to cities within the next several years, and that will create stresses in those areas that can be exploited.
The Army must optimize its force but project to operate in “spectrum of irregular warfare,” Fast said.
Much like what’s going on in Iraq and Afghanistan, pockets of unstable peace will spring up, and the Army will be called on to react.
The future Army will be a full spectrum operations force that can function between offensive and defensive capabilities, she said.
The Army has to look at creating a force in perspective of its entire operating environment instead of “just a force unto itself.”
S&T is United to Doctrine, Training, Materiel, Soldiers
Science and technology (S&T) advancements will go a long way but don’t create capabilities by themselves – capabilities will be created from a union between S&T, doctrine, training, materiel and soldiers, said Maj. Gen. Barbara G. Fast, deputy director and chief of staff for the Army Training and Doctrine Command’s capabilities integration center.
Speaking at S&T forum before the Association of the United States Army’s Winter Symposium and Exposition, Fast said, “All of that combined creates capability.”
Work with the requirements and acquisition communities helps to create “revolutionary capabilities,” added Thomas H. Killion, deputy assistant secretary of the Army for research and technology.
To enhance the current force, Army leadership has to take technology programs for the future and look for opportunities to accelerate and bring them into the current fight.
Killion said that defense and industry has to think about the way equipment is designed to enhance a soldier’s capability but can’t overburden that soldier with too much equipment.
Killion said accomplishments just this past year include:
- Mid-range munition. Developed for the Future Combat Systems, it is compatible with the Abrams and gives guide-to-hit capability and extended range of gun systems beyond line of sight.
- Future force warrior. Gives soldiers enhanced networking and body armor.
- Battlemind training. Has better prepared soldiers for rigors of combat and ensures they have what they need when facing those rigors.
Fast noted technologies that the Army is facing today and looking at for tomorrow:
- Power and energy. Alternative fuel and energy supplies will help the Army reduce its logistics trail. The goal is to have self-sustaining units and soldiers.
- Human dimension. S&T will help soldiers react to stress and combat situations, and also it will help combatant commanders make sense of information so they can make better decisions.
- Battle command network. From the home station to deployment, soldiers will have essential information all along the way from the commander down to the last soldier into the field.
- Counter-improvised explosive devices and mines. Not just powder and explosives of today but what adversaries are looking at for tomorrow.
- Training. Impart skills faster and at a lower cost with an eye on better retention rates.
Over the past five to six years, the Army has fielded 94 systems, and there are 64 different programs that are scheduled to go into service over the next 10 years, Brig. Gen. Marvin K. McNamara, director of joint and futures for the deputy chief of staff, G-8, said.
Force protection remains the number one priority whether it is armor for soldiers or vehicles or strategy in concept of operations.
“The threat changes weekly” in Afghanistan and Iraq. “We don’t like it changing annually. We want to see it five years out,” Maj. Gen. Fred D. Robinson, commanding general of the Army Research, Development and Engineering Command, said.
Looking beyond Future Combat Systems fielding, Gary Martin, deputy to the commander of the Army Research, Development and Engineering Command, said, there was a need for advanced wireless security.
Adding, “The threat will continue to grow … as technology evolves and sensors more oriented for urban operations “focusing more on closed hatch operations” to counter snipers, integrated laser designation and more dismounted capability for soldiers.
Quality of Army Recruits Remains High
The commanding general of the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command said that the quality of recruits and Army overall remains high and “a helluva lot better than good enough.”
Speaking Feb. 28 at the Association of the United States Army’s Symposium and Exposition in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Gen. William “Scott” Wallace said 80 percent of the 107,000 soldiers recruited last fiscal year required no waivers.
Six percent had a history of drug and alcohol abuse in the past, but no current record and had passed substance abuse testing. He added that 45 percent of the waivers given for arrests and convictions were for misdemeanors and reminded the audience that there are differences among the states as to what constitutes a felony. “Not all felonies are created equal.”
Wallace said that less than 600 of the recruits were convicted of felonies. “Their records were reviewed by 10 people from the recruiter to a general officer” before they were allowed to enlist.
At a Defense Senate Appropriations Subcommittee hearing Feb. 28, Army Secretary Pete Geren said. “We’ve found that those soldiers we bring in under waivers -- and it’s a very painstaking and labor-intensive process, but every soldier that we bring in under a waiver is required to go through a 10-step approval process. And somebody with any sort of serious information in his or her past has to be reviewed by a general officer.”
Adding, “We’ve found that those waiver soldiers -- and we did a study of all 17,000 waiver soldiers that came in from ‘01 to ‘06, and they -- we’ve done a good job of picking those soldiers out of the many applicants that seek to join the Army.
“They’ve proven to promote faster than those who came in through the normal process. They’ve had more awards for valor than their -- those who came in outside of the waiver process.”
How recruits are being enticed to join the Army has been a matter of concern on Capitol Hill in early 2008.
“The Army has already planned an additional $938 million in emergency supplemental funding during FY 2008 to support the active duty recruiting program, and that’s about a 70 percent increase in the amount budgeted for recruiting during Fiscal Year 2008.” Rep. Susan Davis, D-Calif., said at a House Armed Services Committee hearing Feb.28.
At that hearing, Gen. George Casey, Army chief of staff, said, “I believe we’ve never had to sustain an all-volunteer force with volunteer recruits through a long war, as we have now.
“We’ve seen many of the changes you can attribute to the war, but we have seen the propensity to enlist has gone down significantly. The influencers -- parents, teachers, coaches -- their propensity to encourage a young person to enlist has gone down as well. And the costs of recruiting in the midst of this war are higher than they would be, were it not for the war.”
Before the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, Geren said, “The quality of high school education varies a lot across the nation and varies a lot within states -- we have many young men and women who are high school diploma grads who don’t score as well on the aptitude tests as some of the young people we bring in who are not high school diploma grads.
“So we -- when we look at aptitude, these -- our aptitude tests, we feel, are good indicators of somebody’s ability to succeed in the Army.”
Basic, Advanced Soldier Training Improved
The Army’s Training and Doctrine Command will begin assessing this spring the impact of adding a week to basic training without requiring recruits to master any additional tasks.
Describing the shift to 10 weeks of basic as a pilot program, Gen. William “Scott” Wallace told attendees at the Association of the United States Army’s Symposium and Exposition in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., “We need to make adjustments.”
The command plans to return to the 10-week basic in October. “Our drill sergeants were appreciative” of having the extra time to work with the recruits in building their soldier skills. The skills included certifying all who graduate from basic in combat lifesaving. “Folks in the field said that was the right thing to do.”
Adding, “We also replaced drill sergeants in AIT with platoon sergeants” because they “spent 90 percent of their time on administrative tasks.”
At the same time in Advanced Individual Training, “We made platform instructors also squad leaders.”
He said the command was on track in reducing 13 schools to eight centers of excellence as part of the Base Realignment and Closure program to be completed by September 2011.
Wallace, speaking Feb. 28, said that the command’s 349 Mobile Training Teams are going to Forces Command installations to offer both functional courses and shorten time in the schoolhouse for the Noncommissioned Officer Education System.
American Soldier College Aids Recruiting
Twelve colleges and universities have joined together to help build the “College of the American Soldier,” the commanding general of the Army Training and Doctrine Command said in an address in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and he expects it to be an important recruiting tool into the future.
Speaking Feb. 28 at the Association of the United States Army’s Symposium and Exposition, Gen. William “Scott” Wallace said he expects more institutions to join the consortium over time.
The idea for the college came from recently retired TRADOC Command Sgt. Maj. John Sparks who “had 300 credit hours and no degree” because the credits came from a variety of schools and were not transferrable, Wallace said.
The consortium would allow credits to transfer among its members and they are “beginning to credential courses that soldiers routinely take.” He said the review is going through all TRADOC schools and programs of instruction.
Wallace said the goal would be for a soldier to receive at least an associate’s degree in a 20-year career and possibly a bachelor’s and master’s degree upon completion of the Sergeants Major Academy.
Decision Time -- Retaining Junior Officers, Enlisted Soldiers
Communication from senior leaders to junior officers is important when it comes time to make that decision to remain in the Army or separate, according to Lt. Gen. David P. Valcourt, deputy commanding general and chief of staff of the Army’s Training and Doctrine Command.
In response to a question from the audience during a panel session at the Association of the United States Army’s Winter Symposium and Exposition, Valcourt said leadership should take the time to talk junior officers and not let them make the decision by themselves. The same holds true for enlisted soldiers who are “at the crossroads.”
Valcourt said there are three types of soldiers: those who are fully committed to staying in the Army, those who are committed to their duty but won’t stay in no matter “how big the check,” and then the “fence sitters” who are in the middle.
Those who are aren’t committed yet are the most important group to try and reach. Prior to his position at TRADOC, Valcourt served as commanding general of 8th United States Army, and he said command-sponsored tours and decreasing length of time separated from family will help retention rates.
Valcourt also noted that he saw an increasing amount of NCOs in the E-6 and E-7 grades moving on to warrant officer or officer candidate school, and while that appears to be a good thing, it depletes the pool of potential first sergeants and command sergeants major.
More educational opportunities for those soldiers will help them they in the enlisted ranks so they stay in and move up to more senior NCO positions.
Command climate, job satisfaction and quality of life are also issues facing officers and enlisted, and “it’s about us being able to deliver the contract” on predictability and stability,” Maj. Gen. Virgil L. Packett II, commanding general of the U.S. Army Aviation Warfighter Center and Fort Rucker, Ala., added.
Maj. Gen. Peter M. Vangjel, commanding general of the U.S. Army Field Artillery Center and Fort Sill, Okla., also noted that a lot of times, soldiers are in jobs they weren’t originally trained to do.
While they are doing a “superb job as a pentathlete,” they are left with an uncertainty of what’s going to happen in their future career. It “puts them at a disadvantage,” – they’re not receiving the continued training on their original job, and they won’t have the confidence if they are called on to go out and do that job, he said.
“We need to make them feel like they are making a contribution,” Packett added.
Combat Wounds Survival Rate is Unprecedented
Improved medical procedures and equipment have helped service members survive combat wounds at unprecedented rates, according to Brig. Gen. David A. Rubenstein, the Army’s deputy surgeon general.
Speaking at the Association of the United States Army’s Winter Symposium and Exposition, Rubenstein said soldiers have survived 90 percent of their wounds in Operation Iraqi Freedom and 87 percent in Operation Enduring Freedom.
Combat survival has steadily climbed since World War II when service members survived only 70 percent of their injuries in combat.
Advancements in trauma care as well as improvements in equipment have directly contributed to this increase, Rubenstein said.
This includes:
- Improved first aid kits.
- Chitosan field dressings – do a better job at stopping bleeding.
- Warrior aid and litter kits -- equipped in all vehicles.
- Hypothermia prevention kits -- help retain a patient’s core heat.
- Tourniquets -- increased survival up to 14 percent.
- Plasma – lasts longer than whole blood and increases the likelihood of survival.
- Forward surgical teams – located as far forward as possible. Injured soldiers are “under the knife” as soon as possible.
- “68W” combat medics – national registered EMTs with pre-hospital trauma and cardiac life support training.
All of this has helped speed the time it takes to get injured soldiers proper medical care. “We used to talk about the golden hour. Now it’s the platinum 10 minutes,” Rubinstein said. Twenty-three percent of soldiers evacuated to Landstuhl for additional medical care return to duty from the medical center in Germany while the remaining 77 percent are evacuated to the United States, Rubinstein said.
Of the 77 percent, two-thirds return to duty, the remaining third go before a board to determine if they are separated or can return to duty. The latest Army Medical Action Plan has helped increase the likelihood that soldiers can return to duty because medical professionals ensure wounded warriors receive the proper care and rehabilitation, Rubenstein said.
There are currently 9,500 wounded soldiers assigned to Warrior Training Units, and while assigned there, their only mission is to heal themselves.
There are 35 Warrior Training Units with more than 2,000 cadre taking care of those wounded warriors, Rubenstein said.
The Army’s comprehensive care plan focuses on the soldier’s body, mind, heart and spirit to help them in their recovery.
Modernizing the Soldier is Happening Fast
The Army is spending most of its money on equipping the soldier, but it’s still a bargain in an era of persistent conflict, according to Brig. Gen. Robert Brown, program executive officer, soldier, and commanding general of the Soldier Systems Center.
The soldier is a system and is the only platform that stands upon itself, Brown told attendees of the Association of the United States Army’s Winter Symposium and Exposition. The soldier is the Army’s most deployed and lethal combat system. Modernizing the soldier is happening faster than any time in history, Brown said.
For instance, there have been nine recent changes to soldier armor, and three changes to the helmet.
“It’s chaotic. It’s happening very fast and is a huge management challenge, but that’s what we try to do – get the best to the best,” he said.
Lt. Gen. Stephen M. Speakes, Army deputy chief of staff, G-8, said the Future Combat Systems (FCS) is almost a misnomer because “it’s happening now.”
FCS components reach the field as soon as testing and evaluation is complete because soldiers can impact the fight immediately with that new equipment. “Modernization is continuous,” Speakes said. “We must think of what the soldier needs five to 10 years in the future.”
Speakes said the Army’s goals are to have a balanced force by 2011, increase supply over demand, continue to bring FCS technologies to the fighting force, utilize the Army Experimental Task Force to evaluate and speed evolving technology, address resourcing strategy that synchronizes funding to support an Army at war, and implement a reset plan to synchronize and improve unit life cycles.
To accomplish this, the Army must sustain an all-volunteer force, build full spectrum capability, continue modernization and acquire needed fiscal resources, Speakes said.
Degrade Violent Extremists’ Operations; Defeat al Qaeda
“What does a win look like? That’s kind of where we are in Iraq and Afghanistan,” the deputy commanding general, U.S. Central Command, told attendees at the Association of the United States Army’s Winter Symposium and Exposition in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey, speaking Feb. 29, said that means “not only in the near term.” When the question of where is Iraq in America’s long-term interests is answered, then the discussion about the size of American forces there can begin, he said
Immediate command goals include degrading violent extremists’ operations and defeating al Qaeda.
“Clearly, the single most important thread” in CENTCOM’s goals. Others include setting conditions for stability in Iraq, expand governance and security in Afghanistan, positioning the force to build and sustain joint and combined warfighting capabilities and readiness and strengthening relations to influence states.
He added, “We’re doing a lot better than when I first went to Iraq” in 2003. He described the command’s area of responsibility as a series of maritime and land flashpoints that begin with Israel and Palestine and move to the Kurds in Syria, Iraq, Iran and Turkey; include piracy and attacks on oil refineries; areas that have become terrorist sanctuaries or are beset by humanitarian crisis; and end in the political conflict now gripping Pakistan.
In the military response to the region, there are three joint task forces operating under its control in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Horn of Africa.
Dempsey, who has been nominated to become to commander of U.S. Army Europe, said the command sees as “an enduring requirement” confronting irregular warfare, holding a core competency in building partners’ security forces, seeing the need of moving much of what is now coming from emergency spending bills to the base budget and maintaining operational flexibility and readiness.
“In communications, [Central Command is] not diverse.” The command has “got to figure out what we need in the future. We want access to data at the speed of Google.”
Communications can also be a sticking point among countries in the region. Dempsey said they have no historically acted regionally “They like to think of bilateral relations.”
We are not Going Back, We are Going Forward
“We are not going back to the Army of the ‘70s and ‘80s. We are going forward,” the Army’s deputy G-4 told attendees at the Association of the United States Army’s Winter Symposium and Exposition.
Maj. Gen. Vincent Boles added, “Supporting our deployed forces is our ‘Number 1’ priority, and that has been our priority for six years.”
Titled “Supporting America’s Best: It’s All about the Soldier,” the professional development forum, presented by AUSA’s Institute of Land Warfare, was held in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., at the Broward County Convention Center.
Boles stressed that the Army is in a period of “sustained conflict’ and it is a “fact of life that there is a high operating tempo in a strategic environment.” Adding, “We are not going back to the Army you grew up in. We are stretched, but not broken.”
The Army’s goal is to restore strategic balance and to build the service’s essential capacity for the future.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Army suffered from low public esteem, had old and outmoded equipment, was subject to severe fiscal constraints and relied on unappreciated draftees.
Today, according to Boles, the Army is held in high public esteem, is dealing with equipment that is “stressed and stretched,” is experiencing fiscal stability through supplementals and is fielding a force that is manned with “proud volunteer warriors.”
The Army has four strategic imperatives, Boles said. “We must prepare our soldiers for success in the current conflict, reset the force for future contingencies, transform the Army to meet the demands of the 21st century and sustain our soldiers, families and Army civilians,” he said.
Joining Boles on the “Supporting Soldiers on the Battlefield” panel Feb 28, Lt. Gen. Robert T. Dail, director of the Defense Logistics Agency, said that to support the soldier in the field logistically, his command “manages suppliers.”
Adding, “We must link suppliers with demand. Move the capability to the point of use.” He emphasized that the agency’s industrial operations moves supplies and equipment to the installations then directly to the operational forces.
“Our industrial base production,” Boles said, “is now twice pre-war levels and is the greatest since the Vietnam War.” The commander of the U.S. Army Combined Arms Support Command, said, “In Fiscal Year 2009, the Army is consolidating its logistics leader education to better serve the soldier on the battlefield.”
The Army Logistics University, Fort Lee, Va., creates a “lifelong learning center for logistics officer, warrant officer, noncommissioned officer and civilian education,” Maj. Gen. Mitchell H. Stevenson said.
There is also a joint and multi-national and interagency education system. There will also be important linkages from the university to the Simulation Center, the Warrior Training Center, the Consolidated Logistics Library and Research Center, in addition to expanded partnerships with universities and colleges.
“We are on track and on schedule,” Stevenson said.On Sept. 22, 2006, the Army Sustainment Command, Rock Island, Arsenal, Ill., was initiated as another step to improve logistics support to troops on the battlefield.By “harnessing and delivering the capabilities of Army Materiel Command and America’s industrial base and technical base, the command accelerates logistics support to commanders and troops in the field.”
The command provides combat support service to soldiers serving in combat commands in the United States and overseas to ensure expeditionary war-fighting readiness to a transforming Army at war.
“The command provides logistics capabilities, contracting services field support, materiel management, prepositioned stocks and reset for redeploying units,” Maj. Gen. Robert M. Radin, its commanding general, said.
Adding, “We conduct worldwide logistics and contingency operations by synchronizing acquisition, logistics and technology operations.” Representing industry on the panel, Lt. Gen. Joseph M. Cosumano Jr., USA, Ret., senior vice president for operations, maintenance and logistics, KBR Government and Infrastructure, echoed the theme set by Boles but with a different twist: “You can’t go back; contractors are here to stay.”
Noting that contractors are “cost effective for the Army and the Defense Department,” Cosumano said to the audience of Army and industry leaders, “Contractors are now part on the non-linear battlefield. They now accompany the force [into harm’s way].” Adding, “We are training together for a seamless Army.”
The panel was moderated by Lt. Gen. William E. Mortensen, deputy commanding general, U.S. Army Materiel Command. In answer to a question, Mortensen said that the new Logistics Branch, established on Jan. 1, 2008, now only open to officers, has received “no negative comments but has been received very well.”
“We are on track,” he said. The new branch unites commissioned officers – in the ranks of captain to colonel – from the ordnance, transportation and quartermaster branches. They focus on anticipating, planning, integrating and executing all types of deployment and sustainment activities.
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