On the first day of the Association of the U.S. Army’s Leader Solarium, participants were given a view from the top of the Army and told what they’ll need to consider as they prepare troops for combat.

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George acknowledged the importance of technology and how it’s only going to intensify, as he spoke before about 70 battalion commanders and command sergeants major from units across the Army. But while technological advancements will continue to inform warfare, he warned that none of it will matter if troops aren’t physically ready for the challenges on the ground.

“Throughout everything that we're doing at technology, nothing about gritty, tough, physically fit troopers … is going to change,” George said Oct. 13 during the Leader Solarium, held in conjunction with AUSA’s Annual Meeting and Exposition in Washington, D.C. The theme for this year’s event, hosted by AUSA’s Center for Leadership, is “Capitalizing on Lessons Learned to Accelerate Army Transformation.”

As he and Sgt. Maj. of the Army Michael Weimer travel around the Army, George said, they work to ensure everyone understands that “we can't get so focused on everybody wearing a headset and flying a drone that ... we can’t close with the enemy.”

“Right now, if you see what's happening in Ukraine with people getting hunted down with drones and just surviving in these environments, actually, I think fitness levels are going to have to go up,” George said.

Regardless of hardware, software and the countless innovations that will come along, George said being prepared means developing and maintaining an agile mindset, not just commanders but throughout formations.

“Everybody gets really focused on the drones, everybody's going to get really focused on the tech, and we need that,” George said. “But there's a lot of other things to it.”

George stressed the four priorities—warfighting, delivering ready combat formations, continuous transformation and strengthening the profession of arms—that he announced when he began his tenure as Army chief of staff two years ago, providing brief updates on what’s been accomplished and what’s coming as the Army continuously transforms.

Training requirements have been streamlined in favor of enhancing warfighting readiness, according to George, who noted that Army Regulation 350-1, which guides training and leader development, has been reduced from 250 pages to 80 pages.

Capabilities at the Army’s combat training centers are being “upgunned” to ensure the opposing force is up to 180 days ahead of training units on the tactics being used in ongoing conflicts. The Army also is centralizing data in an effort to eliminate big tactical operations centers, propagating the Holistic Health and Fitness program, known as H2F, across the force, and modernizing the Army’s organic industrial base.

“I always tell everybody, you can have the best weapons out there, but if you've only got three rounds in your magazine, that's not good, so we are trying to modernize the [organic industrial base], and we're spending literally billions of dollars to make sure that we can do that,” George said.

George and Weimer will meet with Leader Solarium participants again at the end of AUSA’s three-day conference for an “out-brief,” having asked them to be ready with feedback that will help inform decisions at the highest levels of the Army.

— Gina Cavallaro