The Army needs to move it, move it, move it, says Army Secretary Mark T. Esper in describing preparations for future battles. It will take time, but he predicted the Army will reach a “readiness plateau” in 2022.

Speaking May 1 at the Atlantic Council, Esper said the Army needs to be ready to rapidly deploy, quickly gain a foothold and boldly maneuver to “quickly deliver precise, lethal and overwhelming effects” and do almost everything “faster than the enemy.”

To prepare, the restructuring is underway of weapons modernization programs to deliver new capabilities to have the increased lethality required for future battles, an effort highlighted by the looming establishment of a new Army Futures Command.

Also required is “tough, realistic, iterative and dynamic” training to prepare for high-intensity urban battle, Esper said. “Our training must involve continuous movement, battlefield innovation and combined arms maneuver with the joint force and our allies and partners,” he said, an effort that will include company-level synthetic training and simulations across the force.