Leaders must immerse themselves in understanding the enemy’s use of technology on the battlefield and match it by maintaining a mindset of fast adaptability, I Corps commanding general Lt. Gen. Matthew McFarlane said.

In remarks June 12 at a Coffee Series event hosted by the Association of the U.S. Army, McFarlane cautioned that because adversaries like China are focused, energized and moving faster than the U.S. on battlefield technology, “staying plugged in to the things going on around you, where the enemy’s going with their technology,” is critical to the fight.

McFarlane, who has commanded I Corps since October, pointed out that much like the U.S. military, China also is learning lessons from the fight in Ukraine and committing significant resources into developing swarms of unmanned aerial systems and counter-unmanned aerial systems.

Staying in the know, he said, is “a key part” of the Army Transformation Initiative. “We’ve got to be conscious of that technological race,” he said, acknowledging that while staying smart and learning everything they can about this technology can be daunting, leaders “absolutely have to learn about it as we integrate it and then adapt.”

“So, learn, adapt, act, adapt again based on what’s happened on the battlefield,” McFarlane said. “It needs to be a continuous mindset.”

But, he added, the culture of transformation is more than technology transformation. It’s also important to have a feedback loop through operational units and institutions such as the Army War College.

“We did really well evolving with certain books written about counterinsurgency over the 20-year war” in Iraq and Afghanistan, McFarlane said. Now, the Army must “make sure we can turn quickly to large-scale combat operations against an enemy that’s got deep magazines, that owns interior lines based on where they are in the Pacific and where we are, and optimize our land power network, that’s our host nations in the armies we’re going to fight alongside.”

McFarlane explained that while I Corps is assigned to U.S. Army Pacific and U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, “we know we've got to be ready to operate around the world.” He noted that I Corps units are currently in Europe, in the Central Command area of operations and on the U.S. border with Mexico.

“Part of our deterrence is making sure we have capable, credible combat formations that adversaries know that the cost will be too high if they want to drive toward crisis or conflict,” he said. “While we are focused on a pacing threat [in the Indo-Pacific], we're conscious that security requirements around the globe means the Army's go to be ready to go do what it has to do, wherever that may be.”