A little-known Army detachment could hold the fate of future warfare in its hands, according to a new Landpower Essay published by the Association of the U.S. Army. 

Created in the 1980s, the Battlefield Coordination Detachment was established to work on AirLand Battle, the post-Vietnam operating concept that sought to take advantage of rapid developments in technology to develop a combination of deep-strike capabilities with modern ways of maneuver to surprise the enemy with highly mobile forces. 

Interdicting and disrupting opponents and striking deep into enemy territory would be carried out with simple directions that gave flexibility to commanders to seize initiative, when they could, to weaken the enemy without waiting to hear from higher commands. 

In the new paper for AUSA, Lt. Col. Matthew Arrol, a Command and General Staff College graduate and contributing member to NATO’s Integrated Capabilities Group on indirect fire, writes the 39-member Battlefield Coordination Detachment that successfully assisted with AirLand Battle doctrine isn’t structured to work on the multidomain operations now viewed as the future of Army and joint force warfighting. But the group could evolve into the right organization. 

“Unfortunately, because of the complexity in the contemporary operating environment, the BCD’s 40-year-old structure is insufficient for the Army’s combined joint integration requirements,” Arrol writes. Multidomain operations require a deeper look than the land and air focus of the past, and the detachment historically hasn’t had a large focus on coalition and allied forces, he writes. 

“Even without a major shift in operating concept, the subject matter expertise necessary to execute a modern AirLand Battle as it has evolved since the 1980s would prove difficult for the BCD structure,” he says. 

Arrol lays out a way to revise the Battlefield Coordination Detachment to widen its purpose so that it includes more cyber, electronic warfare and space expertise, and also expand to include the other services and maybe foreign officers. Multidomain operations and an updated concept for joint warfighting “will require many more points of joint and combined integration than ever before,” he says. 

Arrol’s paper is available here.