In today’s “unprecedented” strategic environment, the Army’s ability to deliver fires remains key, the commanding general of the 101st Airborne Division said.

“The ability to deliver dominant, all-weather fires is still paramount,” Maj. Gen. Brett Sylvia said during a keynote address at an Association of the U.S. Army Hot Topic on fires. “Whether in the form of offensive precision strikes, deep interdiction or defensive counter-fires, this suite of fires capabilities underpins the ability of our Army’s close-combat forces to close with and destroy the enemy. In all actuality, this may be truer now than it ever has been before.”

For its part, the 101st Airborne Division is embracing the Army’s transforming in contact initiative, which has soldiers and units test and provide feedback on new, emerging technologies, by leveraging its large-scale, long-range air assault capabilities, Sylvia said.

“Large-scale, long-range air assault ... is a division-enabled, joint forcible entry operation that delivers one brigade combat team, or roughly 3,000 soldiers and hundreds of pieces of equipment, over 500 miles, in one period of darkness at the time and place of our choosing,” Sylvia said.

The soldiers arrive “as a cohesive fighting formation and [are] prepared to fight and win in the fiercest environments,” he said. 

The division displayed this capability in August when it flew 80 aircraft from its home station of Fort Campbell, Kentucky, to Fort Johnson, Louisiana, for a rotation at the Joint Readiness Training Center. During the over 500-mile journey, the soldiers made stops at six forward arming and refueling points, according to an Army news release.

“So, why is this capability relevant?” Sylvia said. “If you are one of our adversaries, and you're sitting safely in your capital, you go to bed at night thinking everything is safe and secure. You'll wake up the next morning, and you'll have a brigade combat team parked in your backyard. I like to think of that as a nice, non-lethal effect.”

In addition to large-scale, long-range air assault, Sylvia underscored the importance of integrating technology across various processes. “A single piece of technology will not bring success,” he said. “We have to take AI capabilities and integrate them with our unique and robust intel and fires systems and processes to create the conditions for our ability to conduct synchronized, combined-arms maneuver.”

There is “absolutely no substitute for what” fires “bring to the fight,” Sylvia said.

“The battlefield of the future will not be forgiving. Success will demand that we bring our best thinking, our best systems and our best people to bear,” he said. “Fires are not simply a supporting effort in large-scale combat operations. They, or rather their effects, are often first to the fight. They're a cornerstone of our competitive advantage in combined arms maneuver.”