ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY

The Army is continuing to grow a program that partners with civilian hospitals and trauma centers to give combat medics more hands-on experience, the Army surgeon general said.

“Our program is growing tremendously within the Army,” Lt. Gen. R. Scott Dingle told the House Appropriations Committee’s subcommittee on defense March 5.

The Army appears to be years away from closing vital gaps in brigade combat team readiness, according to a recent Defense Department Inspector General audit.

But the IG also credited the Army with improving the readiness of its active component brigade combat teams for seven consecutive quarters, resulting in 66% of the BCTs being rated at the highest level of readiness.

The Army has 58 BCTs; 31 in the active component and 27 in the Army National Guard. The DoD IG audit only reviewed the active component brigade combat teams.

Artificial intelligence has broad military applications, but effectiveness on land combat systems could be limited in the opening stages of the next war, warns a new essay from the Association of the U.S. Army’s Institute of Land Warfare.

Written by Lt. Col. Stephan Pikner as part of an Army Strategist Association essay contest, the paper warns of “large blind spots” during opening stages of war because of how AI-enabled systems learn.

Armor and engineer basic training will be extended to 22 weeks in a pilot program that begins in January, and the longer training is likely to be expanded to other combat arms specialties in the next two fiscal years, said Maj. Gen. Gary Brito, commander of the Army’s Maneuver Center of Excellence and Fort Benning, Ga.

Technology has advanced combat trauma care, but the skills of medics, nurses and surgeons will continue to have the greatest impact on prolonged battlefield care, said Lt. Gen. Nadja Y. West, surgeon general of the Army and commander of the U.S. Army Medical Command.

The Army needs to think big when preparing for future combat, a former DoD policy and force structure planner told a House committee.

“We need to field armed forces that possess depth and resilience, to be able to fight, accept damage and recover,” said Tom Mahnken of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, who worked on the 2006 and 2010 Quadrennial Defense Reviews and on the National Defense Strategy Commission. “Today our forces lack readiness and are in dire need of modernization.

A leading military strategist warns that the Army is not prepared to face competent, well-armed adversaries, despite significant combat experience gained against irregular forces and equipment brought into service since 9/11.

In “The Importance of Land Warfare: This Kind of War Redux,” a new essay published by the Association of the U.S. Army’s Institute of Land Warfare, retired Col. David E. Johnson, principal researcher at the RAND Corp., maintains that “U.S. domain supremacy is eroding, if not ending.”

New industry designs to enhance soldier protection are one of the key exhibit hall themes during this week’s Association of the United States Army Annual Meeting and Exposition.

Saab Defense and Security, for example, is displaying its new Barracuda Mobile Breakaway camouflage system. According to Brian Keller, president and general manager of Saab Barracuda, the new system is already being fielded to U.S Special Operations Command (USSOCOM).

The system combines some mobile camouflage elements with traditional static camouflage designs.

While the main effort is for U.S. forces to serve as trainers and advisers of Afghan forces, dangerous assignments will continue.