ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY

Army leaders must seek innovative solutions and embrace technology as they prepare their soldiers to fight on a tougher, more lethal future battlefield, the commander of Army Training and Doctrine Command said.

“The Army of 2030 requires soldiers and leaders who are highly trained, disciplined and fit, with the knowledge, skills and behaviors to operate advanced technological systems to fight in multidomain environments,” Gen. Paul Funk said during the recent Maneuver Warfighter Conference at Fort Benning, Georgia.

Business as usual will no longer be enough, Funk said.

China’s recent test of a nuclear-capable hypersonic missile demonstrates an advanced space capability that challenges the Army command responsible for defending the U.S. against such threats, according to the author of a new paper. 

Retired Col. Larry Wortzel asserts in his paper that the burden of defending against the new threat posed “by what appear to be maneuvering, hypersonic warheads orbiting in space” belongs to the Army Space and Missile Defense Command. 

As the military’s largest user of space, the Army must be able to fight and win not only on the terrestrial sphere but in the space domain as well, the commanding general of Army Space and Missile Defense Command said.

This need is made more urgent by the rapid advancement of technological capabilities at home and abroad, and “increasingly in the laboratories and field tests of our competitors,” Lt. Gen. Daniel Karbler said.

Army space leaders are trying to educate soldiers about how the force heavily relies on space-enabled capabilities.

Non-space soldiers may not realize how much of their equipment relies on space-enabled capabilities and how those capabilities enhance Army combat operations, said Robert Marquez, space training division chief for the Army Space and Missile Defense Command. Soldiers not in space jobs also may not realize how adversaries are already trying to take advance of space.

Faced with rising threats from Russia, China and Iran, the U.S. must prepare to respond to irregular forms of warfare, a national security expert said.

An independent review of the Army Combat Fitness Test found the Army needed more evidence to prove that the test’s six events adequately predict performance on combat tasks.

The report by Rand Corp. also showed that women and other groups, including Army National Guard and Army Reserve soldiers, were passing the gender-neutral test at “significantly lower rates.”

Efforts to make the Army and its installations more sustainable will reduce casualties and increase the lethality of the fighting force, a senior Army official said. 

“Climate change is affecting the Army already,” said Paul Farnan, acting assistant Army secretary for installations, energy and environment. “It's affecting our installations … [and] threatening … the health and safety of our soldiers and families. It’s also impacting our operations.” 

The Army is preparing to field 24 of its 35 signature modernization systems in 2023, as it pushes ahead with its largest transformation effort in decades.

“Being ready today is not good enough,” Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville said March 8. “We must also make sure we’re ready tomorrow.”

More than four years ago, the Army established six modernization priorities, he said. 

Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville, speaking March 8 at an event hosted by the Association of the U.S. Army, said the force faced “a lot of challenges” over the years and now faces another one with the fighting in Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has started an “illegal” war, McConville said, but the Army is ready.