ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY

The Russia-Ukraine war underscores critical challenges for the U.S. Army, according to a new paper published by the Association of the U.S. Army.

“In its third year since the 2022 invasion, the Russo-Ukrainian War shows few clear signs of abating,” authors Charles McEnany and retired Col. Daniel Roper write. “What many assumed would be a short, decisive war has become a test of endurance and adaptation. The U.S. Army is studying the conflict as it ‘continuously transforms’ for large-scale combat operations.”

The character of war is rapidly evolving, and soldiers need to keep pace, Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. James Mingus said.

Soldiers will not have the luxury of clarity when the next global conflict breaks out, said Gen. Andrew Poppas, commanding general of Army Forces Command.

The Army is focused on transformation as it works to build the force of 2040, Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said.

“The Army is transforming in three different time frames,” Wormuth said during the recent 2024 Defense News Conference. “There's the 10 years and beyond timeframe, where we are really focused on our new Army warfighting concept 2040, then we've got sort of the midterm time period, … [and] then we're trying to look at the here and now.”

The Army will need to take a proactive, integrated approach to signature management to maintain the information advantage, senior cyber officials said during a panel discussion July 2 at a Hot Topic event hosted by the Association of the U.S. Army.

With the future of conflict uncertain and technology evolving at a rapid pace, the Army must make adaptability a top priority, said Gen. James Rainey, commander of Army Futures Command.

The prevalence of unmanned aerial systems presents a ubiquitous threat that is fundamentally transforming the battlefield, Undersecretary of the Army Gabe Camarillo said.

“What we’re seeing, and not just in Ukraine, but really around the world, is that the availability and the impact of small, unmanned aerial systems and the threats that they present on the battlefield is here to stay,” Camarillo said May 17 during a discussion on drone warfare hosted by the Center for a New American Security.

The Army must continue to build enduring advantage as it prepares the force for the future fight, Deputy Undersecretary of the Army Mario Diaz said on the last day of the Association of the U.S. Army’s 2024 LANPAC Symposium and Exposition in Honolulu.

“Building enduring advantage is about people, it’s about formations, it’s about procedures and it’s about policy,” Diaz said May 16 during his keynote presentation. “It’s about building and composing a future Army, for the Army we need and the Army we can afford.”

Army concepts and doctrine must evolve as the service looks to a future battlefield that arguably will be dominated by artificial intelligence and autonomous systems, according to the author of a new paper published by the Association of the U.S. Army.

“The Principles for the Future of Warfare and Stand-off Warfare” by Lt. Col. Amos Fox is the third paper in a series focused on future warfare and how the military thinks about it. Fox is a doctoral candidate at the University of Reading and a freelance writer and conflict scholar writing for AUSA.