ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY

The first day of the largest annual land warfare exposition in North America features a keynote address by Army Secretary Christine Wormuth, the unveiling of the winners of the Army’s inaugural Best Squad Competition, and much more.

The Association of the U.S. Army’s 2022 Annual Meeting and Exposition is being held for the 19th time at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. The three-day in-person event will take place Oct. 10–12 and feature more than 700 exhibits in five halls on both levels of the convention center.

Almost a year after bidding farewell to its first commander, Army Futures Command on Oct. 4 welcomed its next commander during a ceremony in Austin, Texas.

Gen. James Rainey, who most recently was the Army deputy chief of staff for operations, now leads the Army’s newest four-star command. He succeeds Gen. Mike Murray, who helped stand up the command and retired last December after more than three years at the helm.

The Army must be ready to fight whenever and wherever it is needed, the service’s senior leaders said.

“We are at an inflection point in the United States,” Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville said. “We need to be ready to fight tomorrow, and we need to fight every single day after that. … Don't ever forget … your job is to protect the nation and fight and win the nation’s wars.”

On an increasingly complex and dangerous future battlefield, the Army must be able to see, act and react quickly and more persistently to maintain its edge over its adversaries, Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said.

As China builds and modernizes its combat forces, little is known about how well those troops might perform and sustain themselves in a prolonged fight, according to a panel of analysts who study the Chinese military.

U.S. military leaders have described China as America’s “pacing challenge” as the U.S. military shifts from 20 years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan to preparing for large-scale combat operations on a complex future battlefield.

Across the XVIII Airborne Corps, leaders have their eye on getting the most out of the data that proliferates on and off the battlefield.

“Whether in the military or business, if you’re not learning, you’re failing, and in our line of work, you’re dying,” said Brig. Gen. John Cogbill, then-chief of staff for the XVIII Airborne Corps. “You have to continue to evolve and to learn. You need to be able to not only survive on the modern battlefield but dominate the modern battlefield.”

An upcoming webinar from the Association of the U.S. Army will focus on Army efforts to counter the growing threat of unmanned aerial systems.

Maj. Gen. Sean Gainey, director of the Joint Counter-Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Office and director of fires in the office of the deputy Army chief of staff for operations, will speak at noon Eastern Aug. 23.

The event is free, but registration is required here.

The war waged by the U.S. against the Islamic State terror group during Operation Inherent Resolve was a decisive win for America, a renowned national security correspondent said. 

As the Army pursues its most ambitious modernization effort in decades, people remain at the center of everything, Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville said.

“The thing about warfighting is it’s not just about equipment,” McConville said July 28 during the Association of the U.S. Army’s inaugural Warfighter Summit and Exposition near Fort Bragg, North Carolina. “You can’t execute strategy, you can’t execute plans, unless you have great squads, platoons and companies, because they’re the ones who actually do it.”

As the Army looks at restructuring to meet the demands of the future fight, the Army Reserve is poised to follow suit in the coming months with its own review of existing and future capabilities, the component’s top officer said.

“The active component has gone through a ‘night court’ equivalent of all of its formations and is making adjustments to the Total Army, … deciding which units are the most important and rank ordering them, and we will do that starting this fall,” said Lt. Gen. Jody Daniels, chief of the Army Reserve and commander of the Army Reserve Command.