ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY

Technological advances need to accelerate at the same pace as evolving doctrine if the U.S. hopes to stay ahead of global warfighting competitors, Lt. Gen. L. Neil Thurgood said May 19. 

The Association of the U.S. Army’s Greater Los Angeles chapter will host a symposium in June on the Army’s continuing efforts in the space domain.

Scheduled for June 2–3 in Long Beach, California, the event is titled “Space: Enabling Multi-Domain Operations Symposium.” It will feature keynote addresses from Gen. James Dickinson, commander of the U.S. Space Command, and Lt. Gen. Dan Karbler, commander of 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.

The Army’s Space and Missile Defense School in Colorado Springs, Colorado, established in 2010 to train and educate forces and develop doctrine to support combatant commands, has evolved.

There was once just a single course for Functional Area 40, a career field for space operations officers. Today, the school has 22 different courses and provides support to combat training centers and a variety of exercises.

Long-range precision rockets, missiles and munitions provide key capabilities for the U.S. joint force in competition, crisis and conflict, according to a new Association of the U.S. Army Spotlight report.

It was written by retired Lt. Gen. Stephen Lanza, a former I Corps commanding general who was involved in regionally aligned forces supporting the Indo-Pacific region, and retired Col. Daniel Roper, a career artilleryman who is AUSA’s director of national security studies.

Lt. Gen. Daniel Karbler, commander of Army Space and Missile Defense Command, and Army astronaut Col. Andrew Morgan will speak May 4 at a webinar hosted by the Association of the U.S. Army.

Karbler, who has been in command since December 2019, and Morgan will participate in The AUSA Noon Report series.

Pentagon discussions are underway about what capabilities, if any, the Army may be asked to contribute to the new Air Force-controlled U.S. Space Force.

Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy said the division of assets could be complicated. “This is a task that hasn’t been done since 1947,” he said, referring to when the Army Air Corps became the Air Force.

The big question, he said, is “what are the things that need to stay organic to the Army?” That isn’t simple, he said, noting the Army has watercraft and helicopters, things that might logically go in the Navy and Air Force.