ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY

The U.S. military could have a new, joint operating concept within a year, loosely based on the Army’s Multi-Domain Operations proposal, the commander of the U.S. Army Futures Command said.

Speaking Feb. 10 at the Atlantic Council, Gen. Mike Murray said the services have similar concepts but haven’t been able to agree on details. That could soon change, he said.

The Army has been working for about four years on the notion that a broad-capability force that could find itself challenged in the air, land, sea, space or cyberspace domains should exploit a gap in another domain. 

The Army’s Multi-Domain Operations concept “is the way forward” in the Indo-Pacific as the service competes in the increasingly contested environment, a senior leader said.

“We do not want to have conflict in the Indo-Pacific region,” Maj. Gen. John “Pete” Johnson, acting commanding general of U.S. Army Pacific, said Oct. 16 during the Association of the U.S. Army’s Annual Meeting and Exposition. “It would be catastrophic for the globe if we did that.”

The Army is changing the way it recruits, develops and trains soldiers—and it’s looking to Generation Z for how to do it, a senior leader said.

“We have to train leaders to fight and win in this environment,” Col. Timothy Hummel, director of G-2 Operational Environment at the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, said while speaking at the Association of the U.S. Army’s Annual Meeting and Exposition on Oct. 14. 

The Army recognizes the need to change as it focuses on developing its future leaders, some of whom are coming into the Army now, he said.

The Army’s dominance over global adversaries—a guarantee that’s been held for decades—is now being challenged, senior leaders said, but the service’s multidomain operations concept may be the solution.

The concept, which continues to be refined, describes how the Army will be able to maintain dominance across all domains—land, sea, air, space and cyberspace—as part of the joint force.

The Army National Guard will play a key role as the Army continues to develop its Multi-Domain Operations concept, which incorporates land, air, sea, space and cyber in the future fight, a senior leader said.

Lt. Gen. Eric Wesley, deputy commander of Army Futures Command, said the Army will need to collectively plan for potential cross-leveling between active-duty and Army Guard units in the years ahead.

A new joint publication lays out a strategy for the U.S. and its European allies in multidomain operations that would require standardizing language usage and overcoming policy gaps.

A new Institute of Land Warfare paper warns the People’s Liberation Army has and continues to grow military capabilities, giving China the ability to counter some of the ambitious expansions planned by the U.S. as part of its Multi-Domain Operations concept.

The U.S. Army has an integral part in the Defense Department’s new Indo-Pacific strategy, according to a new Pentagon report.

With an aim of increasing the lethality, agility and resilience of operating forces, the Army will test multidomain task forces designed to “create temporary windows of superiority across multiple domains and allow the Joint Force to seize, retain and exploit the initiatives,” the June 1 “Indo-Pacific Strategy Report” says.

The Army’s Multi-Domain Operations concept will eventually force the service to evaluate how it deploys troops in Europe and the Pacific, a senior Army officer said during the recent Association of the U.S. Army’s Global Force Symposium and Exposition.

“The problem we have today is the multiple layers of standoff that we have to penetrate in order to disintegrate” adversaries’ systems, said Lt. Gen. Eric Wesley, deputy commanding general of the U.S. Army Futures Command.