Transformation of the United States Army
The transformation of the United States Army aims to integrate cyberspace, space satellite operations, land, maritime, and air operations more closely together. Multi-domain operations is the "employment of capabilities from [|all domains] that create and exploit relative advantages to defeat enemy forces, achieve objectives and consolidate gains during competition, [|crisis], and armed conflict."
United States Army Futures Command had considerable initial involvement.
In 2019, planning re-emphazised large scale ground combat using divisions, corps, or even larger forces, rather than the counter-insurgency which had taken much time since 2003.
In 2020, the Army's 40th Chief of Staff, Gen. James C. McConville, was calling for transformational change, rather than incremental change by the Army. In 2021, McConville laid out Aimpoint 2035, a direction for the Army to achieve Corps-level "large-scale combat operations" by 2035, with Waypoints from 2021 to 2028.
In fall 2018, Army Strategy for the next ten years was articulated listing four Lines of Effort to be implemented. By August 2023, the Army's 41st Chief of Staff Gen. Randy A. George could lay out his priorities. The priorities are:
- Warfighting capability;
- Ready combat formations;
- Continuous transformation;
- Strengthening the profession of arms.
New capabilities
This planned Joint capability was demonstrated to the Combatant commanders and the Joint Chiefs at White Sands Missile Range in September 2020, in an ongoing campaign for achieving [|integrated deterrence]. By [|2020 Project Convergence], a campaign of learning, was pressed into service at Yuma Proving Ground, in the Army's campaign to modernize, by experimental prototype and demonstration of a networking concept; Project Convergence 2021 was then a vehicle for the entire DoD, in its Joint Warfighting Concept demonstration of Joint all-domain command and control. [|Project Convergence 2022] now has a website for candidate entries, even as [|PC21] was underway in 2021. Analysis is underway in FY2022 to [|balance modernization and readiness] going forward.Command headquarters
Divisions will operate as plug-and-play headquarters commands instead of fixed formations with permanently assigned units. Any combination of brigades may be allocated to a division command for a particular mission, up to a maximum of four combat brigades. For instance, the 3rd Infantry Division headquarters could be assigned two armoured brigades and two infantry brigades based on the expected requirements of a given mission. On its next deployment, the same division may have one Stryker brigade and two armor brigades assigned to it. The same modus operandi holds true for support units. The goal of reorganization with regard to logistics is to streamline the logistics command structure so that combat service support can fulfill its support mission more efficiently.The division headquarters itself has also been redesigned as a modular unit that can be assigned an array of units and serve in many different operational environments. The new term for this headquarters is the UEx. The headquarters is designed to be able to operate as part of a joint force, command joint forces with augmentation, and command at the operational level of warfare. It will include organic security personnel and signal capability plus liaison elements. As of March 2015, nine of the ten regular Army division headquarters, and two national guard division headquarters are committed in support of Combatant Commands.
When not deployed, the division will have responsibility for the training and readiness of a certain number of modular brigades units. For instance, the 3rd Infantry Division headquarters module based at Fort Stewart, GA is responsible for the readiness of its combat brigades and other units of the division, assuming they have not been deployed separately under a different division.
The re-designed headquarters comprises around 1,000 soldiers including over 200 officers. It includes:
- A Main Command Post where mission planning and analysis are conducted
- A mobile command group for commanding while on the move
- Tactical Command Posts to exercise control of brigades
- Liaison elements
- A special troops battalion with a security company and signal company
In January 2017, examples of pared-down tactical operations centers, suitable for brigades and divisions, were demonstrated at a command post huddle at Fort Bliss. The huddle of the commanders of FORSCOM, United States Army Reserve Command, First Army, I and III Corps, 9 of the Active Army divisions, and other formations discussed standardized solutions for streamlining command posts. The Army is paring-down the tactical operations centers, and making them more agile, to increase their survivability.
By July 2019 battalion command posts have demonstrated jump times of just over 3 hours, at the combat training centers, repeated 90 to 120 times in a rotation. The C5ISR center of CCDC ran a series of experiments whether using LTE for connecting nodes in a distributed Command post environment was feasible, from July to October 2020.
Four Army commands
In the summer of 2018, the U.S. Army Futures Command, a new Army command for modernization was [|activated]. The modernization effort, coordinated with FORSCOM, US Army Materiel Command, and US Army Training and Doctrine Command, addresses the long lead times for introducing new materiel and capabilities into the brigades of the Army.United States Army Futures Command grew, from 12 people at headquarters in 2018 to 24,000 in 25 states and 15 countries in 2019.
More rapid modernization for conflict with near-peers is the reason for AFC. AFC was to be focused on achieving clear overmatch in six areas — long-range precision fires, next-generation combat vehicle, future vertical lift platforms, a mobile & expeditionary Army network, air & missile defense capabilities, and soldier lethality.
In a break with Army custom, AFC headquarters was placed in a downtown property of the University of Texas System, and project-driven soldiers and Army civilians with entrepreneurs/innovators in tech hubs.
AFC was activated on 24 August 2018, in Austin, Texas; AFC soldiers were to blend into Austin by not wearing their uniforms to work side by side with civilians in the tech hubs.
The Program Executive Offices of the United States Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology were to have a dotted-line relationship with Futures Command.
Eight cross-functional teams were transferred from the other three major commands to Futures Command. United States Army Research, Development and Engineering Command and the United States Army Capabilities Integration Center will report to the new command. ATEC retains its direct reporting relationship to the Chief of Staff of the Army.
The first tranche of transfers into AFC included: Capabilities Integration Center, Capability Development and Integration Directorates, and TRADOC Analysis Center from TRADOC, and RDECOM, and the U.S. Army Research Laboratory ), and Army Materiel Systems Analysis Activity, from AMC, as announced by Secretary Esper on 4 June 2018. TRADOC's new role is amended accordingly. The Principal Military Deputy to the ASA was also to become deputy commanding general for Combat Systems, Army Futures Command, while leading the PEOs; he has directed each PEO who does not have a CFT to coordinate with, to immediately form one, at least informally.
General Murray has announced that AFC intends to be a global command, in its search for disruptive technologies.
39th Army Chief of Staff Milley was looking for AFC to attain Full Operational Capability by August 2019, a goal since met.
As this modernized materiel is fielded to the brigades, the scheme is to equip the units with the highest levels of readiness for deployment with upgraded equipment earliest, while continuing to train the remaining units to attain their full mission capability.
Multi-domain operations (MDO)
In 2017, TRADOC formulated the concept of multi-domain battle. The Army sought joint approval for MDB from the other services; instead, the Air Force recommended multi-domain operations. Multi-domain operations cover integrated operation of cyberspace, space, land, maritime, and air.The 1st Multi-Domain Task Force was stood up in 2018 in I Corps for the Pacific, built around 17th Field Artillery Brigade. MDO in the Pacific has to involve maritime operations. Multi-domain battalions, first stood up in 2019, comprise a single unit for air, land, space, and cyber domains to ensure integration of cyber/EW, space, and information operations in more levels of command.
Expansion of Army MDO activities to Europe was planned for 2020.
By 2020 the Army's programs for modernization were now framed as a decades-long process of [|cooperation with allies and partners], for [|competition with potential adversaries] who historically have blurred the distinction between peace and war, and who have been operating within the continuum between peace, cooperation, competition, crisis, and conflict instead. When meeting a crisis, the Army's preference is deterrence. The need for deterrence against ballistic missiles is shifting to the need to [|deter] or defend against attack by hypersonic weapons.
;Multi-domain task forces
MDTF is a brigade-sized theater-level unit designed to synchronize precision effects and precision fires in all domains against adversary anti-access/area denial networks in all domains. A MDTF includes two batteries of long-range missiles. One battery, called Mid-Range Capability, which can fire further than 1,100 miles, has Typhon missile system. The other battery should have the new Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon, whose classified range is likely several thousand miles. A MDTF also includes a HIMARS battery plus air defense battalion, Intelligence, Information, Cyber, Electronic Warfare and Space battalion and support battalion
The Army established 1st Multidomain Task Force at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington in 2017. U.S. Indo-Pacific Command theater exercises with this MDTF participation helped inform the Army's Multi-Domain Operations warfighting concept, which has now evolved into doctrine.
2nd Multi-Domain Task Force was established in Mainz-Kastel, Germany in 2021 and 3rd Multi-Domain Task Force was established at Fort Shafter, Hawaii in 2022.
The first MDTF was an experimental brigade-sized unit which was tailored to its theater; MDTFs are to operate subordinate to a Theater fires command, or to a corps, or division headquarters, jointly or independently, depending on the mission. These MDTFs increase the "capability to connect with national assets" in space and cyber, with "the capacity to penetrate with long range fires, with the ability to integrate all domains". —This is integrated deterrence: taking existing capabilities, as well as building on [|new capabilities], which have been deployed in new and networked ways, all tailored to the security landscape of the respective regions, in order to deter the antagonists.
File:MdoMultiDomainTaskForce.png|400px|thumb|left|Multi-domain task force, a brigade-sized formation. Five MDTFs are planned: 3 for INDOPACOM, 1 for EUCOM, 1 formerly for the [|Arctic], and 1 for global response, each tailored for the needs of the Joint force commander. An MDTF can simultaneously operate across multiple stages of the conflict continuum, and engage antagonists at thousands of miles, for sustained periods.
By 2028, the fifth MDTF is expected to be in full operation.