The Squad: Foundation of the Decisive Force

This is absolutely great. It foreshadows significant capability gelling within the force at the squad level. These things are needed and there will be great payoff in terms of near-future operations. But it shows also, I think, that the Army sees itself more and more in an operational environment that dictates a wide area security approach to war as opposed to combined arms maneuver.  This could be a stroke of genious, or it could be problematic in circumstances yet unforeseen.  It's something to watch.

Capabilities are developed to fill needs. Current capability development emphasis on the squad indicates that Army resources of late have been steered to other areas and that, consequently, squad-level capabilities have suffered. That's sort of the nature of the beast. The Army must direct its appropriations to where they are most needed. We can't have everything we want whenever we want it. Finally, the guys at the 'edge' are in the spotlight.

Oh, and one fact is inescapable.  The Army these days sure makes much better promotional and informational-type videos that it used to.

Calling All Stars!

Brig. Gen. Charles Flynn (U.S. Army Photo)

This photo captures a rare moment in today's Army, a general officer talking seriously to a serious crowd about Army doctrine.  Brigadier General Charles Flynn, acting commander of the U.S. Army Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth holds forth on the just released Army Doctrine Publication 3-0, Unified Land Operations, at the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) conference in Washington, D.C.  BG Flynn has been talking doctrine at the conference for three days straight, so this wasn't just a photo op.

I was a doctrine writer for four years.  Brig. Gen. Flynn has talked more about doctrine to more people in the past three days than I heard from any group of ten general officers since I started learning about doctrine back in 2007.

Part of the reason for the huge backlog in doctrine development, cited recently by the TRADOC commander, General Robert Cone (here) is because general officers aren't following Brig. Gen. Flynn's example.  They are not getting out in front of the public and they are not talking to their commands about Army doctrine.  As a result, the unintended message sent is that doctrine is not all that important.  If something's not important it's very easy to build up a 436-year back-log in developing whatever it is -- which, in this case, is the “Fundamental principles by which the military forces or elements thereof guide their actions in support of national objectives.”

Visit the U.S. Army Combined Arms Center Facebook page and you will more photos like this one and video footage of Brig. Gen. Flynn and others talking about some really importing, cutting edge stuff, things like:

• Doctrine 2015.
• Connecting Soldiers to Digital Applications.
• Mobile Applications.
• The Training Brain.

And a lot more.

The Army and Emerging Technology, Part II -- Military Apps

http://tonyhowardsblog.blogspot.com/  

The Army and Emerging Technology, Part I -- Connecting Soldiers to Digital Applications