The 3rd Multidomain Task Force, activated in September 2022 out of Fort Shafter, Hawaii, saw its first operational deployment in Talisman Sabre, an exercise in its 10th biennial iteration as a joint U.S.-Australian Pacific theater exercise that has grown to include 13 nations and more than 30,000 troops.

The task force had its first-ever exercise in February, part of Northern Edge 23 held in Alaska, said U.S. Army Pacific commander Gen. Charles Flynn.

Along with the original two members the exercise included France, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Canada and Germany. This is the first participation for Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Tonga.

Simultaneously, the 1st Multidomain Task Force has worked an extensive deployment for more than six months this year in the Philippines, that’s contributed to this exercise also, Flynn told Army Times.

The 1st Multidomain Task Force was the first such formation for the Army and was activated in 2017. That unit also conducted the first long-range deployment of the Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon over 3,100 miles from Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington to Cape Canaveral, Florida, according to an Army release. The 2nd Multidomain Task Force is based out of Europe.

These task forces knit together a range of domains and capabilities that the Army is relying on to fight its first new doctrine, Multi-Domain Operations, in more than 40 years as it shifts the force to the multi-domain operations way of fighting.

Those domains and capabilities include “theater-specific units that employ long-range precision effects, including cyber, electronic warfare, intelligence and long-range fires,” according to an Army release. Within the task force the multidomain effects battalion serves as the “targeting brain” of the force, Flynn said.

“It is creating the interoperability needed with our allies and partners and it is also creating opportunities for the joint force to improve our joint cueing, joint targeting, joint collection and our joint ability to sense, move and communicate, and see, sense and understand what’s actually happening in the environment,” Flynn told Army Times.

The Japanese and Australian militaries are currently adjusting their doctrine to a multidomain approach. The Japanese have pursued a “cross-domain” approach in recent years. Indonesia, the Philippines and other partners are considering such approaches, Flynn said.

There might be a reason for those moves.

Dubbed the “Olympics” of Pacific-based exercises, the event has a build-up phase that’s also very Army-centric. Operation Pacific Pathways, formerly Pacific Pathways, is an ongoing rotation of Army units to do in-country training with partner nations such as Indonesia, which saw U.S. trainers there for training missions Garuda Shield and Super Garuda Shield in recent years.

Led by the Joint Base Lewis-McChord-centered Army I Corps, Pathways dates to 2014 and has grown from short-term, small unit deployments to dispersed brigades coordinating training across multiple partner nations in the Pacific for months or more.

“The end state of Operation Pathways is we are creating joint interior lines,” Flynn said.

The “joint interior lines” refer to a string of defenses between partner nations to push back on Chinese military incursion, such as documented cases of Chinese military provocation in disputed territorial waters of the Philippines, Japan and other Pacific nations.

At the same time, the Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center, one of the Army’s newest combat training centers outside of the continental United States in more than 30 years, holds land-based training in Alaska and Hawaii. The center has spent recent years building an “exportable” combat training center model, twice deployed to Indonesia.

The concept uses center training cadre and equipment in a host nation to simulate the wider-ranging field exercises conducted at areas such as the National Training Center in Fort Irwin, California or the Joint Readiness Training Center in Fort Polk, Louisiana — standard pre-combat deployment culminating rotations.

Australia is building out its own combat training center near Lavarack Barracks in Townsville, Queensland, Australia. Japan has its own U.S.-type combat training center in Hokkaido called Yausubetsu Training Area. Indonesia, Flynn said, is in the process of constructing a similar kind of training center.

The 15-day Talisman Sabre exercise is part of a larger, regional effort to counter perceived Chinese military aggression and territorial disregard by Chinese vessels and personnel. The exercise changes the spelling of “Sabre” to “Saber” as it rotates between Australian and U.S. control every other year.

That’s not a simulated scenario either, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, a news outlet, reported that Australian forces from multiple platforms had photographed a Chinese military spy, identified as “carrying the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) fleet designation number 793 ship near the Australian coast,” on July 23, the second day of the exercise.

Chief of Joint Operations, Australian Army Lt. Gen. Greg Bilton, told the news outlet that the forces were responding to the spy ship spotting.

“They’ll passively collect, and we’ll adjust — there’s some things we don’t necessarily want to give away and we have methods of being able to employ our forces without giving those more sensitive aspects of our training away,” Bilton said.

Such developments bolster what Flynn told Army Times on July 26 the exercise intends.

Flynn called the scale, varied activities and number of partner nations a strong signal to the Chinese military, calling such exercises the “greatest counterweight” to Chinese military encroachment on partner nation’s territories.

“When (the Chinese military) sees the U.S. partnered with that many countries, conducting the scale and scope of operations, they ought to take note of that and that ought to put some doubt in their minds,” Flynn said.

CLARIFICATION: This article has been updated to accurately reflect the establishment of the Joint Pacific Multinational Training Center as one of the Army’s newest centers outside of the continental United States in more than 30 years.

On every problem the Army faces

“If it was easy, somebody would’ve already done it.”

On improving soldier skills, raising standards

“Oh, it’s coming. Soldiers need to know how to read a map.”

“If you don’t know how to stop a soldier from bleeding, it doesn’t matter if you’re in large-scale combat or counterinsurgency, you don’t know how to do your tasks. At the battalion and below, you need to be an absolute expert in your job. Every soldier in your organization needs to know their job so well that we shouldn’t have to worry about that. [Then] we can worry about the deep fight and long-range hypersonics.”

On NCO development

“What we need to do is continuously challenge our NCOs,” Grinston said. “So that’s one of our biggest changes; make our first NCO course rigorous and bring back a little rigor and field time and the tactics.”

On Ukraine

“When Russia invaded Ukraine, your Army knew exactly what we needed to do. You should be proud of what we’ve done.”

On operational tempo

“We’ve never said no. I’ve watched these soldiers, year after year, they’ve said, ‘Yes, I’ll go do that.’”

On finding solutions

“You hear it all the time: ‘Well, I don’t want to make sausage in front of the sergeant major of the Army.’ I want to make sausage. I want to hear ideas … because if the people with the money and authority that can help with policy don’t hear the ideas in the forum, then you may wait too long and it doesn’t get funded or it’s not a policy,”

On being present

“What I ask you all as leaders is, are you there? You don’t have to lead (physical training), you don’t have to be up front, you just have to be present.”

On mental health

“It’s okay to seek help if you need help. But I do want to caution you that that is not the panacea for all your problems. Maybe seek behavioral health, maybe you can talk to a chaplain. I think when we use all the resources that we have, I think we’re all going to be in a better mental state. We can’t just use only one resource.”

Following the murder of Spc. Vanessa Guillén

“I think that’s the hard part … ‘It wasn’t your actions, it was the actions around you, and somehow that was allowed to fester. And that’s the difficult part because you personally were performing exceptionally well. But those things around you were happening, and either you should have known or you allowed it.’”

On combat

“I think I did my best to bring everybody back. I didn’t, but I think they knew that I truly cared. And when I made them run a billion miles — when you’re in combat, you didn’t fall out.”

On his time as a drill sergeant

“I was mean. There’s no way I could lie to you, if you were to talk to my soldiers … I was not nice, I was not fun. I wouldn’t want me as a drill sergeant.”

Stopping sexual assault and harassment

“You hear it all the time: ‘Well, I don’t want to make sausage in front of the sergeant major of the Army.’ I want to make sausage. I want to hear ideas … because if the people with the money and authority that can help with policy don’t hear the ideas in the forum, then you may wait too long and it doesn’t get funded or it’s not a policy,”

On suicide

“I think we need to rethink suicide. We want to put people in a box that behavioral health will solve. Maybe we need to look at it that everyone can be susceptible to a suicide thought or event.”

On failure

“I feel that I failed to communicate the importance of being a part of a cohesive team that is highly trained, disciplined and fit. I talk about ‘This is My Squad,’ [and] how to take ownership and treat people with dignity and respect. I failed to get [my message] down to the NCOs on Fort Hood.”

On readiness

“It’s not people first versus readiness; it’s people first that equals readiness in the Army. If I’m more fit, I’m a better [rifleman]; that’s about me as a person. If I’m not fit and I can’t shoot my weapon, I’m not very lethal.”

On race

“Racial identity is something that I have struggled with my entire life. … Sometimes in my life, I felt like it’s in the movie ‘The Green Book’ where the actor gets out of the car and he says, ‘I’m not Black enough for the Black people, and I’m not White enough for the White people.’”

On loss

“I got an award and I don’t even know if I deserve it. I’d give it back in a second if I could get the soldiers back.”

Facing death

“It got to the point that by the time I’d gotten to my second deployment, I’m like, there’s no way,” “There’s no way I could get out the first time, I’m definitely going to die on the second and third. We were in Mahmoudiyah — Triangle of Death. Great.”

Sources: Army Times; Military.com; Army.mil; TaskandPurpose.com

The fort, which is home to the Joint Readiness Training Center and the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, derives its new name from New York National Guard Sgt. William Henry Johnson, a Black World War I soldier who bravely fought off German forces as a member of the famed Harlem Hellfighters.

“Sgt. Henry Johnson embodied the warrior spirit, and we are deeply honored to bear his name at the Home of Heroes,” Brig. Gen. David Gardner, the commanding general of the base, said in a statement.

Johnson enlisted in 1917 with the 15th New York Infantry Regiment — a National Guard unit of Black Americans later designated as the 369th Infantry Regiment — about two months after the United States entered WWI, according to the statement.

The Harlem Hellfighter single-handedly repelled a German raiding party in May 1918 with his rifle butt, grenades, his fists and a knife, saving his fellow soldier Needham Roberts from capture in the process.

“Each slash meant something, believe me,” Johnson once said. “There wasn’t anything so fine about it … just fought for my life. A rabbit would have done that.”

Suffering 21 wounds, Johnson was unable to resume his job as a luggage handler after the war.

He received the French Croix de Guerre military decoration for his actions, one of the first Americans to receive the honor, the Army statement noted.

The courageous soldier died in 1929 and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. He was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart, Distinguished Service Cross and Medal of Honor for his actions.

“It is a distinct pleasure and honor to represent the New York National Guard in the rededication ceremony of Fort Polk to Fort Henry Johnson,” Brig. Gen. Isabel Rivera Smith, the New York National Guard’s director of joint staff, said in the release. “As a Black American whose bravery wasn’t acknowledged at the time, Sgt. Johnson personified the Army values and was the epitome of strength. As a former member of the 369th Harlem Hellfighters myself, I could not be prouder to be part of this ceremony.”

The renaming move adheres to legislation requiring the removal or modification of Department of Defense assets that commemorate the Confederate States of America or those who voluntarily served under the Confederacy. The Louisiana post is one of nine Army installations being redesignated.

The Army installation was previously named for Confederate Gen. Leonidas Polk, a resident of New Orleans who was killed in combat in 1864.

A six-page Army PowerPoint presentation created for the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services shows a marked drop in the Army’s female enlistments for every year since fiscal 2019. The presentation does not mention 20-year-old Spc. Vanessa Guillen, who disappeared from Fort Cavazos (then Fort Hood) in Texas in April 2020, and whose remains were only discovered months later after calls for an intensified search. It does, however, point to another jarring statistic: a dramatic spike in the percentage of young prospective female recruits citing fears of sexual harassment or assault as reasons not to join the Army.

What’s more, the presentation states that the Army failed to allay women’s fears even as those concerns hindered recruiting efforts.

“The biggest factor is the perception among the target market and US Army’s issues with Sexual Harassment, Sexual Assault and discrimination,” the presentation, delivered by Command Sgt. Maj. Scott A. Wolfe, top enlisted leader of the Army’s 1st Recruiting Brigade, states. “We never tried to counter the narrative.”

Wolfe’s presentation, delivered to the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services in March, offers a rare specific look at Army efforts to attract women amid broader, military-wide struggles to recruit within a young generation less predisposed to service than its predecessors. According to the presentation, the Army got 15,907 female enlistment contracts in 2020, down from 19,137 in 2019. Contracts fell to 13,320 in 2021, and tumbled again, to 10,751 in 2022. In terms of female representation in enlistments, the slides show female enlistments made up 20.8% of the total in 2019, falling to 20.5% in 2020, and dropping again to 18.6% in 2021. Female representation in enlistments increased to 19.3% in 2022, but has yet to fully recover.

The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, which kept recruiters out of high schools and restricted opportunities to meet prospective recruits face-to-face, was a factor in the drop in enlistment contracts, according to the presentation. But negative perceptions, it concludes, were a greater factor.

“Female Prospects view the Army as an inferior employer — neither aligned with their aspirations nor providing desired outcomes,” the presentation states, with jarring candor.

U.S. Army Recruiting Command declined to make Wolfe available for an interview, but did provide written responses to questions about the presentation and its findings. An Army spokeswoman, Madison Bonzo, said the service did not explicitly link the downward enlistment trend with the widespread furor and outrage over Guillen’s death.

“A decrease in enlistment for this specific reason would be difficult to determine,” she said, “however the Army is working to counter several misperceptions the public has about military service through awareness about the opportunities it provides and the programs we currently offer to combat sexual assault in the Army.”

Demographic-specific recruiting data included in the presentation does show more nuance, and some positive trends. While recruitment of white women fell to a five-year low in 2022, making up 6% of enlistments, down from 7.9% in 2020, representation of women from other racial backgrounds increased even as overall enlistments fell.

The number of Hispanic women who signed enlistment contracts dropped from 4,500 in 2019 to 2,923 in 2022, but representation in the population increased from 4.9% to a five-year high of 5.2% in the same timeframe, the presentation shows. African American female enlistees dropped from 6,085 in 2019 to 3,550, but representation remained relatively strong, dipping from 6.6% in 2019 to 5.7% in 2021, but climbing back to 5.7% last year.

Female production — or the annual number of enlistment contracts — is down 31% overall since the pandemic, according to the presentation, but overall production is down 29.2% as all Army elements contend with historic recruiting difficulties. Bonzo pointed to another statistic, the 13% of female enlistees in 2022 who opted for combat arms jobs once off-limits to women, as another positive sign.

“Overall female representation has not dropped, active component female representation has increased each year since 2011,” she said. “For example, in 2016, women became eligible for all jobs within the Army’s combat arms branch, since then, the Army has increased overall representation of females in those roles to approximately 5% as of FEB 2023.”

But as the stark language of Wolfe’s presentation makes clear, the misgivings of women ages 16 to 28 about Army service, especially if not effectively addressed in outreach and communication, may be a harbinger of greater recruiting struggles to come.

In that age group, the presented data shows, 64% of respondents believe they would be sexually harassed, and 61% believe they’d be sexually assaulted, if they joined the Army. Among respondents from Gen Z, those born after 1997, almost half said that they think their lives would be worse off if they joined the Army, and 43% said they believe they’d experience some form of discrimination.

Bonzo acknowledged the service sees challenges in reaching Gen Z, and said the Army’s recruitment machine is working to push out social media content highlighting female soldiers in traditionally male-dominated roles, as well as “in leadership positions, fulfilling their passions, balancing work and family and other success stories.”

“Army Marketing research tells us that Gen Z does not know their Army,” she said. “Research also tells us that youth seek out paths filled with possibilities of purpose, passion, community, and connection; however, they don’t see the Army as an organization that can set them on those paths. Army marketing campaigns are designed to close these gaps.”

Bonzo pointed to new and upcoming Army initiatives that aim to communicate positive aspects of Army service and highlight opportunities for women to advance and thrive. The Army’s Enterprise Marketing Office, she said, is partnering with media company IGN to produce a mini-documentary series called “Women Warriors,” focused on telling the stories of real service members who pursue their passions while serving in the Army.

A women’s initiative team, similar to those already established in the Air Force and Marine Corps, is also being established, she said, as an advocacy entity. Made up of female soldiers, the team “will provide an important mechanism for the Army to evaluate the way it measures and identifies issues of gender bias,” Bonzo said.

Even as it launches these new efforts, however, the Army may be hard-pressed to alter negative public perception from events that dominate headlines. Guillen, who disappeared after reporting sexual harassment by a fellow soldier and was allegedly killed by another soldier, continues to be a symbol for many of the service’s perceived failure to do all it can to protect women in uniform. The March death of another Fort Cavazos soldier, 20-year-old Pvt. Ana Basaldua Ruiz, once again returned Guillen to the national conversation, even though preliminary findings indicated Ruiz’s death was not the result of foul play.

WASHINGTON — The Government Accountability Office has denied Oshkosh Defense’s protest of the U.S. Army’s decision to award a nearly $9 billion contract to AM General to build Joint Light Tactical Vehicles, Defense News has learned.

Oshkosh took issue with the Army’s evaluation of its technical, price and cost proposals as well as with the Army’s evaluation of AM General’s submission, Edward Goldstein, a GAO attorney said in a June 12 statement.

“Oshkosh also argued that the Army unreasonably and unequally conducted discussions and should not have found AMG to be a ‘responsible’ contractor; that is, a contractor with the necessary financial, technical, and other business capabilities needed to perform the contract successfully. Finally, Oshkosh argued that the Army unreasonably made its best-value tradeoff determination.

“In denying the protest, GAO concluded that the Army reasonably evaluated proposals in accordance with the RFP’s evaluation criteria, and that any judgments made were consistent with and adequately supported by the content provided in written proposals or observed as part of site visits conducting during the course of the solicitation process,” Goldstein said.

The decision was issued under a protective order because it may contain proprietary information. A redacted version of the report is forthcoming.

“We are disappointed with the decision,” Oshkosh said in a statement sent to Defense News, “and we firmly believe our proposal was the lowest risk, best value solution for the young men and women serving our nation.”

Oshkosh said it would assess the GAO’s findings and evaluate next steps.

AM General upset JLTV-maker Oshkosh in the Army’s new competition to build more of the vehicles, winning a contract valued at $8.66 billion. Oshkosh won the original 2015 competition to build JLTV, beating out AM General and Lockheed Martin.

Oshkosh filed a protest with the GAO on March 6 following its post-award debriefing with the government. Tim Bleck, Oshkosh’s president, said at the time the company has “significant concerns regarding the evaluation of the proposals under the solicitation that support an independent review. We believe the government’s evaluation did not properly review the financial, technical, and manufacturing capabilities offered to select the best value and lowest risk solution to deliver the JLTV.”

Since 2020, private equity firm KPS Capital Partners has owned AM General. The subsidiary is now setting up infrastructure at its 96-acre Mishawaka Manufacturing Campus in Indiana.

Oshkosh has built nearly 19,000 JLTVs to date, supplying them to the U.S. Army, Marine Corps, Air Force and Navy as well as military forces in Montenegro, Brazil, Slovenia and Lithuania. The company is under contract to build more than 22,679 vehicles and expects additional orders through November.

According to a redacted copy of the protest obtained by Defense News, Oshkosh contends the Army took “glaring risks” by selecting AM General, noting the company has “zero experience manufacturing the JLTV” and “by its own admission, must build out its own facilities before it can start production.”

Oshkosh said in the protest the Army did not appropriately consider AM General’s financial capacity.

The company is preparing to close its JLTV production line by the end of 2024.

“As we move forward, we will continue to focus our mission to provide the highest quality vehicles and technologies that enable our warfighters to perform their mission and return home safely,” Oshkosh said in its June 12 statement.

AM General has to start building JLTVs by August 2024, and while the protest was still pending the Army went ahead and awarded a $4.7 billion contract to the company on May 24.

Byron Callan of Capital Alpha Partners said in recent analysis prior to the decision that he doubted the Army would have moved forward with a contract award to AM General if the service thought the award would be overturned.

On June 10 during remarks at the Army’s birthday festival held at the National Museum of the United States Army near Fort Belvoir, Virginia, Sergeant Major of the Army Michael Grinston shared the news.

“You know we have great soldiers and I do love our soldiers and they join a great team,” Grinston said. “And I can say for the last four years when they join, they’ve stayed on the team. We’ve met our retention goals every year for the last four years and this year, we’ve already met our retention goals.”

The service has met and set goals of retaining or re-enlisting between 50,000 and 60,000 soldiers heading toward the end of their service obligations even as the Army and other services struggle with recruiting new troops and an overall shrinking of the size of the total force.

Recruiting and end strength annual goals are set on the fiscal calendar; the fiscal year begins Oct. 1.

Army Times reported in January that Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville set a focus on continued success in retaining soldiers.

“Retention is at a historical high, [and] we don’t take that for granted,” said Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville at an Association of the U.S. Army event.

The chief also said commanders had higher retention goals than in 2022, despite the fiscal 2023 defense policy bill setting the Army’s end strength goal at 452,000 troops.

The end strength number is a drop of 12,000 from the estimated 465,000 soldiers who were on active duty in October, and McConville acknowledged that the decrease is “a function of our ability to recruit.”

Specific data on this year’s retention goals were not immediately available as of press time.

But according to recent testimony by Army Undersecretary Gabe Camarillo, reported by the news outlet Defense One, the goal was 55,100 soldiers.

Less than 1% of soldiers who were eligible to leave the Army in the past two years did leave the Army, according to Defense One.

In May, Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth acknowledged publicly that the Army is likely to fall short of its recruiting goal of 65,000 new soldiers, the outlet reported.

Staff Sgt. Stevon A. Booker was killed April 5, 2003, during the so-called thunder run in Baghdad, Iraq. Pvt. Robert D. Booker was killed under heavy machine gunfire in Tunisia on April 9, 1943, during WWII.

Stevon Booker was a tanker and Robert Booker was in the infantry. Robert was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, and Stevon was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.

The M10, now formerly known as the Mobile Protected Firepower vehicle, is the first combat vehicle named after someone who served in post-9/11 combat.

The stories of the two soldiers “articulate the Army’s exact needs for the M10 Booker combat vehicle,” service acquisition chief Doug Bush said June 8. “Our soldiers will now have an infantry assault vehicle that brings a new level of lethality to our ground forces and allows our men and women in uniform to move at a faster pace under greater protection.”

Stevon, a tank commander serving under Task Force 1-64 company commander Capt. Andrew Hilmes, was killed by enemy machine gun fire during the first thunder run up Highway 8 leading to the Baghdad International airport.

When both of the tank’s machine guns failed, Stevon laid down on top of the tank’s turret and fired at enemy forces with his own weapon, destroying an enemy troop carrier as it attempted to pass the tank. He continued to fire his weapon along an 8-kilometer route until he was mortally wounded.

Robert was killed as he advanced through mortar and artillery fire with a machine gun, suppressing fire and destroying other machine gun positions before he was fatally wounded, Maj. Gen. Glenn Dean, the service’s program executive officer for Ground Combat Systems, said on June 8.

“That is the mission that the M10 Booker is designed to fulfill on behalf of and in support of the infantry,” Dean said. “So having an armored and infantry is a particularly compelling name.”

While it might seem unusual to name the vehicle after two people, Dean noted, the Stryker combat vehicle was named for two soldiers — both Medal of Honor recipients — serving in the Vietnam War and WWII.

The vehicle

The M10 Booker is “an armored vehicle that is intended to support our infantry brigade combat teams by suppressing and destroying fortifications, gun systems, entrenchments and secondarily then providing protection against enemy armored vehicles,” Dean added.

General Dynamics Land Systems, which won the competition to provide the M10 to the Army in June 2022, will deliver the first of the vehicles in November this year.

The system features a new chassis design, while drawing from other GDLS programs to reduce risk, Kevin Vernagus, company program director for the Mobile Protected Firepower system, told Defense News in October 2022.

The turret is also “largely new and with different materials than normal” he added, but “we still retain the interior look, feel and controls similar to an Abrams” main battle tank.

GDLS will initially deliver 26 vehicles, but the contract allows the Army to buy 70 more over the course of low-rate initial production for a total of $1.14 billion. At least eight of the 12 prototypes used during competitive evaluation will be retrofitted for fielding to the force.

The Army will create a new battalion for the first unit of M10s — 42 vehicles — by the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025, Dean said. The Army plans to enter full-rate production in calendar 2025.

Prior to fielding, the Army will perform initial operational tests for the vehicle in late 2024 or early 2025, Dean said.

The Army expects to spend about $6 billion on Mobile Protected Firepower vehicles through the procurement phase, including what it has already spent on research, development and prototyping efforts. The total life-cycle cost of the program, including sustainment, military construction and personnel, is estimated at $17 billion.

The Army plans to buy 504 vehicles, which are projected to be in the inventory for at least 30 years. The bulk of procurement should conclude by 2035, Dean has said. The procurement unit cost is estimated to be around $12.9 million, which includes spares, training and fielding.

To win the M10 contract over competitor BAE Systems, GDLS had to deliver 12 prototypes to the service for routine evaluation as well as to soldiers in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, now called Fort Liberty. The soldiers extensively assessed the operational qualities and characteristics of both offerings, then provided feedback to Army decision-makers.

The vehicle experienced issues in testing and evaluation, including toxic fumes generated when firing the main gun and overheating. Dean said both of those issues are resolved.

The company also improved sealing around hatches and enhanced armor coverage, GDLS told Defense News last year.

The M10 turrets will be manufactured at the Joint Systems Manufacturing Center in Lima, Ohio, where M1 Abrams tanks are made. The hulls will be made in Michigan, the gun tubes at Watervliet Arsenal, New York, and vehicle assembly in Anniston Army Depot, Alabama.

The category four cyclone ripped through the Pacific archipelago in late May, cutting power lines, uprooting trees and disrupting water supplies.

Personnel stationed at Naval Base Guam, Andersen Air Force Base and Marine Corps Base Camp Blaz — in concert with the Army guardsmen, reservists, the Coast Guard, FEMA and other agencies — have all been involved in recovery efforts, both military and civilian, and assisting local governments. A combined joint task force led by U.S. Army Pacific and Task Force West is spearheading the military’s efforts.

Rear Adm. Benjamin Nicholson, commander of Task Force West, and all military installation commanding officers in Guam “are diligently working to restore steady state to the bases and dedicate resources to all FEMA mission assignments,” according to a Navy news release.

No new arrivals — for now

In a May 23 naval administrative message, Vice Adm. Richard Cheeseman Jr., the chief of naval personnel, announced that the Navy would be pausing all PCS moves to Guam “for Navy uniformed members, civilians and their dependents” until June 30. Sailors PCSing out of the territory can leave as soon as they secure travel. The pause doesn’t apply to personnel slated for temporary additional duty.

The Air Force took a similar tack May 25, halting inbound PCS assignments to Andersen for 60 days “in order to ensure incoming service members and their families have adequate resources available to them,” an Air Force spokseperson told Military Times. Andersen expected to receive 240 PCS arrivals between June and August, public affairs officials from the 36th Wing, the base’s host unit, told Military Times. Around 400 people have moved out of the Air Force base to their next assignment since the typhoon made landfall.

“The stop movement also gives 36th Wing leadership time to evaluate the damage done to our resources while also making sure we’re prepared to take care of the families that are due to PCS to Andersen,” the official added.

The PCS pause timeline may shift depending on the progress of relief efforts.

The Marines, however, haven’t issued a broad suspension of inbound PCSs to Camp Blaz, choosing instead to assess “each individual” PCS arrival, Maj. Diann Rosenfeld, a spokesperson for Marine Corps Installations Pacific, told Military Times. Around a dozen Marines plan to PCS to Guam between June and July; one has arrived since the storm swept through, and all outbound June PCSs have departed.

“We are taking all necessary steps to accommodate PCSers already en route to Guam,” Rosenfeld added. “For example, because comms were limited directly after the storm, our sponsors have met face-to-face with different agencies across the island to ensure those agencies could still support our inbound Marines.”

The Air Force described similar plans.

“There are various courses of actions (COAs) in place for members that were due to PCS here to ensure their needs are met if/when they arrive,” a 36th Wing spokesperson said. “Service members that were already on their way or slated to PCS to Andersen AFB are encouraged to work with their sponsors and chain of command to minimize confusion and ensure a smooth PCS process.”

Military installations across Guam sustained damage during the storm. The extent of the damage and how long repairs will take is still not completely clear. Both of Andersen’s runways are operational and fielding plane-loads of aid daily, according to base personnel.

Over half of the island’s 170,534 inhabitants still lacked electricity as of Thursday, according to the Guam Power Authority. The Guam Waterworks Authority estimated that roughly 30% of residents still don’t have access to clean water. The typhoon’s record-breaking winds and rains caused upwards of $112 million in damage, according to initial tallies.

Military relief groups have raised close to $2 million for the 21,700 service members and dependents living in the territory.

Clouds of thick haze generated by forest fires in Canada wafted southward, polluting thousands of square miles with toxic fumes and forcing millions to minimize their time outdoors. Heeding public health warnings from state and federal agencies, installations from Connecticut to Virginia curtailed routine operations to protect personnel.

Naval Submarine Base New London, Connecticut, suspended all physical training and sporting activities Thursday for 24 hours and recommended limiting any “strenuous activities to only mission essential tasks.” Fort Hamilton, located in Brooklyn, prohibited outdoor youth activities, shuttered its legal office and closed off its pool (its bowling alley, however, remained open); the base planned to resume normal operations Friday.

Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey, cycled personnel through its outdoor outposts to limit their exposure to the smoke; the facility temporarily closed its gates throughout the day Thursday to accommodate the rotations.

Military installations further south took on similar precautionary measures. Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, urged “sensitive groups” — children, the elderly and the ill — to avoid all outdoor physical activity. In Maryland, Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland called off a Thursday night recreational soccer showdown. Forts Detrick and Meade, and Belvoir in Virginia, all circulated cautionary announcements on their social media feeds.

Farther south in Maryland, Indian Head’s Fleet and Family Readiness program made a more weighty sacrifice, shutting down its Tiki Bar.

The worst of the smoke seemed to have subsided across much of the country. On Thursday evening, the Environmental Protection Agency deemed the air quality in much of New York state, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia to be “very unhealthy” or “hazardous.” By Friday morning, most of the warnings were downgraded to “moderate.”

As a result, many bases have resumed normal operations. A spokesperson from Dover AFB told Military Times that the base was “completely operational” as of Friday afternoon, though “the 436th Operational Medical Readiness Squadron is continuing to monitor the situation and is in lockstep with Dover AFB leadership to mitigate risks to Dover AFB personnel.”

At least 420 active fires — more than half of which are “out of control” — continue to rage across Canada, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre. Meteorologists and climate experts expect some respite in the coming days, as shifting winds disperse the shroud elsewhere.

But with the ongoing environmental disaster north of the border, the answer to the question of whether more such shutdowns can be expected in coming weeks is simply blowing in the wind.

At least, that’s what the U.S. Army thought in 1973 — and it put that theory to the test.

“At the start of the Cold War, NATO planners envisioned as many as 175 Soviet divisions advancing across Western Europe,” writes Blake Stilwell for Military.com. “In their mind, NATO troops would find themselves fighting the Red Army’s new T-62 tanks in cities and towns, populated areas where the collateral damage from anti-tank missiles could kill civilians.”

Close-quarters fighting called for close-quarter weaponry, and with that, the Army attempted to meld Americans’ love of football with combat.

The Army’s Land Warfare Laboratory at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland was tasked with creating a football-shaped grenade.

But they quickly found out why the idea wasn’t going to fly.

“Since a regulation-size football weighs 14 ounces, it was considered feasible to make a shaped charge grenade within this weight limitation. In addition, most US troops are familiar with throwing footballs,” according to the Army’s test report for the weapon.

So Army researchers simply hollowed out a Nerf football — yes, the foam balls you threw as a child — and placed explosives inside.

Ingenious, sure. Practical? Hardly.

Footballs fly through the air because there is an even distribution of weight surrounding the hollow inside of the ball. But 14 ounces of explosives tended to make the trajectory of the Nerf grenade “unpredictable,” according to the test report.

Army war planners had better luck taking inspiration from baseball. In 1968, as the Vietnam War was in full swing, the M-67 grenade — known as the baseball grenade — saw widespread use in the war.

Despite its ubiquitous use, current Army manuals make no mention of sports or balls when it comes to grenades. “Since few soldiers throw in the same manner, it is difficult to establish firm rules or techniques for throwing hand grenades,” one handbook points out.

“If a soldier can achieve more distance and accuracy using his own personal style, he should be allowed to do so as long as his body is facing sideways, towards the enemy’s position, and he throws basically overhand,” the document adds.

Editor’s note: This story was first published by our sister publication HistoryNet.