{"id":39057,"date":"2019-06-05T22:30:57","date_gmt":"2019-06-05T22:30:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/uncategorized\/2019\/06\/05\/tactics-tech-and-work-of-close-combat-experts-is-turning-warfare-upside-down\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T03:06:59","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T03:06:59","slug":"tactics-tech-and-work-of-close-combat-experts-is-turning-warfare-upside-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/news\/your-marine-corps\/2019\/06\/05\/tactics-tech-and-work-of-close-combat-experts-is-turning-warfare-upside-down\/","title":{"rendered":"Tactics, tech and work of close combat experts is turning warfare \u2018upside down\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">FREDERICKSBURG, Va. \u2014 The days are coming when a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.armytimes.com\/news\/your-army\/2018\/09\/19\/this-mattis-created-task-force-wants-to-recruit-and-retain-the-best-candidates-for-the-infantry\/\" target=_blank>squad leader on a battlefield<\/a>, far from headquarters and large supporting units, will pull out something that looks like a smartphone, open an app and push a button and something in front of his squad will explode.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marinecorpstimes.com\/news\/your-marine-corps\/2018\/10\/02\/how-the-marines-army-are-counting-out-the-door-now-troops-and-increasing-small-unit-readiness\/\" target=\"_blank\">one piece of a large vision<\/a> that is emerging from work being done by the Pentagon\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.armytimes.com\/news\/your-army\/2018\/04\/11\/this-mattis-directed-task-force-wants-to-overhaul-the-infantry-heres-how-it-might-do-that\/\" target=\"_blank\">Close Combat Lethality Task Force<\/a>, said one of its originators, retired Army Maj. Gen. Robert Scales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Scales, a Vietnam veteran and former commandant of the U.S. Army War College, was speaking this week at the annual National Defense Industrial Association\u2019s Armaments Systems Forum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe used to believe that operational art drove tactical art,\u201d Scales said. \u201cWe\u2019re seeing now that it\u2019s the opposite.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/your-military\/2019\/01\/29\/a-look-inside-the-work-future-of-jim-mattis-task-force-focused-on-infantry-close-combat\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Marine-platoon-attack.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">A look inside the work, future of Jim Mattis&#8217; task force focused on infantry, close combat<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">The outgoing defense secretary put in place an order to continue the task force for at least another year.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The forum is heavy on technical advances both present and future, but the retired two-star shared more notes on how the way the United States and others fight will be \u201cturned upside down\u201d by a combination of technical and tactical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s not a technical problem, it\u2019s an organizational and bureaucratic problem,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have the tech to do what I\u2019m describing with a quadcopter purchased at Walmart. The problem is having it integrated and immediately responsive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The smartphone bombing app was one of a number of examples of how small units, the size of either an Army or Marine squad, will influence operational and strategic levels of warfare from the tactical level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Much of the work being done at that lower level is drawing on lessons from special operations forces from the past 15 years or more of combat, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Their work has led to what is called a \u201ccone of impunity,\u201d in which small teams are enabled to move freely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They do that by having missile fires, close-air support and layers of defense that include shoulder-fired weapons to take out big things like tanks and aircraft, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He would also add swarms of drones to create a protective bubble. That\u2019s all to ensure that those small units are not able to be surprised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">His remarks were a kind of preview of a larger piece he said would be publicized in November as part of the work of the task force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The task force has helped prioritize funding for the close combat 100,000 \u2013 infantry, special operations, scouts and combat engineers \u2013 who do most of the fighting, killing and dying but receive a fraction of the overall defense budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some of the early priorities include new night-vision devices, accelerated development on a next generation rifle and machine gun and a futuristic <a href=\"https:\/\/www.armytimes.com\/news\/your-army\/2019\/04\/08\/soldiers-marines-try-out-new-device-that-puts-mixed-reality-multiple-functions-into-warfighters-hands\/\" target=_blank>Integrated Visual Augmentation System<\/a>, or IVAS, that would put night, thermal, wayfinding and targeting into one device that could also share data across the squad and up the echelons.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/news\/your-army\/2019\/04\/08\/soldiers-marines-try-out-new-device-that-puts-mixed-reality-multiple-functions-into-warfighters-hands\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/night-vision-with-map.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Soldiers, Marines try out new device that puts \u2018mixed reality,\u2019 multiple functions into warfighter\u2019s hands<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">The system melds navigation, targeting, situational awareness and communications into a single device with advanced thermal and night vision.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But more recently their next phase of efforts have focused on improving recruitment, retention and upping the human performance factors that make those individuals in close combat capable of handling increasingly complex future missions and responsibilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For that reason, Scales is calling upon the Defense Department to view the close combat forces as an \u201cexcepted\u201d portion, much like the \u201cnuclear Navy\u201d was considered early in the Cold War as that force, still part of the regular service, saw its mission prioritized to meet strategic goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And, much like that nuclear Navy, the squad-level operators should have at their fingertips weapons systems and authorities that remove the bureaucratic layers that, for now, get in the way of rapid action and reaction on a battlefield that moves in milliseconds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As the two-star noted, individual soldiers and Marines carry on their backs capabilities that once consumed acres of equipment, from communications to precision strike networks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"4288\" height=\"2848\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/army-squad.jpeg.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-78486\" srcset=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/army-squad.jpeg.jpg 4288w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/army-squad.jpeg.jpg?resize=300,199 300w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/army-squad.jpeg.jpg?resize=768,510 768w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/army-squad.jpeg.jpg?resize=1024,680 1024w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/army-squad.jpeg.jpg?resize=1536,1020 1536w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/army-squad.jpeg.jpg?resize=2048,1360 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 4288px) 100vw, 4288px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">An infantry squad with 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, assaults the first of two buildings during a platoon live-fire lane, Jan 28. 2018, during Inferno Creek 2018 near Thumrait, Oman. In the following days, the platoon would support Omani forces who took the lead during later company-level live fires. Inferno Creek 2018 is an annual Omani-U.S. exercise focused on building bilateral ties between the two militaries. This is the first time the exercise was held at the company level. (Photo by Sgt. David Nye)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019re asking units at the squad level to do what brigades or battalions did 20 years ago,\u201d Scales said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To do that they\u2019ll need to augment themselves with robotics, cyber and aerial dominance and \u201creach back\u201d weaponry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He painted a picture of a battlefield of mostly empty spaces between small units. A \u201ccheckerboard assortment of amoebic force\u201d would see a squad spotting a Russian phalanx 100km away and be able to bring to bear systems that would attack, kill and degrade that larger unit to the point that it would have to dismount simply to survive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Scales\u2019 books, including \u201cYellow Smoke: The Future of Land Warfare for America\u2019s Military,\u201d and the more recent, \u201cScales on War: The Future of America\u2019s Military at Risk,\u201d have provided a kind of road map for work by the task force, formed in 2017 by then-Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, himself a career infantry retired Marine general.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The retired Army 2-star envisions enabled squads running future wars from the ground.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":78485,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":69,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,23,92,12,25,69],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3396],"class_list":["post-39057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-home","category-left-column","category-news","category-newsletters","category-your-marine-corps"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"ITJM5HAGDVAVBA4MWXDQ6UBX7E","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-army\/2019\/06\/05\/tactics-tech-and-work-of-close-combat-experts-is-turning-warfare-upside-down\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented 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