{"id":34345,"date":"2019-09-20T19:01:13","date_gmt":"2019-09-20T19:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/uncategorized\/2019\/09\/20\/armys-new-chief-looks-to-prep-the-force-for-large-scale-combat\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T02:01:47","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T02:01:47","slug":"armys-new-chief-looks-to-prep-the-force-for-large-scale-combat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/your-military\/2019\/09\/20\/armys-new-chief-looks-to-prep-the-force-for-large-scale-combat\/","title":{"rendered":"Army\u2019s new chief looks to prep the force for large-scale combat"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As the new Army chief of staff <\/a>settles into his role this fall, he\u2019s looking at setting the stage for massive deployments across the world, should the need ultimately arise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The large-scale combat operations laid out under the new National Defense Strategy <\/a>would require division-strength movements, unlike the repeat deployments to the Middle East over the past 18 years, during which the Army\u2019s primary unit of action has been the brigade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The service\u2019s brigade combat teams have been gearing up over the past few years in an effort to reach higher readiness rates. But being ready at home station and being ready to deploy over the Atlantic Ocean to wage war in Eastern Europe<\/a> are two very different undertakings, and a conflict at the scale imagined by current Pentagon leaders will require far more than a single brigade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s wonderful that we have a brigade, sitting maybe at Fort Campbell, that\u2019s at the highest level of readiness,\u201d said Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville<\/a> in an interview with Army Times. \u201cBut we also need to get that brigade to where we need … and that may be by airlift, it may be by sealift.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Soldiers assigned to 6th Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division learn about the importance of strong and trustworthy leadership from Gen. James C. McConville, the Vice Chief of Staff of the Army, during his visit to Fort Bliss, Texas, July 22. 1ABCT leaders demonstrated their preparedness and readiness to McConville, as they hosted a tour of their motor pool area and displayed their recent conversion from a Stryker brigade to an armored brigade combat team. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Matthew J. Marcellus)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have to be able to deploy it there,\u201d he added. \u201cThat is what we talk about with strategic readiness and that is a concern that I think at my level, I need to really go after.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the Army were to go to war on the European continent, for instance, the service will be facing a logistical nightmare if it\u2019s not properly prepared and resourced. More than 1,500 soldiers streamed into Poland<\/a> in March as part of a rapid deployment from Fort Bliss, Texas, to Europe that the Army has not seen since the days of the Cold War.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rapid deployments like that are likely to happen again and they\u2019ll come up \u201cunexpectedly,\u201d a senior Army official in Europe previously told Army Times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat I think you\u2019ll see is exercises being planned in the regions that are priorities under the National Defense Strategy,\u201d McConville said. \u201cSo, heck, you know maybe larger exercises in the European area, maybe larger exercises in the Indo-Pacific area.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stressing the baggage train<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On each step of the way to front lines of Europe or the Pacific, the baggage train will likely be challenged by everything from submarines to cyber attacks, according to retired Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, who helmed U.S. Army Europe from late 2014 through 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI would assume some of that will happen in a crisis and I would expect some of it to even happen during exercises,\u201d Hodges said. \u201cCyber protection for seaports and airports in Europe and for rail networks is just as important as having tanks and airplanes, because we\u2019re all going to depend on French, Belgian, German, Polish transportation infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In June 2017, Copenhagen-based shipping firm A.P. Moller Maersk was hit by a cyber attack that was meant originally for Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The attack, which utilized a variant of the Petya malware family, was ultimately blamed on Russia by the United States and its allies. It paralyzed Maersk, one of the largest container ship operators in the world, and cost the firm up to $300 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey weren\u2019t even the target,\u201d Hodges noted. \u201cIt was a ricochet off of a Ukrainian target. … It\u2019s just as effective as if they launched 10 Iskander missiles into Bremerhaven [German shipping port] or onto Munich airport.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The staging area holds all the overflow vehicles that must get ready for shipment back to the United States at the Port of Constanta, Romania, July 1, 2019. The vehicles were separated according to whether they are being shipped at the end of July or the beginning of August. Movement control teams track the progress of redeployment, including which vehicles have been biocleaned and have passed customs inspections. (U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Laurie Ellen Schubert, 5th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Threats like that highlight how vulnerable critical transportation infrastructure is to all kinds of attacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had Russians interfering with a ship ferrying American equipment across the Baltic Sea during one of the last exercises for which I was responsible,\u201d Hodges said, citing one of the instances in which Russian aircraft made news when they buzzed U.S. vessels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Large exercises, Hodges added, will be an important opportunity for Army Forces Command, which provides expeditionary land forces to combatant commanders, to practice tracking trains, convoys and ships within a strategic deployment environment and at the speed of a real-world operation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m confident they\u2019ll end up doing that, but I don\u2019t think they\u2019ve done that in the past,\u201d Hodges said. \u201cIt\u2019s a concept of \u2018Fort-to-port.’ In other words, to move stuff from Fort Hood, or Fort Carson, or Fort Bragg, or Fort Stewart to the appropriate port, like Beaumont, Texas, or Savannah, Georgia … once the ship arrives in Bremerhaven or wherever they end up using.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Army will be the biggest user of infrastructure across Europe during a crisis response, according to Hodges. Expanding rail heads to more rapidly load and unload armored vehicles, stockpiling fuel and ammunition caches, as well as ensuring logistical and intelligence hubs are properly established will be important to traversing Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMoving infantry, armor, artillery and even aviation units, that\u2019s the easy part,\u201d Hodges added. \u201cThe harder part is getting the logistical infrastructure in place, the communication networks set up, having intelligence networks in place and having air defense in place, all these enablers, so that combat forces can rapidly move in.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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ZAGAN, Poland \u2013 M1A2 Abrams tanks belonging to 1st Battalion, 66th Armored Regiment, 3rd Armored Brigade, 4th Infantry Division have been loaded onto a flatcar railway Jan. 25, 2017. The vehicles will be shipped to Grafenwoehr, Germany to be used by the Soldiers as they conduct training in Eastern Europe as part of Operation Atlantic Resolve. The movement of equipment and troops into and around Europe kicks off what will be a continuous rotation of armored brigades from the United States as part of Operation Atlantic Resolve. The Iron Brigade\u2019s move to Germany will enhance deterrence capabilities in the region and improve the U.S. ability to respond to potential crisis and defend its allies and partners within the European community. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Corinna Baltos)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Northern Poland, for instance, is covered with lakes similar to Minnesota, Hodges noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got a lot of water that has to be crossed and not many bridges can hold an Abrams tanks or a German Leopard tank. You\u2019re talking 70, 80 tons. Especially when you put it on the back of a heavy equipment transport truck, now we\u2019re up over 100 tons.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does the Army need to go large scale?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

McConville said that part of his job when it comes to strategic readiness is to figure out and highlight for the secretary of defense and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs what large-scale deployments for the Army actually require.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey realize that we have to move our forces, so we can dynamically move them around the globe according to where their requirements are,” he said. “Part of our job is laying out what requirements are.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Division-strength deployments to Asia with little notice can help lay those requirements out, as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the event of war, the Department of Transportation acts as a coordinating arm for civilian airlift and sealift capacity. But the sealift fleet is old and in need of recapitalization, and the size of the fleet is also too small to support the long logistical train required in a Pacific-based conflict, Joel Szabat, the assistant secretary for international affairs within the Department of Transportation, said in May.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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180724-A-FJ530-306 PACIFIC MISSILE RANGE FACILITY BARKING SANDS, Hawaii (July 24, 2018) U.S. Army air and missile defense Soldiers with the 35th Air Defense Artillery Brigade, take a knee prior to observe a live fire from an avenger air defense system, during RIMPAC 2018 at Pacific Missile Range Facility Barking Sands, July 24. Twenty-five nations, 46 ships, five submarines, and about 200 aircraft and 25,000 personnel are participating in RIMPAC from June 27 to Aug. 2 in and around the Hawaiian Islands and Southern California. The world\u2019s largest international maritime exercise, RIMPAC provides a unique training opportunity while fostering and sustaining cooperative relationships among participants critical to ensuring the safety of sea lanes and security of the world\u2019s oceans. RIMPAC 2018 is the 26th exercise in the series that began in 1971. (U.S. Army photo by SFC Claudio Tejada\/Released)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor small- or moderate-scale warfare exercises, it\u2019s adequate,” Szabat said<\/a>. \u201cFor the maximum deployment that our military is built for … it is not adequate to move and sustain.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gen. Robert Brown, the commander of U.S. Army Pacific, said in March that the service would be receive a division headquarters with multiple brigades \u2014 involving roughly 5,000 to 10,000 soldiers \u2014 in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey will get the challenge of coming to the Pacific with the Pacific-assigned forces already there,\u201d Brown told Defense News<\/a>. \u201cAnd we won\u2019t go to Korea, we will actually go to a South China Sea scenario where we will be around the South China Sea; and another scenario we can do that is the East China Sea.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brown didn\u2019t detail the specifics of the exercise, but the focus on those two hotly contested bodies of water hints at the Army\u2019s intention to practice island seizure scenarios.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The service has also been developing long-range missiles and artillery able to provide fire support against militarized island bases and naval vessels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Changing nature of war or a return to normalcy?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Large exercises are almost a regression toward the mean for the Army.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exercise Reforger, for instance, was a Cold War-era strategic deployment of a division or more to West Germany in annual iterations. Reforger, short for Return of Forces to Germany, wasn\u2019t designed as a simple show of force, but instead served as the actual way in which the U.S. military would reinforce NATO allies in the event of conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But over the course of the wars in the Middle East for the past 18 years, the logistical muscles of the Army have atrophied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brigade combat teams deploying to Afghanistan do so on a predictable schedule, with much of their equipment and infrastructure already downrange before they arrive. But in a conflict in Europe, for example, armored vehicles need to be loaded onto rail heads, moved to shipyards, unloaded at a foreign port, possibly loaded again onto a rail head and eventually driven by a crew to the front.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Large-scale movements like these will require coordination with Military Airlift Command, Military Sealift Command and the Department of Transportation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Soldiers conduct a night live-fire iteration of a Combined Arms Live Fire Exercise during Exercise Decisive Strike 2019 at the Training Support Centre, Krivolak, North Macedonia, June 11, 2019. (Staff Sgt. Frances Ariele Tejada\/Army)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And during a war between great powers, bombing transportation infrastructure used by the military is fair game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have very sophisticated potential adversaries where we believe that we\u2019ll be contested in every single domain,\u201d McConville said. \u201cWe were previously pretty much contested on the ground in places like Afghanistan and Iraq. But now we\u2019re concerned about being contested from the air.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd, you know, the last time an American soldier was killed by enemy aircraft was April 15, 1953<\/a>,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To even a cursory observer of Pentagon priorities over the past few years, the Army\u2019s modernization objectives are clear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The service is developing longer-range precision fires at the tactical, operational and strategic level, looking to acquire a next-generation combat vehicle, developing future vertical lift platforms for more speed and range, and fleshing out a communications network that will withstand enemy spoofing and jamming attacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Army Spc. Matthew Williams fires a Stinger missile using Man-Portable Air Defense Systems during a live fire exercise in Crete, Greece. (Sgt. 1st Class Jason Epperson\/Army)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOn air missile defense … we\u2019re concerned about the proliferation of unmanned aerial systems … swarms of unmanned aerial systems,\u201d McConville said. \u201cSo, we are giving them, you know, the best gear that money can buy and develop.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, who is now stepping up as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, pushed readiness as his number one priority during his tenure, making sure that the service\u2019s tactical units had the right number of personnel, equipment, training and sustainment needed to achieve over-match in a great power conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of those priorities are still underway \u2014 including the cross-functional teams developing new technology and recruiting efforts to grow the size of the Army to 500,000 by 2028<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to continue that,” McConville said. \u201cBut it\u2019s kind of like we built the foundation. The foundation of readiness is those organizations that are ready, they\u2019re lethal and they can win on the battlefield. Now that they\u2019ve really made significant improvement in readiness, now we want to make sure that we have the capability to strategically deploy them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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