Last week was one of those times that you just could not predict. After a very rewarding career in the US Army from 1973 to 2001, I was given the opportunity to look in on the current state of Army training and operations, a rare treat for superannuated soldiers. My days of planning military operations and crafting the accompanying tactical fieldcraft are over. At least I thought so. Then the Commanding General of the 1st Infantry Division—the “Big Red One”— asked me to come to the National Training Center (NTC) at Fort Irwin, California to observe the division and its Division Artillery (DIVARTY) plan for a military operation.
The enemy they would face is the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment (“Blackhorse Regiment”) garrisoned at the NTC to constitute the opposition force (OPFOR). The Blackhorse is trained to replicate potential opponents of the US Army to test the doctrine and mettle of units like the Big Red One. Initially such testing involves force-on-force operations where unit vehicles and soldiers are rigged with the Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement System (MILES) that flash when lasers and blank cartridges set them off in training battles. Individual soldiers wear these during the force-on-force battles to detect when the wearer has been illuminated by a firearm’s laser. The same is true for the vehicle they fight in or on. Vehicles are typically outfitted with a belt of laser sensors or individual wireless detectors.
All of this is monitored by the NTC “Star Wars Building,” a central facility on the main post that can see every person and vehicle in the fight to adjudicate who has been “hit” or “destroyed” in the battle. Assisted by observer controllers in the field embedded with the contesting units, NTC trainers are able to play back what actually occurred during the fight to assess who won and who lost. The training is realistic, including videos of friendly forces and recordings of their radio calls to illustrate what worked and what didn’t.
It’s the most realistic training a soldier or unit can receive aside from the physical experience of conflict itself. I know. I experienced that training in the NTC’s Mojave Desert but actually fought in the sands of Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Kuwait. We were better for that training as we crushed our enemies.
So, for a 73-year old who is authoring a book about the future of war, I was thrilled to have this opportunity to see the Army engage in this superb training to prepare for the wars ahead. And they are most certainly in our future. That is why I am drafting this book now, to help shine a light on the path the Army must take to get ready for that war.
Why do that? Because during the two decades of counterinsurgency wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, many of the skills required for what is now termed Large Scale Combat Operations (LSCO) or conventional war atrophied or were otherwise neglected. To be sure, going house-to-house or conducting area search and destroy missions is tough and dangerous combat. But applying and synchronizing combat power in conventional wars is even more difficult for the Army and its divisions.
There’re many lessons we must relearn. Unfortunately, that will take a lot of work to get the Army ready. Here’s the good news. The soldiers and officers I observed at the NTC this week are more than capable of doing just that. They worked very hard to pull the plan together and implement the fieldcraft for the “combat” they will execute this week. As I sit warm and safe in my kitchen sipping coffee today, they are being stretched to the limit of their abilities.
But there are huge challenges ahead. Our Army needs help. That’s not entirely a recruitment issue, but rather a preparedness one. We’re simply too small to engage in predictable wars of the future, some of which may be at opposite ends of the globe. We not only lack the structure required for future war, but also the equipment. The latter is tied up in elongated acquisition programs that delay getting what is needed into the hands of our soldiers.
Based on what I observed this week, if we continue to recruit the quality of soldiers I saw preparing for combat at the NTC, we’ll be more than capable of defeating our potential enemies. But to do that, we must have the right organizational structure, rigorous training, and leap-ahead equipment that will be indispensable for future wars.
Those wars will be tougher and more demanding than any we’ve recently witnessed.
For that reason, I’ve undertaken my current book. We must do more than simply revive our existing combat abilities for the future. We must have a renaissance of creative innovation to meet the challenges ahead.
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