Successful units and maintenance programs depend on a culture of maintenance. It is this culture, or way of doing business, we must now employ to turn on a persistent challenge regarding our No. 1 pacing item – our Soldiers. We need to apply the culture of maintenance to our people to build our overall readiness and the health of the force.
Read moreDiscussion and analysis of great-power competition currently dominate national-security and defense-strategy forums. This article seeks to distill the concept and its implications down to the tactical level of war by explaining great-power competition to company-level leaders; describing the European operational environment where these leaders may rotationally deploy; and providing leadership and planning considerations for their rotations.
Read moreThere are rich benefits in how a commander can better create shared understanding for his/her organization’s mission, leader development, risk, resources and assessment methods with a picture rather than relying solely on a statement.
Read moreEthics is a hot topic these days – when to use force, how to use force, whom to use force on and systematic fairness are all a part of the national discussion. While these and related discussions continue nationally, they are not new concepts to the military professional. Ethics are embedded in the foundation of the Army profession.
Read moreWith bolstering Venezuela the known objective of the Russian government, the U.S. Army must think critically and train effectively to counter Russian support for the Latin American country that could manifest itself into an armed conflict in the Western Hemisphere.
Read moreOperational requirements for the past 20 years have degraded the armored brigade combat team’s lethality. The state of armored lethality at the small-unit level is serious, and it is continuously decreasing through the loss of institutional knowledge.
Read moreCavalry-squadron doctrine provides a template for how to organize and arrange the squadron’s sustainment and maintenance systems. Unfortunately battlefield friction makes it challenging for leaders to arrange and operate the combat trains as neatly as doctrine describes it.
Read moreZone reconnaissance is the most common mission assigned to cavalry troops at the National Training Center, yet it is almost never executed to standard.
Read moreIn Part I we discussed squadron and troop organizational solutions. In this part we’ll look at suggested technology, as well as more Soldier and vehicle solutions that support the organizational solutions proposed in Part I.
Read moreSince World War II, American military doctrine has discouraged armored forces from participating in the urban fight. However, military necessity has often pressed mechanized forces into this fight. In World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and Iraq, America’s armored Soldiers have encountered fighting in larger and larger cities. This trend is likely to continue.
Read moreFor many, live-fire is the pinnacle of training realism, validation and qualification, yet there is a growing vacuum in live-fire facilities’ infrastructure and capabilities when it comes to meeting organizations’ near-future requirements.
Read moreThe tank is a finely tuned machine designed very specifically to kill other tanks, a task it performs far better than any other weapons system. Unfortunately, in becoming a tank-killer, the tank has lost most of its ability to engage other types of targets.
Read moreWhile many senior leaders at brigade level and above may recall mine-training events at the National Training Center in the 1990s, many current planners at battalion level and below have not participated in them. Moreover, changes in U.S. landmine policy restrict the munitions available to current planners who did not defensively plan in the 1990s.
Read moreThe Spanish Civil War was the first encounter between tanks in combat, although limited. However, the employment of tanks on the Spanish battlefield allowed many aspects and possibilities of armored warfare that later would make it a key decision tool for modern warfare.
Read moreTactics, techniques and procedures are constantly evolving as the enemy encounters our weapons’ effects, just as we upgrade our weapons and training to counter his advantages. This is especially true in our infantry brigade combat teams, which have limited resources. In response to this deficiency, 82nd Airborne Division is experimenting with a mobile protected firepower company.
Read moreSection gunnery and noncommissioned-officer development go hand in hand. Field-grade leaders who fail to schedule this event deny a portion of their formation invaluable training. Unfortunately, many armored brigade combat teams choose this route.
Read moreIn spite of the pandemic, cadre and fourth-year cadet leadership of Gateway Battalion used the unprecedented levels of technology and communication at our fingertips, and looked to the Prussians of the early 1800s and U.S. Army Reserve units of the 1980s for help. The result succeeded beyond expectations when it came to training our cadets.
Read moreThe Army invested more than $20 billion in new ground-combat systems acquisition in Fiscal Year 2020. Notably absent from the investment was an analysis of preventive measures to increase the service life of these systems – for example, overhead covered parking shelters designed to protect high-cost systems from the environment.
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