Army’s future looks a lot like the present
Dr James Ludes, the Executive Director of ASP comments on the Army’s training and capabilities projections, in today’s Washington Times
James M. Ludes, told The Washington Times that the concept document represented “smart planning by the Army,” given the range of missions it might be asked to take on.
“If Islamic extremism is the principal challenge in the coming years, does that mean more conflicts like Iraq and Afghanistan?”
“Or does it mean more theaters where we have a smaller footprint, like Pakistan or Yemen?”
If it means more operations that look like those in Pakistan or Yemen, where the U.S. counterterrorism effort is led by intelligence agencies and special forces, “what’s the Army’s role?” he said.
Mr. Ludes also questioned the suggestion that the opposition between conventional and counterinsurgency capabilities is a false choice. “The demands of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan have made it harder to develop leadership with experience and training to conduct maneuver warfare,” he said.
As an example, he noted there had recently been a dearth of brigade-level conventional warfare exercises at the Army’s National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif., and that the brigade that staged them there had itself been deployed.
“That shows the stress on the force [of deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan] has impacted the preparation for combined arms maneuver warfare,” he said.
