The United States Army is committed to the completion of missions as per the expectations of national leaders. Additionally, the Army engages in a myriad of strategic activities to ensure that the US competes and deters near-peer competitors. These objectives can only be achieved if the concerned stakeholders, including senior army leaders, adhere to modernization, readiness, and reform. The priorities were developed two and a half years ago with the support of Congress. McCarthy & McConville (2020) assert that there has been a change in the Army's senior leadership, but the priorities that are founded on people have not. For this reason, the Army posture report calls for additional funding to optimize the realization of the priorities. The Army will succeed if it embraces readiness, modernization, and reform all of which improve its capacity to maintain the US national security.
Readiness is one of the top priorities for the US Army because it is evolving its approach to complete National Defense Strategy missions. According to McCarthy & McConville (2020), in the last two years, Army leaders have managed to rebuild tactical readiness allowing them to meet various missions' demands. In the past year, the Active Component Brigade Combat Team has had the highest tactical readiness level at 74%. This achievement forms the basis for continued focus on the squad, individual, and platoon readiness in the next financial year. The Army senior leaders will increase multiple repetitions in a bid to enhance lethality in military operations. McCarthy & McConville (2020) note that increased lethality at the point of contact with the enemy is one way of improving overall Brigade Combat Teams (BCT) readiness. In pursuit of increased readiness, the Army will use Combat Training Centers (CTC), including Emergency Deployment Readiness Exercise (EDRE) and National Training Center (NTC), to conduct habitual training. This commitment to readiness is crucial, considering that there is a need for an evolving Army that addresses the ever-changing global threat. Tactical readiness is an essential priority as it prepares the forces so that they are capable of handling current adversaries.
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Tactical readiness is a crucial component of priorities although it is not enough to prepare the unit for conflict and competition against Great Power competitors. According to McCarthy & McConville (2020), tactical readiness must be infused with strategic readiness to establish a logistical footprint. This infusion places the Army in a better position to be more prepared for future unpredictable fights and missions. Strategic readiness and a component of the readiness priority demonstrate that the Army can mobilize, deploy, and sustain combat forces, thus allowing for a competitive advantage over adversaries. The statement further indicates that strategic readiness will allow experimentation with new concepts and formations to aid in understanding logistical frameworks that could sustain forces. Some of the ideas and formations that the Army is experimenting with include Multi-Domain Task Force (MDTF) and Multi-Domain Operations (MDO), which supports the emerging Joint Warfighting Concept. An infusion of tactical and strategic readiness and requisite logistical framework will ensure that the Army ready today and in the future. In this way the Army will be in a position to anticipate threats even before they happen, thus enhance national, regional, and international security.
Modernization is the other priority for the Army which has helped bring the most transformational change in the past four decades. McCarthy & McConville (2020) notes that the Army must embrace large-scale modernization as much as it would take patience and time. The army directs its budget towards six modernization priorities as well as 31+3 signature systems ranging from new squad-level weapons, hypersonic missiles to aircraft. The military developed prototypes for these systems in FY18/19, and they are expected to gain their real capability in FY21/22. According to McCarthy& McConville (2020), during this fiscal year, the Army senior leaders hope to increase test shots, soldier touchpoints, fielding of formations, and capability demonstrations. If this objective were to be achieved, the army should base the entire modernization endeavor on cloud technology. In line with this objective, the army has invested $800 million for the next five fiscal years on cloud architecture. This kind of investment will facilitate the transfer and storage of data as well as software development, which will be supported by Artificial intelligence (AI).
Artificial intelligence has proved to be a crucial aspect of modernization as it allows for the linking of sensors to all Command and Control nodes. According to McCarthy& McConville (2020), AI-enabled operations allow for turning information into actionable intelligence, which facilitates an understanding of the threat environment. The six modernization priorities are aligned with Artificial Intelligence to enhance military operations. Long-range precision fires a component of modernization helps in improving lethality. More so, these long-range precision technologies enhance the lethality of cannon artillery and in this way ensure overmatch to enemy attacks. The other focus is the next generation of combat vehicles, which provide overmatch against competitors as they employ greater mobility, firepower, and protection. Other priorities include future vertical lift (FVL) that penetrates contested airspace, the Army Network for supporting continuous integration joint capabilities, Air and Missile Defense (AMD), and Soldier Lethality (SL). A commitment to the six modernization priorities and 31+3 signature systems allows developing the next generation of weaponry for the US Army.
The third priority that Army senior leaders developed was reform, which was aimed at transforming the industrial age into an information age. These leaders realized that demand for Army forces did not match with a flat budget that has persisted since the 2018 financial year paving the way for tough decisions. According to McCarthy & McConville (2020), this outcome forced the army to conduct an in-depth program review to support operations and maintain readiness and transformational modernization. While reform is an important priority, financial constraints due to pressure on liabilities may hamper success in the modernization portfolio. However, these constraints are the reason why the Army is aggressively pursuing necessary reforms at every level by making tougher resourcing choices. In particular, in the current financial year, the Army has continued in-depth program reviews following an additional $9.0 billion investment.
The Command Accountability and Execution Review (CAER), a fiscal stewardship program led by Army senior leaders, has been instrumental in achieving tremendous success. For instance, the program has helped reduce operations and maintenance (O&M) obligations by 37% (McCarthy & McConville, 2020). This achievement is set to continue in CAER’s second year in operation and will mitigate a loss in purchasing power. More so, CAER will pave the way for the Army senior leaders to prioritize reforms that would contribute to modernization. Apart from achieving modernization in the Army, CAER has reduced Congressional marks due to a lack of obligations. Reform may be a top priority for the Army since it supports modernization efforts. However, there is a need to focus on people, considering that they are the Army’s greatest strength capable of supporting its priorities. According to Mccarthy & McConville (2020), people who include soldiers, their families, Army civilians, and soldiers for life represent the best that the nation offers. Accordingly, the Army People Strategy (APS) captures that People First philosophy, which, in turn, becomes the pillar that supports Army readiness, reform, and modernization.
Reference
McCarthy, R. D. & McConville, J. P. (2020). On the posture of the United States Army . Report prepared for the Senate Armed Services Committee, Second Session, 116th Congress.
