By Geoff Fein
Defense officials are beginning a review of the roles and missions of the armed forces that will explore how the services handle unmanned aerial systems (UAS), intra-theater lift, cyber and irregular warfare, according to a senior defense official.
This is the first quadrennial review of the roles and missions of the armed forces in 2008. Along with the examination of UAS, lift, cyber and irregular warfare, the review teams are mandated by Congress to examine unnecessary duplication of capabilities and efforts across the department’s components.
Additionally, they will look at internal Defense Department (DoD) governance roles and responsibilities as well as supporting interagency roles, missions, and capabilities, the senior defense official said.
“We tried to think what are pressing issues along with what the legislation requires us to do,” the senior defense official said.
“We are really trying to look at it from the perspective of what do we need, capability-wise, to deliver to the warfighter in order to be able to execute the missions that are laid out…all the way back to the strategic documents that are in the national military, national defense, strategy,” a senior military official said.
And the military is trying to look these issue areas holistically, and not just from a material perspective, the military official added.
“In irregular warfare, one of the things they will look at is what capabilities do we need? From a special operations perspective versus a conventional perspective,” the senior military official said. “What tasking can you accomplish? Where do you need to have the majority of that priority go?”
Within the area of UAS, the team will also look at some broader intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance type of mission areas, the senior defense official added.
The cyber domain is also an area Pentagon officials believe, where the most churn is going on now, he added.
“An emerging area for the DoD, and a lot of the government, is the cyber world, and how do we posture ourselves there,” the senior defense official said. Each role and mission team will be led by a Senate confirmed civilian who will co-chair the team with a joint three- or four-star general who is either a combatant commander or a senior member of the Joint Staff, the senior defense official said.
“They will put together their teams and work their specific issues, he said.
The specific topic areas, aside from the one mandated by lawmakers, were selected by senior leaders, usually at the four-star level, the senior defense official said. “It was a collaborative process at the senior level.”
The study should be wrapped up and the reports packaged by late November, the senior defense official said.
That will present Defense Secretary Robert Gates and this administration with how they want to work with transition teams and exactly how and when the document might go forward, he added.
“So the study work and everything will be done, and obviously completed this administration and packaged,” the senior defense official said. “Then exactly how it’s delivered, what parts are delivered, what parts stay internal, will be something that is determined after the election.”