As the Army begins to put together its portion of the joint force for 2020, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond Odierno said the network is going to be key to ensuring a decisive and effective future force.
“The network is important–that’s where you get the leap-ahead technology,” Odierno said at a Defense Writers Group meeting Feb. 21. “Our ability to communicate quickly and improve situation awareness–that’s going to be key to future conflict which can be anything from a small regional conflict to a large one goes to our ability to understand and manage information.”
Odierno said one of the biggest challenges that he would argue all people have today is the “unbelievable” amount of information that’s available.
“How do we sort through it, how do we manage it to make the right decisions for us to be effective in what we do,” he said.
The Army is moving toward a smaller force in future, with fewer resources, but Odierno said service priorities will result in a flexible and adaptable force.
That means being focused and anchored in reality. “What we have found, we’ve gotten ourselves into trouble when we try to predict what technologies will be available 10 to 15 years from now and how fast they get here and what impact they will have on the battlefield.”
He noted that he’s pleased with the work such as Capability Portfolio Reviews created under then-Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Chiarelli that will continue under Gen. Lloyd Austin and civilian staff.
“What I want to do is develop systems and requirements that are reasonable, that can be achieved within a few years and that are iterative,” Odierno said.
The perfect example is the M1 tank. It was built in the 1970s and remains the finest tank in the world because the service continues to add improved technologies to the tank over time, Odierno said. “We want to build room for growth in all of our systems.”
An area for improvement is testing, he said. “It’s slowing us down. It’s costing us a lot of money, so we have to make sure we take advantage of all the tests that are done either by industry or the Army or by DoD.”
Capability Portfolio Reviews bring everyone together to match requirements with technology and what can be improved.
Aviation is important, he said. Some programs have been slowed, such as the UH-60M Black Hawk, but they will continue. Next year, the service will make a decision on the armed reconnaissance surveillance aircraft, to see if that program moves ahead or if it will modernize the Kiowa Warrior.
The Army also will continue with a new infantry fighting vehicle.
“The statistics for Iraq and Afghanistan for survivability–the Bradleys did not do well,” he said. “We haven’t used Bradleys now in four or five years. We lost more Bradleys than we have any other combat vehicle.
Stryker is another vehicle getting a long look. It’s now so weighed down it’s no longer a medium vehicle nor as mobile as the service wants.
“I’ve got to find the right vehicle with the right mix of mobility and survivability and that’s what the (Ground combat vehicle) is supposed to be,” he said. “What we want is a system that has the right tradeoff between mobility and survivability.”
A determination on whether it would be a heavy or medium weight vehicle has yet to be made.
The Army also needs a Humvee replacement, which is why the service is moving to the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle with the Marines. “There’s not much we can do with it. It’s maxxed out,” Odierno said. “We need a vehicle that can better integrate the network that we’re bringing, add some survivability and be more mobile.”
Lightening the load for the soldier also is getting a long look. The Army is looking at how the load across the nine man squad. This has actually lightened the individual soldier load, he said, but, more things were added they had to carry. “Still, 120 pounds is too much,” Odierno said.