The Army is focusing on developing service and joint concepts for the future Army from 2020-2030 as it conducts its Winter Wargame that runs Feb. 9-14 at Carlisle Barracks, Pa.

“In this game, the environment will create a number of different situations simultaneous with possible WMD issues, entry issues, humanitarian assistance, displaced persons…replicating the environment we believe will be in 2020, if not today,” said Col. Kevin Felix, Army Capabilities Integration Center (ARCIC) director of Future Warfare Division, at Training and Doctrine Command.

“We need to be prepared for all different kinds of threats and conflicts,” Felix said.

There is clear guidance that the Army must be prepared, with a tailorable and scalable force, for an array of requirements and mission sets, including higher end conflict in support of the joint force and combatant commands at all points in the spectrum, he said.

Part of its Unified Quest 2013 Campaign of Learning, the war game, and Joint Staff J-7 partner, is taking a high-level, operational look at preparing for “America’s Next First Battle”–that is, exploring the influences on the first battle of a conflict then ensuring the service is prepared for what comes next. The idea harks back to a book looking at first battles of war from the Revolutionary War to Vietnam (Defense Daily, Sept. 25).

Working groups are assessing the capabilities, interdependencies, risks and implications of emerging Army and joint concepts.

Two operational working groups are classified, taking on problems laid out by strategic guidance from the commander in chief, as well as a couple of key issues in terms of the Army’s ability to conduct entry operations and deal with situations where there is a collapse of failed states and WMD issues, Felix said during a recent teleconference.

A doctrine group will fight the scenario using current doctrine while a concept group will consider the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s Capstone Concept for Joint Operations (CCJO) and its “globally integrated operations.” That will include looking at other joint concepts, such as entry operations and sustainment concepts. It will also consider the Army operating concept (ACC) and how the concept will nest within the CCJO.

“The chairman put a lot of markers out to stretch our thinking…”Felix said. And not everything is a material solution to “produce more tailorable, scalable forces in time and space to solve complex problems in a new and rapidly changing operating environment.”

Another group is looking at prevention and shaping, or “how do we get left of the boom.” The idea is to look at opportunities to tailor global activities that will drive the demand signal for the future.

As well, a global force management cell will look at how combat power is generated, and meter forces for the operational groups.

The war game has its own unscripted Red Teams that also will drive insights, Felix said. “We learn more from losing than winning.”

The Unified Quest 2013 Winter Wargame outcomes will refine ideas and solutions, and identify implications, risks, capability gaps and requirements for the Army’s role in Joint Force 2020.