By Ann Roosevelt
The Army’s Combined Arms Center leads change as the service moves to become more adaptable and flexible in the changing strategic environment, according to the commanding general.
Momentum for change was generated by the release of three key field manuals: FM-3-0 Operations, FM 3-07 Stability Operations and FM 7-0 Training for Full Spectrum Operations.
The manuals introduce three “big ideas,” Lt. Gen. William Caldwell, commanding general of the Combined Arms Center and Ft. Leavenworth, Kan., said. The first big idea is that stability operations are now as important as offensive and defensive operations.
“That is a sea change for our Army,” he said.
The second idea is that the complex changing environment requires a comprehensive approach to operations, and the third big idea is that training needs to be reworked so the service can operate more effectively.
Today’s leaders must be flexible enough to anticipate and stay ahead of the changing environment, he said.
Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey has said what the Army needs is “something like a middleweight fighter, a lean, agile and rapidly adaptable force with the endurance and knockout power to take on and defeat any opponent regardless of their weight class,” Caldwell said.
With careful attention to diet, conditioning, training and studying the adversary, that middleweight can move between weight classes, he said. “Just as that middleweight fighter can do that, our Army, too, must be equally versatile, equally decisive and equally lethal.”
Future conflict also requires fighters who are creative and critical thinkers, confident that they can fight and win by applying a comprehensive approach to war fighting.
Most of the intellectual ferment is at Ft. Leavenworth, Kan., home to the Command and General Staff College (CGSC) and the School for Advanced Military Studies (SAMS).
One mechanism for change is an interagency exchange program at Ft. Leavenworth, which has a student population of some 1,400.
“When I arrived, we had two from the United States interagency,” Caldwell said. “We had 90 international and 200 sister service [students].”
Casey last year authorized 20 Army officers who would be able to fill an interagency job so that person–who could be from USAID to the FBI to the Department of the Treasury, Congress or the State Department–could attend educational programs at Ft. Leavenworth.
“Only seven within the interagency took advantage of this opportunity to send their people to Ft. Leavenworth with a guaranteed backfill military officer to fill that seat,” Caldwell said.
The Army continues to push the effort and expects to have as many as 38 interagency personnel in the program by summer.
The Army wants to ensure it educates, exercises and trains together to improve future operations.
To be more inclusive, command sergeant majors and warrant officers can now attend the Command and General Staff College. These personnel will move on to critical jobs in the Army and the joint community.
SAMS is expanding. By May 2010, there is expected to be an in increase from 82 students in six seminars to 144 graduates in nine seminars–a nearly 60 percent increase in SAMS graduates. With interagency and international partners also able to attend, the program becomes more inclusive.
To make use of the intellectual capital nurtured at Ft. Leavenworth, Caldwell said the Army works to place such officers where they are most needed.
A year ago, staff sections with Afghani personnel were set up who gave students an intense, focused effort on Afghanistan, with exercises, extra books to read and exercises. The first such Afghanistan-focused SAMS class has graduated, and for many, the next assignment is in Afghanistan.
Another mechanism for change is a new multi-million Army Physical Fitness Readiness Institute at Ft. Leavenworth targeting mid-level officers in the 10th to 14th year of service. “This is not medical care. This is a lifestyle change,” he said. The service is finding high blood pressure and cholesterol problems similar to those in their 18th year of service. “The force is being stressed, no question,” he said.
In April, an APFRI Annex opens at the Sergeant Majors Academy at Ft. Bliss, Texas.
However, Caldwell said, becoming agile and adaptive middleweight fighters is not enough. The service must forge a comprehensive operational approach. Twenty-first century operations require the three C’s: coordination, cooperation and collaboration.
This comprehensive approach means realizing military force alone is not sufficient, but that multiple agencies and nations must build a consensus–a shared vision with a common goal.
Caldwell said one USAID graduate of SAMS told him his study was critical because of the network of friends he can call on and leverage because of that one-year experience of education with the Army. He’s also assured massive reach-back to the school that can take on some of his issues in seminars and send on potential solutions to think about and perhaps incorporate into what he’s doing in Afghanistan.
The Army has designated Ft. Leavenworth as the proponent responsible for stability operations and security force assistance, and there’s a new Directorate of Complex Operations to serve that mission.
CAC also is reaching out to the Foreign Service Institute. This month, for the first time, personnel who have been in Iraq and Afghanistan will participate in training programs at the Joint Readiness Training Centers as soldiers prepare to deploy.
Fostering a culture of better explaining what the Army is doing requires “confident, competent and creative communicators,” Caldwell said that can only be achieved through education, training and experience.
Leaders need to be cyber savvy, he said. Leaders need to know how to leverage information as an element of combat power to operate effectively in the cyber domain.
“Information is the currency of the 21st century,” Caldwell said. “Perhaps our leaders should consider the information space something like maneuver space.”
This culture of engagement is being fostered.
“Eighteen months ago when I arrived, our local website got about 25,000 hits a month,” he said. “Today, we have a quarter of a million hits every month and we continue to grow.”
The website continues to grow because the time and effort was put in to make it an interesting, engaging, informative and responsive site for those looking for information, he said. As well, students at CGSC must blog, write and submit an article for publication, do a public speaking engagement and be part of media engagement. “They don’t have an option,” Caldwell said. It’s required.