Interesting conversation on the changes coming to USMC thread.

Some of you have been reading on the recent changes, and this one wraps up how the Army see modernizing in this age. Similar to what happened in the late 70s/80s, but different in it's own way and also relative to everyone now.

All services are modernizing in a large way WRT concepts, doctrine, manning, and equipping. USMC has EABO, Army has MDO, Navy has DMO, and Air Force pretty much calls for change in their latest operating concept. The Joint Force is working on a new warfighting concept. So, all of this will converge together to drive what materiel is sought and what is prioritized withing the DoD.

The new thing is hypersonics, swarming technology, non-kenetic effects, cyber technology, and others I'm probably forgetting. These priorities come at a cost to other organizations and systems (thought not necessarily mutually exclusive) like tanks and short range fires.

A Cyber LT and Long Range Fire LT are very likely to be a key element of our next fight.

Your thoughts? Are we preparing for the next conflict the right way?

https://www.armyupress.army.mil/Journals/Military-Review/English-Edition-Archives/May-June-2020/Wesley-Winning-Tomorrow/

Nm

Focus will shift to integration & fighting an all domain fight, to include space as a war fighting domain.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/breakingdefense.com/2020/02/gen-hyten-on-the-new-american-way-of-war-all-domain-operations/amp/

More firepower in the hands of the individual soldier plus perhaps ultimately a powered armor body suit reminiscent of Starship Troopers. IOW, a merging of armor and infantry. Genetic modifications or "gene-doping" to enhance performance will be possible at all levels. Formerly the power of mass armies placed lethal weapons in the hands of millions of average citizens. Tomorrow, we may evolve to a time when economics and science place lethality in the hands of fewer and fewer citizens and an elite warrior class evolves to rule over those who do not have the power to resist them. But this is drifting into Forum 16 country so I will stop there.

Edit to say that future warfare will occur in multiple dimensions. Covid 19 has indicated how economic warfare is a powerful weapon with market and economic shutdowns. TRADOC hosts these annual Mad Scientist writing contests and allows participants to elaborate on their notions of future war in fictional formats.
https://madsciblog.tradoc.army.mil/154-takeaways-from-the-mad-scientist-science-fiction-writing-contest-2019/

What we do know is possible is that warfare tomorrow, especially with "near-peer" countries like China will involve a multiple range of actions: satellite battles, kinetic weapons/directed energy from low earth orbit or on earthbound land and sea platforms, mutual attacks on enemy civilian/military infrastructures, biological attacks, etc. I have to give a shoutout to Dr Roger Beaumont of the TAMU History Department who opened my mind on this some four decades ago.

"Covid 19 has indicated how economic warfare is a powerful weapon with market and economic shutdowns"


Check this book out. It shows an interesting perspective from an economic tool standpoint. Or check out this article. Washington Post Article

https://breakingdefense.com/2020/06/army-tests-prsm-seeker-to-hunt-ships-sams/

"Yesterday's test was five years in the making. The Army launched an initiative in 2015 called the Land-Based Anti-Ship Missile (LBASM). The challenge? While the Army's long-range artillery rockets and missiles can strike fixed coordinates with high accuracy, ships don't stay still. If the Army was going to help the Navy and Air Force take on the Chinese navy, it needed to upgrade its missiles to strike moving targets.....

That upgrade is just one of many planned for PrSM, Rafferty emphasized. The base Precision Strike Missile entering service in 2023 will offer dramatically greater range more than 500 km (313 miles) than the Reagan-era ATACMS in current use. Spiral One in 2025 will add the ability to track moving targets on land and sea. Spiral Two, with no set date as yet, will focus on "enhanced lethality," probably by developing an alternative warhead that can eject submunitions to strike multiple targets, like a formation of armored vehicles; that will require further seeker upgrades, Rafferty noted. Spiral Three will increase the missile's range to 700-800 kilometers (438 to 500 miles). Despite the names, it's possible that Spiral Three may actually enter service before Spiral Two, Rafferty said: The service will see how both the technology and the threat evolve."

Hitting a ship in the Pacific.....

The current push by all the Services to integrate their sensor-to-shooter chains internally and with each other and also use AI applications to enable rapid decision-making will likely usher in another revolution in military affairs over the next decade. For example: TEST

Fly Army 97 said:

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https://breakingdefense.com/2020/06/army-tests-prsm-seeker-to-hunt-ships-sams/

"Yesterday's test was five years in the making. The Army launched an initiative in 2015 called the Land-Based Anti-Ship Missile (LBASM). The challenge? While the Army's long-range artillery rockets and missiles can strike fixed coordinates with high accuracy, ships don't stay still. If the Army was going to help the Navy and Air Force take on the Chinese navy, it needed to upgrade its missiles to strike moving targets.....

That upgrade is just one of many planned for PrSM, Rafferty emphasized. The base Precision Strike Missile entering service in 2023 will offer dramatically greater range more than 500 km (313 miles) than the Reagan-era ATACMS in current use. Spiral One in 2025 will add the ability to track moving targets on land and sea. Spiral Two, with no set date as yet, will focus on "enhanced lethality," probably by developing an alternative warhead that can eject submunitions to strike multiple targets, like a formation of armored vehicles; that will require further seeker upgrades, Rafferty noted. Spiral Three will increase the missile's range to 700-800 kilometers (438 to 500 miles). Despite the names, it's possible that Spiral Three may actually enter service before Spiral Two, Rafferty said: The service will see how both the technology and the threat evolve."

Hitting a ship in the Pacific.....

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The Coast Artillery rides again...

If anyone is interested in the current Army thinking on future operations and what the future Army needs to be able to do, the best place to start is The U.S. Army in Multi-Domain Operations 2028, TRADOC Pam 525-3-1.
It has an accompanying series of functional concepts for things like fires, maneuver, mission command, intel, etc., although given the publication dates listed on the TRADOC website, the current edition of those all predate the MDO pam. Which means those are the ones written after the publication of the predecessor to MDO, the 2014 edition of Army Operating Concept.

(Full disclosure: my last assignment before I retired was in the Joint & Army Concepts Division (JACD) of TRADOC-ARCIC. That division is the one responsible for all of the above concept documents.)

An interesting thought on all of the concepts above: the 2014 AOC was published during the tenure of LTG H.R. McMaster as director of ARCIC. The 2017 functional concepts and 2018 MDO would have all been published after he left ARCIC to be Trump's National Security Advisor. HRM's vision was the guiding force in the development of the 2014 AOC, so what was done after he left might have a lot of changes. I don't know who replaced him.