Moving to the future under Doctrine 2015, the Army is relying on fewer and more relevant publications and manuals that can be delivered “at the speed of thought,” says the commander of the Combined Arms Center (CAC), part of Army Training and Doctrine Command.
“This is a type of comprehensive overhaul for how we’ve been developing, creating and delivering doctrine to the Army forces,” said Brig. Gen. Charles Flynn, in an interview.
The service is revealing Doctrine 2015 details here this week at the Association of the United States Army annual conference.
About five years ago, the service had about 550 manuals, slimming down to 330 manuals about two and a half-three years ago, he said. Now, it is going to 65 manuals, he said.
“There will be 15 Army Doctrinal Publications (ADP) each limited to limited to 10 pages, which means really crystalized thinking, covering the fundamental principles that guide the Army,” Flynn said. “They are to be concise, accessible and current so people will read them.” The first: ADP 1 The Army.
Doctrine 2015 also fundamentally changes the way the service delivers that critical knowledge to soldiers and leaders.
Below ADPs will be the Army Doctrine Reference Publications (ADRP), more details on the fundamental principles in the ADP, he said.
For example, if the ADP Operations Process talks about, say, mission analysis, and you want more details on that mission analysis, a deeper understanding of the topic is likely in the ADRP, Flynn said.
Something new: technology is going to aid dissemination of the ADRP. They will be found in a variety of formats, video books, CDs, smart phone Apps, SharePoint sites and as a document.
The number of Field Manuals (FMs) is also shrinking: “we’re going to limit ourselves to 50,” Flynn said.
Another major change is that the familiar term “TTP” for tactics, techniques and procedures has been “disaggregated,” he said.
Now, the manuals are going to consist of tactics, in the body of the Field Manual, and then procedures.
“In our doctrine they’re different,” Flynn said. “We have Army procedures that we follow, such as calls for fire, MEDEVAC, or route clearance procedures. Those things are procedures that we follow. So the body of the manual will contain the tactics that we use and the annexes or appendices in the back of that Field Manual will be procedures related to that body of work, depending on the FM.
Another major shift in delivering and capturing doctrine is that there now will be Army Techniques Publications (ATP). They will run primarily on military Wiki sites and be directly linked to the Center for Army Lessons Learned which falls under the Mission Command Center of Excellence at CAC.
“We are going to be updating techniques because we have unfolded and discovered and updated techniques through 10 years of war,” Flynn said. “These milWiki sites will have real time feedback from all points of the Army to be able to provide updates on what type of techniques they’re using that are actually working out in the field.”
The Army is also in the throes of building applications so the ATP can be put on mobile hand held devices or broadcast podcasts or some kind of interactive media so it can be continually kept current but still give the service some top level control.
The idea is for service-wide sharing so warfighters, those in the Center for Army Lessons Learned, the Centers of Excellence across the Army, the commandants at the schools and the operational force are all talking and share best practices.
“We have learned a lot in the last 10 years. This is a way to capture this decade of lessons and update our doctrine,” Flynn said.
Soldiers coming up in the Army learn differently in the 21st century, Flynn said, and using new and interactive technologies is a way the service hopes to reach that audience more rapidly.
“We’re just trying to keep pace with all the activities.in the global era of persistent conflict that we’re operating in so these young leaders can access it and be informed by it,” Flynn said.