By Ann Roosevelt
The Army yesterday released the 2010 Army Modernization Strategy (AMS), linking service ends and means to Defense Department strategies.
Army modernization reflects strategic direction as expressed in the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review to rebalance military capabilities to win in current conflicts while building capabilities needed for future threats. In addition, it is designed to reform institutions and processes to better support urgent warfighter needs, buy usable, affordable and “truly needed” weapons, and ensure taxpayer dollars are well spent.
The strategy explains “how we will bring the Army back into balance to meet our current and future challenges,” Lt. Gen. Robert Lennox, deputy chief of staff G-8, wrote in the forward.
For the Army, the AMS must support the goal often stated by Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey to “build a versatile mix of tailorable and networked organizations operating on a rotational cycle to provide a sustained flow of trained, equipped and ready forces for full spectrum operations and to hedge against unexpected contingencies” at a predictable and sustainable tempo.
The strategy lays out the ends, ways and means in a 91-page format.
The Army’s objective–or ends–is to develop and field a versatile and affordable mix of the best equipment available so soldiers and units can succeed at full spectrum operations for the current environment and that of the future.
To do so–the ways–the Army will focus on three major lines of effort: developing and fielding new capabilities, to include implementing the brigade combat team modernization plan, and continuously modernizing equipment to meet capability needs today and in the future through procuring upgraded capabilities, recapitalization and divestment. The third way is to meet the needs of the force through Army priorities and the Army Force Generation Model.
To accomplish this–the means–the Army is looking to have a “focused leadership, operational analysis, a strong industrial base, strategic communication and fiscal support,” the strategy states.
For more detail, the AMS is available on the G-8 Web site, http://www.g8.army.mil/.