By Ann Roosevelt
The Army’s new operational doctrine, Field Manual 3-0, requiring forces to be able to conduct simultaneous offense, defense and stability operations reflects and goes beyond the new realities from current conflict.
“One of the big [changes] ones, I think is this whole idea of battle command and the centrality of the commander and the kinds of operations that we’re in,” Maj. Gen. Barbara Fast, Deputy Director/Chief of Staff, Army Capabilities & Integration Center, Deputy Chief of Staff, G-9 United States Army Training and Doctrine Command, told Defense Daily in a recent interview.
This is clear in FM 3-0 Operations, which says the commander is the focus of battle command and control, with the actions and responses of trained and disciplined soldiers “the single most important element of any command and control system.”
“So part of what we have to do now is train and equip and teach at very decentralized operational levels–patrols, and companies–to be able to be effective in these other than major combat operations. We also need to teach leaders at all levels,” Fast said.
The Army hasn’t waited for the official operations or training manuals to be printed. Immersive environments can be found at service installations and home stations. Basic language, customs and courtesies are being taught, as well as understanding how to engage with the local populace, and understanding rules of engagement–all incredibly important, she said.
“Today, the Army has very decentralized operations. We have really worked so our captains, our lieutenants are comfortable in operating in this environment, and overwhelmingly they’re doing a superb job when you look at all that’s on their plate,” Fast said.
While the brigade is the key center, down at the company and company commander level, more complex operations are being done than in the past to the point “that there are even intelligence operations going on at the company level where analysis is being done and some level of management of collection.”
So when soldiers return to the United States the Army wants them to have the same sort of excitement, not suddenly into inventories and barracks inspections.
“This is part of the rationale for how we now must build a training environment that keeps these organizations and these individuals excited about what they do and keeps their skills honed,” she said. This has to be keyed to the Army Force Generation cycle as soldiers return home.
“What we want to do is a lot more in live, virtual and constructive [simulations] because obviously we can’t pick up a whole Afghani village and bring it to the United States,” she said. ” But creatively, technology now–particularly look at the gaming industry–allows us the opportunity to put individuals and small organizations into these collective training environments.”
While not every lesson learned can be used, past and current conflict helps shape the way the Army needs to operate in the future, Fast said, using examples of her tour in Iraq.
“My experience was that there wasn’t anyone who knew the streets any better than the patrol on the streets,” she said. However, at the same time, the patrol is part of the overall command and control system, so the Army is working on how to improve this relationship and train it.
In another example, Fast said the Army is extremely proficient in lethal operations, but there’s more nonlethal application necessary in the current conflict and potential future operations.
“What I certainly learned it in spades was the centrality of information and information engagement,” she said.
Information engagement is newly emphasized in FM 3-0, which says, “Commanders use information engagement in their areas of operations to communicate information, build trust and confidence, promote support for Army operations and influence perceptions and behavior.”
This form of engagement reflects the elevation of stability operations in Army actions, how some current operations are conducted and the recognition that Army forces operate and will likely continue to do so, among populations.
“I probably spent nearly as much time in engaging and in working information engagement issues as I did in reading message traffic or other things,” Fast said. “I spent a lot of time working with Iraqis and part of that then is understanding the culture. I certainly didn’t go into Iraq feeling I understood the Iraqi culture, which is different than other cultures. You can’t just say it’s Arab culture and that’s that. You really have to understand fundamentally the people and the environment you’re going to find yourself in.”
The new training manual, which is slated for June publication, will build on the strides already made at the National Training Center, Ft. Irwin, Calif., and the Joint Readiness Training Center, Ft. Polk, La.
“At combat training centers, there are villages set up, scenarios where soldiers and leaders have to engage with mayors and tribal chiefs,” Fast said. “I found that enormously important for me when I got over there…but we didn’t have the training for it then, and I didn’t have much time before I had to deploy to learn. You wished you had a lot of that early on rather than doing it while being immersed in it.”
The Army is looking at current conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan, but also at other potential contingencies around the world. “All of those, I think, are informing the kinds of adversaries and the kinds of problems that we may find ourselves in,” she said.
And, since the Army doesn’t operate in a vacuum and rarely on its own, this leads to new considerations.
“We’ve fought in coalitions for a long time, but how do you work the stability operations, because in offense, defense and stability–you’ve got to be comfortable being in all three simultaneously,” she said. “But in that vein , you’re not in that alone as an Army particularly in stability operations. You’re in there, State Department is in there, an economic component, with expertise from outside the military is also in there.”
For example, “People able to put food on the table are lot less likely to be out on the streets planting bombs, if have money to live,” Fast said. Having an economic element to regenerate the economy is not a military strongpoint. “This is the strong point of other parts of our government. So it’s working as a team in order to be able to do what the nation is asking us to do set the conditions for another nation to resume governance.”