Preparing for War: The Structure and Conduct of Peacetime Maneuvers.

摘要

There exists a potential requirement for the U.S. Army to conduct peacetime maneuvers as it transitions from a decade of counterinsurgency operations to an unknown future. This study will examine two historical examples to suggest how the Army should structure and conduct such peacetime maneuvers. The first example is an analysis of how General George C. Marshall structured and conducted the 1941 Louisiana Maneuvers to mobilize and train the Army, from small unit to army level, preparing it for combat against the German army in World War II. The second example analyzes General Gordon Sullivan's Modern Louisiana Maneuvers of the early 1990's, which he used it to train the Army Staff, identify better practices for modernization, and prepare the Army for 21st century warfare. Each of these historical examples seeks to answer the following question: How do the structure and conduct of peacetime maneuvers influence future combat effectiveness? The study does not answer questions about the doctrine, training, organization, and equipment the Army requires to meet its uncertain future. It does, however, take as a premise that peacetime maneuvers are necessary for at least partial answers to those questions. The study concludes that in order to have the optimal chance for future combat effectiveness, the Army's peacetime maneuvers should be structured and conducted in accordance with the following general guidelines: the Army must structure comprehensive exercises from small-units to the Department of the Army Staff; conduct those exercises are realistically; and, use multiple scenarios to prepare for the various types of warfare it could be called upon to fight in an uncertain future.