Evolving Roles for the Next Fight: An Army in Transition.

摘要

The Army of 2015 is at a crossroads. Caught inadequately equipped, ill structured, and poorly postured at the outset of hostilities in Iraq and Afghanistan, in the intervening years the organization has restructured itself in unprecedented fashion while under fire to meet the demands of a counterinsurgency (COIN) campaign. Simultaneously, the Army has sustained the capacity to engage in traditional combined arms maneuver against a near peer adversary. As today s Army surveys the operating environment of the midterm (5-20 years in the future), it has elected to rededicate the entirety of the force to meeting this dual mission requirement. This paper argues that while the Army must indeed be prepared for either scenario, better results will result by focusing the active component (AC) on major combat operations, and the Reserve Component (RC), specifically the Army National Guard (ARNG), on the phases of war preceding these operations. This paper will demonstrate that recent history has clearly established the need for specialization of Army forces in the operating environment, while declining resources have necessitated fresh thinking about force employment. Finally, a hypothetical case study set in AFRICOM AOR will illuminate the numerous ways that the AC, the ARNG and the supported Combatant Commander will benefit from the employment of optimal Army forces at the appropriate time and place.