Army Transformation and Strategic Maneuver: Future Forces and Deployability Constraints
Abstract
The Army's desire for continued relevance in the 21st century has led to a host of concepts to enhance Army strategic maneuver capability. Current Army forces cannot meet the desired timelines of warfighting CINCs and will become less relevant if future adversaries move quickly to seize their strategic objectives. To introduce the problem, this paper shows how current forces are too large and heavy, requiring unavailable transportation capability to always deploy in a relevant period of time. Recognizing this problem, the Army Chief of Staff has proposed new goals for strategic maneuver of future forces in a transformed Army. Meeting these goals will require improved transportation capabilities and smaller and lighter Army forces that require less sustainment cargo. Despite some expected improvements in transportation capabilities, it is unclear that the future Army forces will be designed to meet strategic maneuver goals. This paper examines future force concepts such as mobile combat teams, middle weight brigades, and future warfare divisions, and applies realistic global deployability constraints to determine possible solutions to meet strategic maneuver goals for a relevant transformed Army.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 06, 2000
- Accession Number
- ADA378000
Entities
People
- Charles J. Davis
Organizations
- United States Army War College