The Seductive Effects of an Expeditionary Mindset
Abstract
The U.S. Army is in the midst of undergoing a radical transformation. It is adopting a capabilities-based and modular-type force structure to address a full spectrum of conflict. The premise behind restructuring U.S. Army forces is that future threats will be ambiguous and will no longer be fought in a conventional manner at a known location. Most experts agree that the United States must transition from the focused strategy of containing a single state-centric threat to a broader strategy of confronting a wide range of potential conflicts, from low to high intensity, anywhere in the world. To create the appropriate force structure in the U.S. Army, military planners have forecasted the common features of the full spectrum of conflict and have proposed the development of various expeditionary capabilities that address future threats. Many contend that mobility is the key ingredient in transitioning to this new capabilities-based strategy. Consequently, U.S. Army planners have recently begun to focus on how U.S. forces will confront a wide variety of future threats and have identified specific equipment and procedures that will facilitate shaping and entry operations, operating and maneuvering from strategic distances, and intra-theater operational maneuver. This monograph analyzes three mobility technologies that address expeditionary goals, and assesses their contributions to future security threats. These technologies are the Future Combat System (FCS), the Joint Heavy Lift (JHL) Aviation program, and the Joint Mobile Offshore Base (JMOB) sea-basing program. These technologies are evaluated for their contribution towards traditional combat, and also for their effectiveness in supporting crisis response operations like peacekeeping, stability and reconstruction operations (SRO), military support to civilian authorities (MSCA), and humanitarian and disaster relief, both at home and abroad.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Feb 01, 2007
- Accession Number
- ADA474839
Entities
People
- Michael S Arnold
Organizations
- Air War College