The Army and Land Warfare: Transforming the Legions
Abstract
The Army is pursuing a three-track approach to military transformation. The first involves sustaining and modernizing a significant portion of the so-called legacy force. Its capabilities are dominated by heavy mechanized units that deterred aggression while forward deployed in Europe and South Korea and routed the Iraqi army. The second and third tracks are directed at fielding an expeditionary army. The centerpiece of the second is an interim force of Stryker brigade combat teams (SBCTs). These teams serve as a bridge to the Objective Force, the third track, which is intended to incorporate SBCT mobility, deployability, and sustainability with the lethality and survivability of heavy formations. Despite the implicit uncertainty of predicting military competition over the next 10 to 15 years, the Armed Forces appear to have made three assumptions with respect to land warfare: (1) missile/anti-missile competition will continue to favor the offense, and identifying and defeating critical mobile (ballistic and cruise missile) targets will remain difficult, thus deploying and sustaining forces through major ports and air bases will be increasingly risky; (2) sanctuaries such as cities, complex terrain, and underground facilities will become more important as enemies strive to avoid open battles that heavily favor U.S. air and ground forces; and (3) highly distributed, networked operations are possible. This article discusses the characteristics of transformed land warfare, combat vehicles and weapon systems that are integral to transformation, barriers to transformation, the importance of urban warfare in the transformation picture, General Shinseki's vision for transformation, the Army's modernization strategy, and the need for facilities to support military exercises and urban warfare training.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2002
- Accession Number
- ADA483750
Entities
People
- Andrew F. Krepinevich Jr.