Doctrine That Works
Abstract
I recently spent a morning talking with a scholar who is researching material for a book on the U.S. Army's willingness to learn about war above the tactical and operational level. His thesis echoes, to some degree, Dr. Antulio Echevarria's monograph that concludes that there is an American Way of Battle, but not an "American Way of War." This scholar was asking for evidence to identify change points in the development of U.S. Army thinking about war during the decades of the 1970s and 1980s. I suggested that the 1973 Arab-Israeli War was one of those points because it gave the Army a tangible event that was relevant to a key national security objective: the defense of NATO Europe. That war allowed the Army to put Vietnam behind it. It signaled that Russian military technology had caught up with and in some ways surpassed western military technology. That technology, in the hands of ill-trained Arab conscript armies could be enormously effective, particularly in the tactical defense. Three years later, FM 100-5, "Operations," emerged. That field manual tacitly recognized the insufficiency of American materiel to do much more than fight an Active Defense. The publication of FM 100-5, 1982 edition, revived the centrality of offensive action. The AirLand Battle concepts that underlay the 1982 edition of FM 100-5 frightened NATO Europe, but it made the U.S. Army happy. Operation DESERT STORM validated the AirLand Battle concept, the Big-Five reequipping choices, and the Training Revolution that had taken hold during those two preceding decades. Then hubris set in. Current doctrine fails to partake of the relatively clear directive qualities of the above two cited FMs. I would suggest adopting the concept of the Soldier as a System, and the progressive Modularization of the entire force enroute to an approximation of the Future Combat System.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 01, 2006
- Accession Number
- ADA520595
Entities
People
- Douglas V. Johnson Ii
Organizations
- United States Army War College