Unified Land Operations: The Evolution of Army Doctrine for Success in the 21st Century
Abstract
The U.S. Army faces the challenge of long, repeated deployments against enemy formations that do not lend themselves to straightforward doctrinal definitions and constructs. Army doctrine has evolved to meet the challenges. Doctrine writers have struggled to use clear, concise language that accurately depicts operating concepts. A significant part of this struggle arose after the conflation of doctrinal terms and operational priorities that occurred when the Army made stability operations of equal importance with offensive and defensive operations within full-spectrum operations. Despite the Army's long history of fighting small wars against irregular forces, the ascendance of stability operations in the late 1990s and early 2000s ran counter to existing Army beliefs about the appropriate roles and missions of the U.S. Army. The central idea of Army doctrine is to seize, retain, and exploit the initiative to gain and maintain a position of advantage in sustained land operations. A new operating concept, "Unified Land Operations," returns this central idea to its proper place, applicable to all Army operations. Seizing, retaining, and exploiting the initiative to gain and maintain a position of advantage provides a battlefield framework and logic that nests Unified Land Operations within the joint operational construct of unified action and provides a structure that allows commanders to effectively and accurately describe their intent in time, space, purpose, and priority. This article introduces the logic behind the new operating concept by presenting a short history of the evolution of Army doctrine from the advent of AirLand Battle in 1982 to the introduction of Unified Land Operations in 2011. The central idea of Unified Land Operations is rooted in AirLand Battle doctrine and retains many of the key full-spectrum operations ideas within an overarching concept that emphasizes lethal capabilities as fundamental to successful Army operations.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 2012
- Accession Number
- ADA573761
Entities
People
- Bill Benson