WASHINGTON (Army News Service, June 30, 2015) -- "Now more than ever," warrant officers are indispensable in "providing the technological overmatch" needed to win the nation's wars, and strategy must reflect that, Chief Warrant Officer 5 Robert Lamphear said.
Lamphear, who is the Combined Arms Center, or CAC, Command Chief Warrant Officer on Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and other chief warrant officers spoke at the first-ever Army Senior Warrant Officer Summit, June 30, attended by over 130 senior warrant officers. The topic was the emerging "Warrant Officer 2025 Strategy."
Leading the summit was Chief Warrant Officer 5 David Williams, who now serves as the Army Staff Senior Warrant Officer. That position is new in the Army, and was created to provide the Army's chief of staff with subject-matter expertise on warrant officer training and development.
The Army's Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno, directed Williams to produce a unifying "warrant officer cohort" strategy to outline how future warrant officers will be accessed, developed and managed in support of "Force 2025 and Beyond."
The two-day Army Senior Warrant Officer Summit served as a communications forum to enable Williams to outline the Warrant Officer 2025 Strategy and facilitate an informative dialogue amongst senior Army leaders and senior warrant officers from across the Army. The forum focused on current and future strategic training and leader development issues for warrant officers.
Developed by warrant officers, in consultation with U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command and the Combined Arms Center, the WO2025 Strategy is now in "pre-decisional" form and Williams said he hopes to have it finalized and approved by the secretary of the Army and Army chief of staff within the next two months, if not sooner.
Although the strategy is still in draft, Lamphear provided highlights. First and foremost, he said it is all connected with TRADOC's recently published "U.S. Army Operating Concept: Win in a Complex World," also known as AOC.
The mention of technology is sprinkled throughout the AOC, he said, noting that warrant officers are considered to be the lead experts in their respective branches.
For example, one of the main underlying assumptions in Section 1-5 of the AOC is: "The land, air, maritime, space, and cyberspace domains will become more contested as U.S. military technological advantages decrease. Changes in technology and geopolitical dynamics as well as the enduring political and human nature of war will keep war in the realms of complexity and uncertainty."
Lamphear added these challenges and complexities will result in an increased cognitive demand on all cohorts. Warrant officers, as the Army's premier land force technical experts and systems integrators, must also provide the cognitive dominance, as outlined in the new Army Human Dimension Strategy, required to provide expedient solutions to increasingly complex problems.
In their unique roles, warrant officers must possess the deep knowledge and technical expertise to integrate systems throughout the force, and be able to develop innovative methods to support future requirements. This will require a greater investment to fully develop the knowledge, skills, and abilities of every warrant officer to reach his or her unique potential as Trusted Army Professionals.
Chief Warrant Officer 5 Scott Broten, warrant officer total force integrator for CAC-Education on Fort Leavenworth, said another aspect of the strategy is that warrant officers' expertise will be called on with greater frequency than before as contractor support for maintenance shrinks and Soldiers' roles in those functions expand.
To stay on the cutting edge of technology, warrant officers will need to stay abreast of developments in their fields through formal education, distributed learning and internships with industry, Broten said. Along with that will come certification and credentialing opportunities that will not only be beneficial for warrant officers' jobs, but also when they retire or separate and become "Soldiers for Life."
Chief Warrant Officer 5 Brian Taylor, warrant officer leader development chief, TRADOC 3/5/7, Fort Eustis, Virginia, said the strategy also includes having a more coherent job description for each rank of warrant officer, which includes levels of knowledge and skills expected within his or her branch.
Lamphear added many don't know that warrant officers represent 2.5 percent of the Army and about 16 percent of the officer corps, serving in about 60 specialties across 17 branches in all components. Each warrant officer occupational specialty receives branch-designed technical training and education across the learning continuum to support their specified duties and responsibilities at the tactical, operational and strategic level.
Lamphear emphasized, an intrinsic goal of the Warrant Officer 2025 Strategy is to develop cohort-centric best practices and solutions without restricting best practices and solutions that currently exist across the Operational and Institutional Army. The Army hopes going to capitalize on them, he said, by improving collaboration across the broader cohort and education enterprise.
While warrant officers are expected to be at the top of their game technologically, as members of the officer corps they are also expected to demonstrate good leadership. As such, common core leadership courses will augment branch-specific education, Lamphear said.
Broten said talent management is another important aspect for warrant officers in the strategy. The Army has got to get better at identifying top-notch noncommissioned officers, who would make good fits as warrants, he said. Many are not even aware of the opportunities. Once the warrant officers have been selected, they need to be assigned to the right places.
In other news at the summit, Chief Warrant Officer4 Chris Cummings, warrant officer cohort integrator, Center for Army Leadership, Fort Leavenworth, informed the participants that the first-ever Warrant Officer Solarium on Fort Leavenworth is in the "pre-decisional" stage for early January for 84 chief warrant officers 2 and 3. If it takes place, a range of important issues impacting the Army will be discussed and recommendations will be provided to the Army chief of staff.
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