U.S. Army Soldiers assigned to the Multi-Domain Effects Battalion, 2nd Multi-Domain Task Force, retrieve an Unmanned Surface Vessel (USVs) from the water during Arcane Thunder 25, 16 May, 2025. Exercise Arcane Thunder 25 is a collaborative U.S. Army Europe directed, 2nd Multi-Domain Task Force led exercise designed to leverage the robust warfighting capabilities of the U.S., Allies, and partner nations to reach a precise, lethal end point. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Jennifer Posy)

MAINZ-KASTEL, Germany — As the U.S. Army marks its 250th birthday this month, the 56th Artillery Command is helping define what the next 250 years could look like.

With ceremonies and commemorations underway around the world, the Army is not only reflecting on its past but also preparing for its future. Nowhere is that future more visible than in Germany, where the 56th Artillery Command and its subordinate unit, the 2nd Multi-Domain Task Force, are reshaping how the Army prepares to fight, and win, in an increasingly complex operating environment.

The 56th is expected to become the Army’s first permanent multi-domain command in Europe, the 56th Multi-Domain Command Europe, combining traditional long-range fires with capabilities in space, cyberspace, land, air, and maritime domains. The transformation maximizes lethality by optimizing warfighting capabilities for large scale combat.

U.S. Army Pfc. Lars Carpenter from the 2nd Multi Domain Task Force prepares to launch the High Altitude Balloon (HAB) in Fort Huachuca, Arizona, May 25, 2025. He is securing part of the HAB before launch. (U.S. Army Photo by Staff Sgt. Rajheem Dixon, 2nd Multi-Domain Task Force)

Founded in 1775, the U.S. Army has won the revolutionary war, preserved the union and saved Europe. It has evolved and at every stage of change, the Army has maintained its two enduring priorities: winning the nation’s wars and taking care of its people. As new technologies and organizational models emerge, those priorities remain at the heart of its transformation.

Unveiled in May by Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll and Chief of Staff Gen. Randy A. George, the Army Transformation Initiative outlines a sweeping plan to modernize equipment, restructure formations, and accelerate the fielding of new capabilities. In a letter to the force published May 1, 2025, the two leaders wrote that the Army must move “with urgency and purpose” to deter conflict and, if necessary, defeat any adversary.

That sense of urgency is on display in Europe, where the 56th Artillery Command has become a focal point for multi-domain experimentation. Reactivated in 2021 and headquartered in Mainz-Kastel, the 56th serves as the theater fires command for U.S. Army Europe and Africa. Its subordinate unit, the 2nd Multi-Domain Task Force, includes more than 800 Soldiers with expertise in signals, intelligence, space operations, cyber defense and information warfare.

U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Andrew Baumgardner, 2nd Multi-Domain Task Force, checks the in-flight data of an experimental Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) during the flight, crash and recovery stress-test portion of 2nd Multi-Domain Task Force led exercise Arcane Thunder 25 at a training area near Ustka, Poland, 14 May, 2025. Arcane Thunder 25 promotes innovation, collaboration, and interoperability between Allied and partner nations, and contributes significantly to regional stability and security by improving the ability of Allied forces to operate together effectively in times of crisis or conflict. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Jennifer Posy)

Recent exercises, including Arcane Thunder 25, tested the command’s ability to integrate unmanned systems, high-altitude sensing platforms, and information advantage teams alongside long-range precision fires. The capabilities demonstrated by the 2nd MDTF in these exercises have proven highly effective. By transforming into Multi-Domain Command Europe, the Army is not replacing the MDTF concept but elevating it. The transition reflects a deliberate step to optimize multi-domain operations in the European theater and scale the mission to a broader, more strategic level.

Maj. Gen. John Rafferty, commanding general of the 56th Artillery Command, called Arcane Thunder 25 a “premier training event” and praised the role Soldiers played in refining the systems and tactics being tested.

Maj. Gen John Rafferty commanding general of 56th Artillery Command walks with Brig. Gen. Rob Alston chief joint fires and influence branch for NATO’s Allied Rapid Reaction Corps discussing exercise Dynamic Front 25 and how combining artillery elements from the 28 Allied and partner nations participating strengthen NATO capabilities and strategies for building and deploying Territorial Defense Forces to deter and respond to threats across Europe at Ravajarvi Training Area, Rovaniemi, Finland, Nov. 20, 2024.

Dynamic Front takes place from Nov 4-24 in Finland, Estonia, Germany, Poland, and Romania, and demonstrates NATO’s ability to share fire missions, target information, and operational graphics from the Arctic to the Black Sea. It increases the lethality of the Alliance through long-range fires, builds unit readiness in a complex joint, multi-national environment, and leverages host nation capabilities to increase USAREUR-AF’s operational reach. Dynamic Front includes more than 1,800 U.S. and 3,700 multi-national service members from 28 Allied and partner nations.

“Our Soldiers, our sergeants and our lieutenants are the ones who have their hands on this equipment, who are determining the best way to employ it, to get the effects and find the targets that we’re asking them to,” Rafferty said during a media roundtable. “And we are putting that feedback right back into the system to improve the capability and optimize not just the equipment that we have, but the way in which we’re employing it.”

The Army Transformation Initiative also includes broader structural changes, including command consolidations, reductions in outdated systems, and investments in artificial intelligence, long-range fires, and unmanned platforms. Much of that experimentation is already happening in real time in Europe.

As the Army honors its past, the work of the 56th offers a glimpse of what comes next. Fast, integrated and adaptable across every domain, but still grounded in the same purpose it was founded on in 1775: fight and win the nation’s wars and take care of the Soldiers who do it.