FORT BENNING, Ga., (April 29, 2015) -- For the next 10 years, the U.S. Army will operate under a new concept that realigns the focus of battle to building capabilities rather than buying things with which to fight.
"What is the guidance, and what are the decisions that you make that drive the whole organization?" said General David Perkins, commanding general, U. S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, as he introduced 'Win in a complex world' to Soldiers as part of a Combat Leaders Speaker Program April 24 in Marshall Auditorium.
Perkins referred to the AirLand Battle doctrine, developed when the Army was coming out of Vietnam, whose unifying concept was 'Fight outnumbered, and win.'
"The problem was we started looking at war as if it was a math problem, in fact, we used to use mathematical terms - battle field geometry, battlefield calculus," Perkins said. "Then we said, 'You know what, there might be a different way to solve this than just getting more numbers.'"
Perkins said the Unified Land Operations doctrine places its weight on the first word of its concept: win, much different than AirLand battle doctrine whose emphasis was on the fight.
"If there is not a doubt that the U.S. Army will win any fight, anywhere, any time, then and only then may you have the ability to deter somebody from picking a fight," Perkins said. "That is a very capable Army, and that is the Army we're going to build."
A notable difference in the doctrines, Perkins said, was AirLand Battle doctrine was meant to deal with the known, while Unified Land Operations Battle doctrine is meant to deal with the unknown.
"What we're saying is the future is unknown, unknowable and constantly changing," Perkins said.
When fighting in the known, Perkins said the U.S. Army would buy specific things, train a certain way and come up with specific organizations; whereas when faced with the unknown, different things would be bought and people would be trained differently.
"It is very, very different and has a huge impact on the Army," Perkins said.
The new concept also involves the third level of war, -- the strategic level -- whereas the previous concept included the tactical and operational levels of war.
Overall, Perkins said the biggest change is what the Army expects from its future leaders. He said while the enemy will emulate technology, leadership couldn't be downloaded with a thumb drive.
Perkins directed his audience's attention to a screen, which pointed out the five essential characteristics of the Army profession. It included:
• Military expertise.
• Honorable service.
• Trust.
• Espirit de Corps.
• Stewardship of the profession.
"This becomes a very leader-demanding concept, because that is generally where you get your rate of innovation from - in really smart, dedicated, well-lead units," Perkins said. "That's why the Chief of Staff of the Army's number one priority is leader development -- that is our asymmetric secret weapon."
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