SMDC takes AMD Enterprise lead for Army

By Jason B. Cutshaw, USASMDC/ARSTRAT Public AffairsJuly 1, 2015

SMDC takes AMD Enterprise lead for Army
The Army tests a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, anti-ballistic missile system designed to shoot down short, medium and intermediate ballistic missiles in their terminal phase using a hit-to-kill approach. The missile carries no warhea... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

REDSTONE ARSENAL, Alabama -- As the Army's lead in missile defense, The U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command is taking charge in developing a holistic Army integrated air and missile defense, or AIAMD, strategy for the Department of the Army.

Integral to this endeavor is the 2015 Waypoint #1 to the 2012 Air and Missile Defense, or AMD, strategy. The purpose of the waypoint is to provide an assessment of the state of the Army AMD force and, where applicable, recommend adjustments to AMD programs. USASMDC/ARSTRAT is charged with synchronizing efforts across the AMD Enterprise in terms of modernization, materiel development, testing and evaluation.

"In order to succeed in IAMD, we must offset fewer resources with more innovation to develop and maintain an affordable, integrated, interdependent joint and combined approach ready to answer the nation's call -- anytime, anywhere," said Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "The effectiveness with which we field competent joint IAMD capabilities will help prevent catastrophic attacks on the U.S. homeland; secure the U.S. economy and the global economic system; and build secure, confident, and reliable allies and partners."

IAMD is the integration of capabilities and overlapping operations to defend the homeland and United States national interests, protect the joint force, and enable freedom of action by negating an adversary's ability to create adverse effects from its air and missile capabilities.

Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, Chief of Staff of the Army, designated Lt. Gen. David L. Mann, SMDC commanding general, as the Army's AMD Enterprise integrator on Sept. 8 in support of the Army's vision for Force 2025 and beyond.

"We know our adversaries will continue to use ballistic and cruise missiles, long-range precision rockets and artillery, and unmanned aerial systems to threaten our homeland and deny our freedom of action abroad" Mann said. "Army AMD forces have proven themselves as a preferred instrument to counter these growing threats, enhance regional stability, and demonstrate U.S. resolve and commitment. Army AMD forces play a crucial role in shaping and deterrence efforts, and should deterrence fail, will provide joint forces the protection to achieve their objectives.

"The Army will continue to invest in the programs and initiatives set forth in the 2012 AMD strategy, and will ensure AMD forces are postured to protect our nation's interests in the future," he added.

Inherent with the role of the AMD Enterprise integrator is the development and synchronization of a strategy that incorporates force planning requirements, coordinated combat and materiel development, AMD acquisition and life cycle management, and strategic communications.

The AMD Enterprise remains focused on modernization initiatives and balancing fiscal resources to ensure the timely development and implementation of the AMD modernization priorities: Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System, or IBCS, Patriot modernization, and the indirect fire protection capability, or IFPC.

As the AMD strategic environment continues to evolve in terms of threats, operational demands, strategic guidance, and fiscal realities, changes since 2012 include: major operations by non-state actors, rapid advancements in low-cost enemy air and missile technologies, anti-access/area denial challenges, increased operational demands on the AMD force, and the new Army Operating Concept.

The imperative for AMD forces is to enable the Army to win in a complex world by supporting three Army Operating Concept core competencies: shaping the security environment, setting the theater, and projecting national power.

The Army is developing AMD forces that are integrated with joint and coalition partners, operate at all levels of war, and are effective across multiple domains to defeat adversaries.

"Modernization is important to ensure the AMD force remains capable of defeating the full range of threats," said Col. Chad D. Skaggs, SMDC deputy chief of staff G-3. "IAMD provides the Army and the combatant commanders with capabilities to defend critical assets and protect the force against the full range of air and missile threats in support of joint force operations."

Modernizing the force requires updating doctrine and training to properly prepare the Army's current AMD forces to address an evolving threat.

The Fires Center of Excellence at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, has developed the "Convergence on the Common" concept to train and develop future leaders, integrating the air defense artillery and field artillery core competencies to achieve fires leader competencies.

"The SMDC/ARSTRAT commander and staff collaborate across the Army AMD Enterprise, utilizing existing Army governance structures and forums to provide coordinated recommendations in support of key Department of the Army Headquarters decisions," said Lt. Col. Brian M. Moore, division chief, SMDC AMD Integration Division. "The Army AMD Enterprise integrator role also includes the implementation of an overarching Army AMD strategy that incorporates a holistic approach to force planning requirements, coordinated combat and material development, AMD acquisition and life cycle management, and strategic communications."

Moore's division supports the SMDC commanding general's role as Army AMD Enterprise integrator.

"Army Integrated Air and Missile Defense is the Army's program for integrating air and missile command nodes, sensors and launcher platforms through a highly flexible and agile common AMD mission command network," Moore said. "AIAMD is the Army's contribution to the joint Integrated Air and Missile Defense mission architecture, supporting deployed and homeland forces by defending the homeland and U.S. national interests, protecting designated forces and critical assets, and enabling freedom of action by negating an adversary's ability to achieve effects from its air and missile capabilities."

Future AMD forces will be a part of joint combined arms operations, and undertake a wide range of initiatives in order to integrate, protect and transform the force while building multiple partner capacities.

"Many countries view ballistic, cruise missile systems and unmanned aerial systems as cost-effective weapons and symbols of national power and present an asymmetric threat," said Lorenzo Mack, SMDC AMD Integration Division senior AMD integrator. "The reality is that several countries are now producing or developing short-range ballistic missile systems, while many other countries have purchased missile technologies from one or more of the missile producers. Potential adversaries avoid confronting American and allies' combat power directly and use their air and missile defense capabilities to counter our combat power."

Mack described how the SMDC AMD Integration Division will serve to integrate and synchronize efforts across the AMD Enterprise along with other Enterprise members: Missile Defense Agency; Fires Center of Excellence; Program Executive Office for Missiles and Space; Army Air and Missile Defense Commands, and Department of the Army Management Office-AMD.

"Missile defense is one of the areas in which the Army must balance resources and risks and evolve and adapt in response to a changing security environment," Mack said. "My role is to work with all elements of the AMD Enterprise to synchronize our efforts based on guidance the commanding general receives from Department of the Army."

The Army's Force 2025 and beyond provides the Army's vision for informing development of a modernization strategy that defines how the Army will balance modernization, force structure, and readiness to win on the future battlefield. The modernization strategy provides a force that is more lethal, agile, expeditionary, expansible, decentralized, and interoperable.

Going forward, the strategy will address gaps in capability and capacity by balancing priorities, informing resource decisions, and restoring operational flexibility.

Future AMD forces will provide a 360-degree, three-dimensional surveillance and integrated fire control to timely and accurately detect, track and defeat air and missile threats. To achieve this goal, the AMD portfolio will continue to improve capabilities in ballistic missile defense, ground-based midcourse defense, countering unmanned aircraft systems, cruise missile defense, and counter-rocket artillery and mortars.

AMD forces will remain regionally aligned to set theaters and enable operational access. The Army will leverage improved and ever-growing partner AMD capabilities to restore strategic flexibility and enable critical AMD modernization efforts. Theater security cooperation efforts will continue to deliver critical AMD capabilities to coalition partners and reduce U.S. burdens through modern and interoperable AMD forces.

Army AMD will also provide approaches to addressing aerial and ballistic missile threats through the emergence of new technological advances and operating concepts such as directed energy and emerging doctrine based on the modernization efforts.

Mack said the Fires Center of Excellence has overall responsibility for the AMD modernization effort, with his division working with them and other AMD stakeholders to ensure we meet Warfighter AMD capability requirements and modernize the AMD portfolio.

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