FORT MOORE, Ga. — “Warfighting is our focus,” said Gen. Andrew Poppas, commanding general, U.S. Army Forces Command. “We [have to] be ready for ten years down the road; for the challenging times ahead of us,” he said.
Poppas spoke during the three-day Maneuver Warfighter Conference held at Fort Moore, Georgia, September 10-12, 2024. The conference brought together the Army’s biggest leaders to discuss topics like the future fight, readiness and technology on the battlefield.
Part of that readiness focus Poppas mentioned includes how the Army intends to prepare itself for large-scale operations in a multi-domain theatre and how robotics and electronic warfare play an ever-increasing importance on how we fight and win our wars.
“Today’s battlefields are test beds for weapons; for new technology,” said Poppas, “and four of five of the most important evolutions are coming from drones and electromagnetic superiority.”
FORSCOM Command Seargent Major TJ Holland also participated in the presentation and encourage Soldier attendees to recognize that as leaders, it’s their responsibility to act with boldness; to be audacious and recognize that while new technology is to be expected on the future battlefield, it’s the human element that ultimately is key.
“Technology isn’t going to win the next battle,” he said. “It’s system agnostic-it wraps around the Soldier,” said Holland.
New battlefield technology means adjusting the overall training strategy for the force and ensuring leaders are doing everything they can to ensure Soldiers are ready — both mentally and physically, for what they may encounter. This includes a bottom-up refinement for commanders with a focus on elevating individual Soldier capabilities at the division level.
“The training we do with divisions in the dirt at the Joint Readiness Training Center and National Training Center, are the things functional brigades go with to refine the formation,” said Poppas. “Nesting with other live individuals at these training sites prepares us to ultimately fight together in real time,” he said.
Poppas emphasized the realization that when it comes to fighting wars, the overall level of loss can be huge, and he asked young Soldiers in attendance at the conference if they were truly ready to face the possibility of that.
“Are you prepared to fight through that level of loss?” he asked, “because we owe it to our Soldiers to fight that future fight and get tougher, train harder, and make the formations stronger through training,” he said.
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