WASHINGTON — As the Army moves forward with its efforts to transform the force, one aspect of war remains constant: the importance of putting Soldiers on the ground, an Army leader said.
Gen. Christopher Donahue, commander of U.S. Army Europe and Africa, stressed the importance of troops in the trenches and deterrence during a recent Association of the U.S. Army discussion in Washington. Each Soldier will play a critical role, not only in the defense of partner nations but any location worldwide.
“When you look at the Army transformation initiative, this epitomizes everything that we have to do as an Army,” Donahue said. “It’s our job to make sure that we have ground deterrence in Europe. We’re a global Army; we have to be able to take this capability anywhere in the world.”
Donahue cited the 1963 book, “This Kind of War: The Classic Korean War History,” by historian T.R. Fehrenbach on the importance of ground forces.
“Nobody can replace Roman legions,” he said. “If you want to win, you have to put people on the ground. That will not change. You have to have brigade combat teams, and they have to be incredibly well trained.”
Donahue stressed that the service must operate as a global Army and continually bolster interoperability with other branches and international allies.
Donahue said that strategic competitors reside in some of the most challenging Anti-Access/Area Denial or A2/AD region in the world. particularly in Belarus and St. Petersburg, Russia .
Nations will use defense systems and long-range weapons to deter or limit U.S. forces from entering or operating within a specific area or region. The strategy prevents an attacker from entering a contested region and operating freely and maximizing its power.
“That umbrella allows Russia to build a mass and momentum problem and enormous amount of capability,” he said. “You have these [Anti-Access/Area Denial] abilities that let them get underneath and deny you the ability to bring everything that you need to bear from a joint perspective . They have mass and momentum on you,” he said. “You have very limited space to maneuver. So how do you destroy that? How do you get to deterrence?”
Donahue said U.S. forces have laid the blueprint to achieve that capability and recently presented it to Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the U.S. Army European Command leader and industry partners.
Donahue said that they have the blueprint and technology but must now share data and build the capability.
“You have a coalition effort, which means you now have to have interoperability, you have to communicate, and you have to do it at a speed that we’ve never had to do,” he added.
To prepare for large scale, multi-domain ground combat, the Army has merged the 56th Artillery Command in Wiesbaden, Germany with the 2nd Multi-Domain Task Force to combine long range fires capabilities with multi-domain assets. The Army has tested its multi-domain capabilities with the units in exercises that included Arcane Thunder 25.
The service hosted Arcane Thunder in May at Mainz-Kastel and Fort Huachuca, Arizona. The Army recently completed exercises Immediate Response 25 and Defender 25. Immediate response is a large-scale exercise that focuses specifically on cyber defense and chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and high-yield explosives. With more than 12,000 participants from U.S. forces and eight partner nations, the exercise included a multi-national live fire, a cyber simulation and water crossing.
During Defender 25 more than 25,000 troops from the U.S., NATO and allies took part in the mass exercise, which tests Soldiers’ ability to rapidly deploy to Europe.
The efforts coincide with the service’s larger initiative, “Transformation in Contact” or TiC, where the service rapidly integrates new technology to its formations using cost effective methods. The effort encourages innovation and experimentation in its training.
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