Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, April 5, 2017, before the House Armed Services Committee hearing: 'Damage to the Military from a Continuing Resolution.'

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, April 5, 2017, before the House Armed Services Committee hearing: 'Damage to the Military from a Continuing Resolution.' AP / Jose Luis Magana

US Army Chief Announces Major Reorganization For How Army Develops, Buys Weapons

Gen. Milley says Army 'must regain our overmatch and competitive advantage against emerging threats.'

The U.S. Army is about to launch a reorganization to streamline and centralize the buying, building, replacing and testing of weapons and equipment, according to a letter released Friday to general officers by Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley. A more formal announcement of the effort is expected during the Association of the United States Army conference in Washington, D.C. next week.

“Today, our Army is not institutionally organized to deliver modem critical capabilities to Soldiers and combat formations quickly. Our current modernization system is an Industrial Age model,” reads the letter. “Our recent focus on fighting wars of insurgency and terrorism allowed our adversaries to make improvements on their modernization efforts and erode our advantages enjoyed since World War II.”

Take that to mean: 20 years of shooting up the desert has allowed China and Russia a lot of breathing room to arm up against the United States. The U.S. Army is playing catch-up.

In response, the letter announces that the Army is going to put much more buying, prototyping, testing, and wargaming under one roof — what the letter describes as “Unity of command and unity of effort.”

Today, buying, testing, and researching is spread across a variety of Army outfits, including Training and Doctrine Command, the Army Capabilities Integration Center, and the Army Deputy Chief Staff G-8.

The Army has not yet named a leader for the new effort.

Centralization could help the Army streamline the way it communicates with industry, academia, and partner militaries by giving them one point of contact. The new effort won’t add “additional force structure” according to the letter, so the Army won’t be getting any bigger.

It also outlines six “modernization priorities,” all technologies that the Army has said it wants to build but now wants to kick into high gear. Many have faced delays and setbacks. They are:

*Long-Range Precision Fires: missiles that can fire 400 kilometers, to replace ATACMS.

*Next-Generation Combat Vehicles. The Army is looking for a heavily armed, super-mobile, optionally unmanned vehicle.

*Helicopters and vertical lift aircraft of various sizes and shapes. These, too, shall be “manned, unmanned, and optionally-manned” as well as survivable.

*A communication network that works amid heavy jamming and electronic warfare.

*Better defenses against missiles and drones.

*Better soldier-worn sensors, body armor, and “load-bearing exoskeletons,” as well as other tech for dismounted soldiers, under the category of ‘soldier lethality.”

Playing Catch-Up

Centralizing a bunch of activities that several outfits now do will likely ignite some controversy. For some, the change will represent a loss of turf.

But critics in Congress and in prominent Washington think tanks have been calling out Army leaders for declines in research and development funding and recent program failures. Those trends, coupled with uncertainty about future budgets, have “left the Army in a precarious position,” wrote Andrew Hunter, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic International Studies, in May’s “Army Modernization Imperative” report.

Current funding to design and field new equipment is $7 billion below its historical average. “At the moment, the Army does not have any significant new platforms in the development pipeline. Additionally, notable failed acquisition programs such as the Future Combat System have hollowed out the Army’s System Development and Demonstration [Research and Development] accounts over the past six years,” Hunter wrote.

Some of those program failures include the Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter, the Ground Combat Vehicle, the Crusader gun, and the futuristic-looking but aborted (but Comanche helicopter.

The announcement comes amid Russian efforts to modernize its military, particularly in electronic warfare, efforts of which the Army is well aware though its 2016 Russia Land Warfare study, led by Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, now the national security advisor.

“In a potential future conflict with Russia, the Army will not necessarily be able to rely on the joint force to provide certain capabilities that the Army is dependent on,” Hunter wrote.

He describes Russian battle concepts for defending its territory as “sophisticated, layered, redundant, multi-domain network that hinders the U.S. ability to project power in Europe and presents challenges to certain fundamental assumptions about the Army and its role in the joint force.”

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.