Military Review English Edition March-April 2015 | Page 18
Army Operating Concept
First Principles for Technological Development
The Army works with joint partners, industry, allies, and other key stakeholders to develop future force
capabilities with the following technological first principles in mind.
●● Emphasize integration of technology with soldiers and teams
●● Simplify systems and integrate soldier training into design
●● Maximize reliability and reduce life cycle costs
●● Design redundant systems that improve effectiveness under conditions of uncertainty
●● Develop systems that degrade gracefully
●● Maintain foundational knowledge to reduce the opportunity for surprise
●● Reduce logistical demands
●● Anticipate enemy countermeasures
●● Ensure interoperability
●● Consider scale and organizational implications
Threats, Enemies, and Adversaries
Diverse enemies will employ traditional, unconventional, and hybrid strategies to threaten U.S. security and
vital interests.
—The U.S. Army Operating Concept23
It is clear that Army leaders and units must be
prepared to fight and win against state and nonstate
actors. Due to what some have called the democratization of destructive power, nonstate actors, such
as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and
Hezbollah possess capabilities previously associated only with the fielded forces of nation-states. For
example, nonstate organizations have unprecedented financial resources and access to sophisticated
weapons. Moreover, nation-states such as Russia and
Iran employ unconventional proxy forces, often in
combination with their own special operations or
conventional forces. As the historian Conrad Crane
has observed, there are two ways to fight the U.S.
military—asymmetrically and stupid.24 Future enemies will not be passive; they will make every effort
to avoid U.S. strengths, emulate advanced U.S. capabilities, and disrupt U.S. advantages. They will expand operations to other battlegrounds such as those
of perception, political subversion, and criminality.
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The AOC acknowledges the continuous interaction with enemies in war and the interaction with
adversaries between wars. That interaction requires
the Army to be a learning organization. When
engaged with determined enemies, Army leaders
“think ahead in time to gain and maintain positions
of relative advantage over the enemy.” To defeat
elusive and capable enemies, Army forces develop
situational understanding through action in close
contact with the enemy and civilian populations.
In contrast to “rapid decisive operations,” Army
forces are capable of sustaining high-tempo operations while consolidating gains to seize, retain, and
exploit the initiative and achieve “lasting outcomes
in the shortest time span.”25 Future Army forces
extend the “concept of combined arms from two or
more arms or elements of one service to include the
application of joint, interorganizational, and multinational capabilities in the conduct of joint combined arms operations.”26
Technology
The U.S. Army’s differential advantage over enemies
derives, in part, from the integration of advanced technologies with skilled soldiers and well-trained teams.
—The U.S. Army Operating Concept27
March-April 2015 MILITARY REVIEW