The Army's Combined Arms Center is in the throes of re-writing its capstone doctrine on how the service fights in the present, according to Lt. Gen. Michael Lundy, the center's commander.

And that newest field manual will likely debut at the Association of the US Army's annual show next year.

The CAC, at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, is the proponent for modernizing the force to conduct Unified Land Operations, Combined Arms Operations and Mission Command, which produces doctrine, organization, training, materiel, leadership, personnel, facilities and policy – known as the DOTMLPF-P.

Lundy took over the CAC in the summer after serving as the commander of the Army's Aviation Center of Excellence at Fort Rucker, Alabama.

Updating the manual on how the Army fights – known as Field Manual 3-0 – is a "significant effort," Lundy told Defense News in an interview just prior to the Association of the US Army's annual convention in Washington, DC.

The Army's capstone doctrine is made up of the field manual as well as the Army Doctrine Publication 3-0 Unified Land Operations.

And since the center is deep in the process and moving along well, Lundy said the goal is to release the new manual at next year's AUSA.

The Army last scrubbed the doctrine and released a new version in 2008 that guides training, leader development and operations.

The doctrine is important because it will shape how the force is organized and what equipment or capability will be needed.

Lundy said he'd recently gauged where the re-drafting of the manual is in the process and said he is "pretty confident on where we are going there."

The FM 3-0 of 2008 focused on "Full Spectrum Operations" which describes the Army having to not only focus on defeating enemies but, at the same time, shape the situation through operations that stabilize the area.

The Army’s Operating Concept – debuted two years ago at AUSA – will drive the new doctrine. The AOC states the Army’s job is to "prevent, shape and win" in a "complex operational environment."

Gen. David Perkins, the Army’s Training and Doctrine Command commander, said, in a recent statement on AUSA’s website, the doctrine and field manual is important in order to ensure the service is ready to deploy anywhere across the globe, engaging in a wide range of different types of military operations.

He noted one of the ideas the Army is exploring is "multi-domain battle" -- a major focus at AUSA last week -- "which recognized the inherently joint requirements of the interconnected air, land, maritime, space and cyber domains."

Lundy also said the CAC is looking deeply at how it trains and develops its leaders and how education drives readiness -- Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley’s top priority.

"We’ve got some work to do in our professional military education," he said. The Army has "to be very dynamic," so there are changes that need to be made in order to get the right balance in terms of how the service focuses on leadership, which includes a refocus on some technical and tactical skills that the service hasn’t had to perform recently or are new to the Army, Lundy added.

Jen Judson is an award-winning journalist covering land warfare for Defense News. She has also worked for Politico and Inside Defense. She holds a Master of Science degree in journalism from Boston University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Kenyon College.

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