AUSA Global Force Next: Understanding the Army’s future for planning, weapons and platforms

WASHINGTON ― The U.S. Army is in the midst of a massive transformation, from strategy to platforms to weapons — all amid the prospect of a flat budget.

The Association of the United States Army held a virtual summit March 16-18, during which service leaders and industry officials discussed emerging technologies and requirements for the future battlefield.

Defense News and Army Times attended the Global Force Next sessions. Catch up on our best stories from the event below or at https://www.defensenews.com/digital-show-dailies/global-force-symposium.

Planning

US Army chief says end strength will stay flat in upcoming budgets

The U.S. Army chief of staff has said that if the budget top line in future years either stays the same or decreases, he doesn’t see the service’s end strength dropping, but he also doesn’t see it growing.

“When it comes to what chiefs have to grapple with in a budget, it’s end strength and structure, it’s readiness, and it’s modernization. Those are the three kind of big resource buckets we have,” Gen. James McConville said at the Association of the U.S. Army’s Global Force Next symposium, held virtually March 16.

“On the end strength and structure, I don’t see us growing at the rate I would like to grow in the end strength. In fact, we are probably going to flatten out end strength where we are right now,” he added.

The troop count is about 486,000 in the active force and a little more than a million in the total force, which McConville noted is the same size force the Army had on 9/11.

“We don’t want to make it any smaller,” he said. “I would like to make it bigger, but what we have to do is prioritize, and I’ve got to make sure the Army is ready to fight today.” Click here to read more.

New strategy sets up Army to operate in increasingly relevant Arctic

The Army released a new strategy on how to operate in the Arctic, one that would set up headquarters and units capable of working across all domains and establish a stronger foothold in the region.

The goal is for the strategy to serve as a way to preserve national interests, project power globally and defend the homeland.

The strategy was posted to the Army’s website March 16 directly after the Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville wrapped up his keynote speech at the Association of the U.S. Army’s Global Force Next virtual conference. Click here to read more.

New US Army doctrine coming summer 2022

The Army is expected to release its new doctrine, one that describes how the service will operate in the future across air, land, sea, space and cyberspace, in summer 2022, Lt. Gen. D. Scott McKean, the director of the Army Futures and Concepts Center under Army Futures Command, told Defense News in a March 15 virtual event.

The doctrine cements the Army’s developing warfighting concept it has coined Multidomain Operations — or MDO — that addresses the Army’s role in potential conflict with near-peer adversaries in a time of great power competition — namely with China and Russia.

That means the field manual, which currently addresses unified land operations, will transform into a field manual addressing operations across all domains for the first time in the Army’s history. Click here to read more.

Massive, Army-led NATO exercise Defender Europe kicks off

One of the largest U.S.-Army led military exercises in decades has kicked off and will run until June, with 28,000 total troops from 27 nations taking part. Defender Europe 2021 will include “nearly simultaneous operations across more than 30 training areas” in a dozen countries.

The exercise is the deployment of a division-size force from the United States to Europe, pulling equipment from Army prepositioned stocks, then moving personnel and equipment across the theater to multiple training areas.

Last year’s exercise was planned to be the largest NATO exercise in Europe in 25 years but had to be scaled back due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Even so, U.S. and allied forces managed to conduct some of the planned drills and joint exercises.

This year’s wider-ranging exercise will include COVID restrictions and monitoring but will span the Balkans and the Black Sea region and use key ground and maritime routes that bridge Europe, Asia and Africa, according to a U.S. Army Europe and Africa statement. Click here to read more.

Commentary: This could be Army Futures Command’s moment of truth

The top U.S. military officer in the Pacific, Adm. Phil Davidson, warned last week that China could undertake a military attack against Taiwan within the next six years. To convince Beijing that it cannot achieve its political objectives in Taiwan or elsewhere with military force, the Pentagon is sprinting to transform ongoing research and development programs into fielded combat capabilities as quickly as possible.

If the U.S. Army is going to do that successfully, Army Futures Command must overcome persistent challenges that have plagued several of the service’s high-profile acquisition programs in the past. Click here to read more.

Platforms

General details next step for US Army’s future attack recon helicopter

The U.S. Army’s Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft program is heading into a major requirements review next month, during which service leaders will determine if industry designs are ready for a fly-off at the end of 2022, according to Maj. Gen. Wally Rugen, who is in charge of the Army’s future vertical lift development.

The FARA program is to fill a critical capability gap currently covered by AH-64E Apache attack helicopters teamed with Shadow drones following the retirement of the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior helicopters. The service has tried and failed three times to fill the gap with an aircraft. Click here to read more.

US Army prepping robotic combat vehicles for big test with soldiers in 2022

The U.S. Army has taken receipt of its light and medium Robotic Combat Vehicle (RCV) prototypes from industry teams and is putting them through the paces this year ahead of a major company-level soldier assessment in 2022.

The service took delivery of the first of four RCV-Light vehicles from a QinetiQ North America and Pratt Miller team — which won the contract to produce the prototypes a year ago — in November 2020 with the other three arriving before the Christmas holiday, Alfred Grein, acting director and deputy executive director of Ground Combat Systems at the Army Combat Capabilities Development Command, said at the Association of the U.S. Army’s Global Force Next virtual symposium on March 16.

The RCV-L is a diesel-electric hybrid with a gross vehicle weight of no more than 8,500 pounds and a maximum payload of no more than 7,000 pounds, boasting a top speed of about 40 miles per hour, according to Grein. Click here to read more.

US Army’s unmanned aircraft rodeo firms up requirements for Shadow replacement

The U.S. Army is putting the finishing touches on its requirements for a replacement for its Shadow unmanned aircraft system as it conducts a week-long rodeo with four tactical UAS that offer far greater capability than the decades old, runway-dependent, noisy and logistically burdensome system used today.

The Future Tactical Unmanned Aircraft Systems (FTUAS) rodeo, which began March 1 at Fort Benning, Georgia and is expected to end March 5, is part of a long-running evaluation of future capabilities. Click here to read more.

US Army’s newest tracked vehicle will undergo initial operational test in early 2022

The Army has scheduled the initial operational test for its newest tracked vehicle to begin the second quarter of fiscal 2022, a spokesperson for the program office leading the effort told Defense News.

The BAE Systems-manufactured Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle (AMPV) has already begun production qualification testing and has continued live fire testing ahead of the operational evaluation. Click here to read more.

Army’s Infantry Squad Vehicle undergoes tests at Arizona’s Yuma Proving Ground

A new vehicle that the U.S. Army is acquiring to provide infantry soldiers with battlefield mobility is being tested in the Yuma Proving Ground’s harsh desert terrain in southwestern Arizona.

Largely based on a midsize Chevrolet pickup, the Infantry Squad Vehicle is intended to carry an infantry squad’s nine soldiers and their equipment, the Yuma Sun reported.

Testing began in early February with a goal of finishing by April, said Isaac Rodriguez, team leader for the proving ground’s combat automotive division.

“Before the soldier ever touches the vehicle, we want to make sure that it is safe for them to use,” Rodriguez told the Yuma Sun. Click here to read more.

Weapons

US Army nears choosing first battalion for extended-range cannon

The U.S. Army is preparing to select an existing field artillery battalion to receive the first Extended Range Cannon Artillery system, according to Brig. Gen. John Rafferty, who is in charge of the service’s long-range precision fires modernization efforts.

Fielding will take place in 2023, but the Army will have to announce the unit with enough time to carry out a yearlong operational assessment, he said at the Association of the U.S. Army’s Global Force Next virtual event on March 16. The assessment will be critical for working through “the operational concept for how we fight with general support artillery fires and a division,” he said.

At the same time, the Army is synchronizing the delivery of ammunition to include propellant and course-correcting fuses for the operational assessment, he added. Click here to read more.

Strategic Long-Range Cannon effort on hold ahead of report

While some work on the Strategic Long-Range Cannon science and technology effort is ongoing, the Army is primarily waiting for the National Academy of Sciences to issue a report on the cannon’s technical feasibility, Brig. Gen. John Rafferty, who is in charge of the service’s long-range precision fires development, told Defense News.

Long-Range Precision Fires (LRPF) is the top priority for the Army when it comes to developing a modernized force capable of facing off against near-peer adversaries such as China and Russia. The Strategic Long-Range Cannon could provide a means of achieving 1,000 nautical mile artillery ranges.

The long-range cannon remains a top S&T priority for the Army, Rafferty said in a recent interview, but the service has yet to make a decision on whether it should become a program of record and turned into a battlefield capability.

“It’s a big bet to see what is possible in those ranges that have an integrated cannon system and a way to shoot things that might be far less expensive,” Rafferty said. Click here to read more.

US Army’s extended-range guided rocket sees successful 80-kilometer test shot

The U.S. Army’s new extended-range version of its Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System had a successful 80-kilometer flight demonstration at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, on March 4, according to a Lockheed Martin announcement.

Lockheed Martin is the manufacturer for the GMLRS munition and has worked with the Army to double the rocket’s reach through extended-range capability development.

The first flight test for the extended-range GMLRS took place in November 2020, but the round “experienced an anomaly after launch,” Lockheed told Defense News in a March 5 statement. The company conducted a thorough investigation and determined the cause was “a technical issue with a fin.”

Lockheed incorporated “minor enhancements to mitigate recurrence,” and the successful flight test on March 4 showed those enhancements solved the issue, the company said. Click here to read more.