In 2018, the Army established the new Army Futures Command, a huge undertaking that has been described as the biggest reorganization in nearly half a century for the service. In this episode of the MWI Podcast, listeners will hear from two people who have played prominent roles within Futures Command as it has undertaken its mission of providing the Army and its soldiers “with the concepts, capabilities, and organizational structures they need to dominate a future battlefield.”
Maj. Gen. John George served as the deputy director of the Futures and Concepts Center and is now the commanding general of the Combat Capabilities Development Command. Mr. Jay Harrison served as Futures Command’s first command innovation officer.
As these roles suggest, they are the perfect guests for a discussion about innovation and the future. As you’ll hear, the way in which the Army is preparing for the future goes well beyond things like robotics, artificial intelligence, and the high-tech gadgetry we often think of when we talk about the future battlefield. It’s also about new ways of organizing, new doctrine, new personnel policies, and more. This episode offers a tremendous picture of just how the Army is preparing to fight and win on the battlefield of the future.
You can listen to the full conversation below, and if you aren’t already subscribed to the MWI Podcast, be sure to find it on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, TuneIn, or your favorite podcast app.
Note: this episode was originally recorded and released in 2019.
Image credit: Mr. Luke J. Allen, US Army
Any discussions of the US Army issues that make the news such as Racism, sexism, bullying, espionage, office politics, harassment, managerial incompetence, low morale, stalled programs, ego and ID, not enough people, mistreatment and disrespect, no to low communications, overwork, division and ridicule?
See, when you have an organization that suffers from systemic problems that make the news annually, then you know that there is a systemic problem that goes beyond the West Point Officer Corps as evident in the US Capital attacks and moving the National Guard troops sleeping in the Capital lobby to the parking garage, not to mention the fear of COVID acting as a Superspreader event for the 25,000 National Guard troops participating.
The federal government made the mistake of not vaccinating 25,000 GIs at once in ONE CITY and instead sent many of them home…that is a Division and two Brigades worth of soldiers assembled at once! Imagine the luck in having all those arms at one spot! What a missed opportunity!
The Media is quick to pick up on these juicy tidbits.
So US Army Futures Command need to think beyond the shiny flashy vehicles in the top photo here and plan more for the health and mental well-being, hygiene, room and board, mobile kitchen, showers, and laundry trailers, leadership and logistics.
This was embarrassing at the missed chance because the Lawmakers assumed that the US Army knew what they were doing when in fact the National Guard lacked the logistics and support of the Big Army's Divisional units. Of course, the more vehicles involved at the Inauguration, the more of a Security Risk, but nonetheless, planning should have been better….could use tent kitchens where everything is exposed for Security Purposes and have Guard Dogs sit inside the tents. After the Inauguration, have Mass Inoculating of 25,000 soldiers. The US Army wasn't ready and lacked the vision to see beyond guns and bullets and saw things more in terms of dollars and cents.
No, this doesn't mean that the National Guard didn't work well, and that Washington DC wasn't secure, just that more Leadership was required beyond the Security measures during the transition. The Guard did a marvelous job in the short time asked of them.
The US Army's Future Command should have been involved…but it was State National Guard and State lacked a lot of the Divisional amenities…States just sent National Guard soldiers to one location via plane with no sleeping arrangements, hygiene, vaccines, masks, etc. It's not Secret Service's job to take care of soldiers so someone in the Army kind of dropped the ball or didn't pick it up or wasn't assigned the ball to begin with.
That….is….Army….Futures….Command….commanding the future (and the news already reported on what happened with National Guard Command and Control).