Compensating the Army for Enhanced Military Competitiveness

The United States Army is embarking on a significant transformation, as it repositions itself to counter emerging threats and maintain its global dominance. This shift is part of the Competition in Cyberspace Project (C2P), a strategic initiative that involves a diverse range of organisations.

The Army has identified key partners for implementing its concepts of competition in the 21st century. These include NATO and its member nations, the AUKUS partnership, various defence and cybersecurity technology innovators, the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, and the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue. The emphasis is on multinational collaboration and interoperable military technologies.

The US Army War College has contributed to a series titled "Compete and Win: Envisioning a Competitive Strategy for the Twenty-First Century." This series aims to provide expert commentary on US competitive strategy and irregular warfare with peer and near-peer competitors.

The Army's focus on competition and limited warfare is a response to the current national guidance, which directs the military services to counter adversaries in the gray zone, negate their "win without fighting" tactics, and advance America's national interests using tactics short of armed conflict.

This shift in focus is not unprecedented. After the Korean War, the Army altered its doctrine and force structure to maintain relevance in the atomic era, and after the Vietnam War, it developed new doctrine to fight Soviet forces in Europe.

After twenty years of operations in Afghanistan, the chaotic American withdrawal highlighted America's difficulty in winning its recent wars. This has led to a renewed emphasis on preparing to fight a conventional war, despite the Army's historical trend of deploying for competition or limited warfare missions almost ten times more frequently than for large-scale combat operations.

The Army's modernization plan heavily invests in technology designed for lethal action. However, the new National Defense Strategy will revolve around a concept called integrated deterrence, which means the United States must integrate across all domains, theaters, and the spectrum of conflict with allies and partners and all instruments of national power.

The Army must dedicate a portion of its force to focus on competition and limited conflicts, rebalancing forces between its active and reserve components and between its combat and "competition" forces. The Army can adjust its career paths so that personnel frequently serve in organisations that compete daily, like security force assistance brigades or combatant command headquarters.

The Army's efforts are not limited to land-based operations. Army Cyber Command conducts information operations to gain and maintain dominance in cyberspace. The Irregular Warfare Annex to the National Defense Strategy states that irregular warfare is an integral part of US competition strategies.

The current administration's Interim National Security Strategic Guidance highlights various threats and gives clear guidance that the United States will reinvigorate its alliances and partnerships to contain these challenges. The Army must create a force that can win in competition and in limited forms of warfare, and shape conditions ahead of armed conflict.

However, it's important to note that the Army has incurred over one hundred thousand casualties and spent over $9 trillion during wars in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan, without achieving strategic success in any of them. General Mark Milley referred to the evacuation from Afghanistan as a "strategic failure."

Combining operational forces in a unified approach allows the Army to deny its enemies' continued success in the gray zone and expands the service's "landpower network" of allies and partners. The Army now finds itself in the early stages of another post-war rebalancing effort following the post-9/11 wars.

In conclusion, the US Army is undergoing a significant transformation, shifting its focus from large-scale combat operations to competition and limited warfare. This shift is in response to the evolving threat landscape and the need to counter adversaries in the gray zone. The Army's success in this new focus will be crucial in maintaining America's global dominance and advancing its national interests.