In the trenchesEnhancing Army capabilities as new threats emerge
Some twenty-eight nations have some type of weapons of mass destruction capability, with some of them having nuclear weapons or nuclear-weapons capability. The nuclear materials in many of these countries are kept in hundreds of sites without global safeguards in place for securing them. A senior American military official described these loose nukes as the “single biggest existential threat to Western survival.” Yet, in a recent exercise, the U.S. response time for deploying 90,000 troops to a crisis area – an area which included loose nukes, other WMDs, or both — took fifty-five days. U.S. military leaders say this is just not good enough.
The world is becoming an increasingly complex and dangerous place, requiring a more agile, lethal, and capable force, said U.S. Army leaders.
To illustrate, forward-deployed forces in Korea are adequate to respond to a crisis, but elsewhere, the Army needs to improve its response times, said Gen. Robert W. Cone, commander, Training and Doctrine Command.
He was referring to a worst-case scenario involving a simulated collapsed nuclear state with “loose nukes.” The U.S. response time for deploying 90,000 troops to the crisis area in a recent exercise took fifty-five days — a response time considered inadequate. That simulation was held in February at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, during the Unified Quest 13 Winter Wargame.
A U.S. Army release reports that Cone’s remarks were delivered during a media roundtable at the TRADOC-led Army Campaign of Learning Senior Leader Seminar, or SLS, last Tuesday, at the National Defense University on Fort McNair. More than 100 senior leaders attended the seminar, including Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno, as well as joint and multinational military leaders and civilian subject-matter experts.
The SLS provided an interactive forum on insights derived from the Network Integration Evaluation, Army Experimentation and Wargaming, and seminars held over the past year.
Discussions focused on how the Army can be regionally engaged and globally responsive in the years and decades ahead, despite the twin elephants in the room — decreased funding and manpower.
Speed, the right mix of capabilities and adequate numbers of boots on the ground are the critical factors in responding to national security threats globally, said Lt. Gen. Keith Walker, TRADOC’s deputy commander for Futures and director of the Army Capabilities Integration Center.
WMD threats
Some twenty-eight nations have some type of weapons of mass destruction capability, Walker noted, indicating that the problem is not just isolated to the Korean peninsula.
One of the SLS participants called loose nukes the “single biggest existential threat to Western survival.” Those nuclear materials are kept in hundreds of sites without global safeguards in place for securing them.
To promote candor and meaningful dialogue, SLS discussions were for non-attribution only, except for the media roundtable participants.
In the past, the United States has sometimes had the luxury of ample warnings and long lead times, said Cone, referring to the buildup of troops and supplies prior to Operations Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom.
The Winter Wargame, however, provided no such lead time in the simulation. The lesson was not lost on Army
