Secretary of the Army Francis J. Harvey, who submitted his resignation on March 2 after the Washington Post reported on the poor conditions and long delays wounded soldiers were facing at Walter Reed, spoke in Ft. Lauderdale this afternoon on day two of the AUSA Winter Symposium. Upon being introduced as secretary of the Army, Harvey let out a self-deprecating “not for long.” The audience gave the outgoing secretary a warm reception, but Harvey looked like a broken man. He spoke for 20 minutes about the challenges the Army faces, and its successes, though his comments were largely confined to a verbatim reading of his powerpoint slides. Harvey made no mention of Walter Reed, but he did declare that “the Army must remain the preeminent land power on earth because we are the preeminent land power on earth”–whatever that means. The secretary also emphasized the need to continue investment in the Army’s Future Combat System (FCS). FCS is the centerpiece of the Army’s technology transformation, and Claude Bolton, assistant secretary of the Army for acquisitions, logistics, and technology, made news when he announced today at the Symposium that the system’s network would be deployed by 2012, two years ahead of schedule. One of the day’s most anticipated speeches was delivered this morning by TRADOC (Training and Doctrine Command) commanding officer General William S. Wallace. Wallace is a straight-shooter, and right off the bat he used blunt language to describe the IT revolution’s affect on the warfighter. Soliders “have access to a lot of data,” Wallace said, and they “also have a lot of crap . . . it’s hard to get through all that crap.” Wallace described America’s enemies as having a “better information operations capability” than the United States. Further, Wallace said terrorists benefit from the “sanctuary of cyberspace” where they can share tactics, techniques, and procedures without interference from law enforcement or the military. On the subject of force levels, Wallace said that for too long the Army had “traded technology for force structure,” but that the trend was finally “starting to reverse” itself. The Army, he said, had met its recruitment goals for 19 consecutive months and is currently running about 2,000 men ahead for the year. Total enlistment would certainly exceed 80,000 for the year, and may well reach 84,000. Despite that success, Wallace said that 73 percent of American kids are either “morally, physically, or intellectually not eligible for service.” Wallace also admitted that the Army has an image problem, with kids identifying the service as “ordinary” in comparison to the “elite and dangerous” Marine Corps or the “elite and safe” Navy. In order to remedy that, Wallace suggested that the Army’s advertising will increasingly move online. He said the Army’s goal was to convince American kids that “being in the Army is like getting a PhD in strength.” As far as combat readiness, Wallace said that the Army had increased 10-fold the amount of ammunition fired by soldiers in basic training and was placing greater emphasis on hand-to-hand combat since most enlistees “have never been in a fist-fight” before. Said Wallace, “They love it.” The Army is also making sure that every soldier is given the opportunity to practice live-fire urban operations and convoy protection before heading to Iraq. Wallace also said that he believes junior officers serving in Iraq “have embraced COIN doctrine” and understand that “it’s all about security.” In two to three months, Wallace expects the Army to publish another new field manual, this one on full spectrum information operations. Wallace also announced that the Army’s Land Warrior system will be deployed to Iraq this summer with a brigade of Strykers, despite the fact that the Army apparently killed the program last month. I’ve heard some speculation that the deployment may be a way of battle-testing the system for possible export, even if the U.S. Army never sees any return on their half-billion dollar investment in Land Warrior. Wallace gave a press conference this afternoon where he insisted that, at the very least, the deployment of one battalion of Strykers with the Land Warrior system would help the Army determine “what works and what doesn’t.” Finally, Wallace had one more idea he wanted to label as “crap”–that their should be two armies, “one focused on stability” operations and the other “focused on combat.” On the technology front, not a whole lot more to report, but here are those pictures of the Lockheed Martin JLTV–which are exclusive to THE WORLDWIDE STANDARD.
The vehicle was unveiled with some fanfare today, but I was disappointed to learn that what looks like steel armor is, in fact, what one engineer called “mixed-media,” aka plastic. Also, there is no engine or drive train, so as good as the vehicle looks, it remains little more than a military concept car. Still, I was told that the vehicle’s appearance would change little by the time Lockheed delivers a working model for testing in September. One modification that would be made, as per the request of Iraq veterans, is the addition of operable windows in the rear that would allow soldiers to fire from inside the cab should the vehicle turn over from an IED blast, rendering the turret inoperable.
Lockheed also unveiled the K-MAX Manned-Unmanned Multi-Mission Helicopter. Like the name says, the chopper can fly with a pilot or without–the only UAV with such a capability. In addition, K-MAX bosts a payload capacity of 6,000 pounds at sea level and 5,000 pounds at 9,500 feet–far beyond the capabilities of any UAV I’m aware of. What does that mean? The K-MAX team said they’d demonstrated the chopper’s ability to transport prisoners over dangerous terrain–in a cage hanging 100 feet below the airframe. They didn’t talk much about the offensive potential of a high-altitude UAV with so much payload capacity, but I couldn’t shake the thought of 100 of these things flying into Iran at 10,000 feet with bunker-busters strapped on them–that’s the pitch I would have made anyway. Not to say that the idea of caging a few terrorists and dangling them 1,500 feet over Ramadi isn’t appealing. General Bryan D. Brown, commander of special operations command, will be speaking tonight. I hope to have more on that later.
