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And that task belongs to the infantry with their support elements like artillery, armor, logistics and more.
Army Expects Fierce, Close Combat In Next War Despite Advanced Tech
While the Army recovers from decades of fighting guerrilla forces in the Middle East, leaders are setting their eyes on the wars of tomorrow. And despite rapid advances in cyberweapons, drones and artificial intelligence, they're stressing the next war will still feature bloody, close quarters combat.
"All this technology is awesome, but it's going to come down to city fighting chucking grenades, and being able to do that over and over," Lt. Gen. Ted Martin told Military.com in an interview Thursday.
The U.S. has spent its last several campaigns mostly fighting enemies without much in the way of advanced technology. That wouldn't be true in a conflict with Russia or China, the two potential adversaries military planners continue to focus on in their preparations.
Martin, who commands the U.S. Army Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth, said the next war won't just be "about pushing buttons," and that U.S. forces on the ground are going to have to quickly close in and destroy enemy forces who will come to battle equipped with artillery and aircraft.
Speed and mobility will be critical to evading enemy munitions, and getting close to an enemy quickly makes it harder for them to drop bombs due to the risk of hitting their own troops, or other collateral damage. Long gone will be the days of Afghanistan warfare, which often had troops in shoddy forward operating bases standing their ground against Taliban fighters with radios and basic rifles shooting down from ridgelines.
"We aren't going to be doing the type of fighting we were doing in 2003, when we had air superiority and dominated, and cyber wasn't as big of a player," Martin said. "What we are looking at is what weapons [adversaries] are investing in, what their doctrine says ... our competitors' ability to operate freely ... use satellites ... gives them surveillance on us and potentially subjects [American troops] to precision fires from long range. We need to rapidly close in and destroy."Part of preparing for chaotic ground warfare was the Army's move to extend basic training for some of the key combat jobs. Last year, training for tankers and cavalry scouts were extended to 22 weeks, from 15 and 17 weeks, respectively. That move, Martin said, will hopefully have better prepared privates, mostly with more trigger time behind weapons, showing up to their units that may be deploying overseas soon, or are already on the battlefield and unable to bring new soldiers up to speed.
The Army has also completely revamped how it tests physical fitness, with the Army Combat Fitness Test, a more comprehensive test with measurements of strength of speed. However, data obtained by Military.com in May showed that women are struggling to pass the test, which is set to become official next year.
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Originally Posted by Peter1469
