Grinder
14 August 2003, 18:40
By Sgt. 1st Class Doug Sample
American Forces Press Service
ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 12, 2003 - The future posture of the
U.S. armed forces will have to change in order to secure
the country's global interests, said DoD's director of
force transformation here recently.
"You're going to position forces forward, or you're going
to do strategic deployments from home, or you're going to
rely on allies," retired Navy Vice Adm. Arthur K. Cebrowski
told the Joint National Training Capability Conference in
July. "In fact we seek a mix of those things, a balance
depending upon the interest, the location and the general
geopolitics."
He discussed the Joint National Training Capability planned
for implementation over the next decade. That capability
will change the way the military trains for war and focuses
on joint training operations among Army, Navy, Air Force,
Marines and even coalition forces.
Cebrowski said for many years the U.S. strategy has been to
deploy its forces from home. "And to a significant extent
it still does," he said.
However, he said, "this will have to change," and that U.S.
forces will have to operate differently to include
increasing relationships with allies. "We are going to have
to strengthen them, perhaps strengthening the relationships
in different ways," he said.
Cebrowski said the United States was "heavily weighted" in
favor of operational maneuvers from garrison forward.
"That's what we did in (Operation) Iraqi Freedom," he said.
"We had garrison in Kuwait. We enormously strengthened that
garrison and then we stepped off from that garrison against
objectives."
However, he said, operational maneuvers from garrison
forward are becoming increasingly vulnerable, both
militarily and politically. He said the military must look
at different ways of deploying to strategic operations.
"We'll have to go somewhere else, to operational maneuvers
from sea and that is going to require different
orientations of force. We're going to do operational
maneuvers from strategic distances, and that's going to be
a dramatically different pull on lift and how forces
operate, which means, therefore, how they train," he said.
Cebrowksi also said the posture change will mean the armed
forces will have take on more of a special operations role,
citing the high degree of mobility and the ease of
insertion those units have into theater.
"It's not necessarily that we need more special operations
forces, although a few more would be a very good idea," he
said. "But these are the kinds of characteristics that we
are going to need increasingly in the forces."
American Forces Press Service
ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 12, 2003 - The future posture of the
U.S. armed forces will have to change in order to secure
the country's global interests, said DoD's director of
force transformation here recently.
"You're going to position forces forward, or you're going
to do strategic deployments from home, or you're going to
rely on allies," retired Navy Vice Adm. Arthur K. Cebrowski
told the Joint National Training Capability Conference in
July. "In fact we seek a mix of those things, a balance
depending upon the interest, the location and the general
geopolitics."
He discussed the Joint National Training Capability planned
for implementation over the next decade. That capability
will change the way the military trains for war and focuses
on joint training operations among Army, Navy, Air Force,
Marines and even coalition forces.
Cebrowski said for many years the U.S. strategy has been to
deploy its forces from home. "And to a significant extent
it still does," he said.
However, he said, "this will have to change," and that U.S.
forces will have to operate differently to include
increasing relationships with allies. "We are going to have
to strengthen them, perhaps strengthening the relationships
in different ways," he said.
Cebrowski said the United States was "heavily weighted" in
favor of operational maneuvers from garrison forward.
"That's what we did in (Operation) Iraqi Freedom," he said.
"We had garrison in Kuwait. We enormously strengthened that
garrison and then we stepped off from that garrison against
objectives."
However, he said, operational maneuvers from garrison
forward are becoming increasingly vulnerable, both
militarily and politically. He said the military must look
at different ways of deploying to strategic operations.
"We'll have to go somewhere else, to operational maneuvers
from sea and that is going to require different
orientations of force. We're going to do operational
maneuvers from strategic distances, and that's going to be
a dramatically different pull on lift and how forces
operate, which means, therefore, how they train," he said.
Cebrowksi also said the posture change will mean the armed
forces will have take on more of a special operations role,
citing the high degree of mobility and the ease of
insertion those units have into theater.
"It's not necessarily that we need more special operations
forces, although a few more would be a very good idea," he
said. "But these are the kinds of characteristics that we
are going to need increasingly in the forces."