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The US Army is preparing for major changes to force structure
By: Jen Judson
Update: This story has been updated to reflect Lt. Gen. Eric Wesley's correct title.
WASHINGTON — The Army is preparing to make what it deems as necessary, and major, organizational changes to its force structure within the next five years, according to the Futures and Concepts Center director.
“There is going to be a fundamental change in the organizational structure to fight the way we are describing,” Lt. Gen. Eric Wesley told an audience at the Center for a New American Security in Washington on March 4.
“The Army has relied on counterinsurgency operations over the past 15 years that depended greatly on the Brigade Combat Team. But now, with a new focus on large-scale ground combat operations anticipated in the future operating environment, “that will require echelons above brigade, all of which will solve unique and distinct problems that a given BCT can't solve by itself,” Wesley said.
A new organizational structure is necessary, according to Wesley, to align better with the service's new warfighting doctrine under development — Multidomain Operations or MDO.
The Army rolled out the first iteration of its new doctrine over a year ago and debuted a revised version — MDO 1.5 — shortly after the Association of the U.S. Army's annual convention in Washington last fall.
The new doctrine addresses how the service plans to operate in the future against adversaries that have learned to engage in provocative behavior in a gray zone that doesn't quite classify as conflict, and who have gone to school on U.S. capabilities, developing equipment and operating concepts that threaten the U.S.'s long-standing capability overmatch.
The Army is now focused on ensuring that its capabilities match its new doctrine, standing up a new four-star command in Austin, Texas — Army Futures Command — to accomplish such a goal and syncing its other major commands together to focus on six top modernization priorities.
Wesley noted that the organizational realignment needed would “probably be even a bigger problem than the materiel requirements" to create a force designed for multidomain operations.
“You will see us seek to build out echelons above brigade — the Division, the Corps, even potentially a field Army — to get into theater that can manage these theater problems that otherwise wouldn't be achieved,” he added.
The Army will likely have to make trades across the active and reserve forces, Wesley said, “so we have the ability to have a force posture that can rapidly transition if necessary.”
But with all of these other dramatic changes, it's inevitable that the force structure change with it, according to Wesley, and that is going to have to happen sooner rather than later, he stressed.
The Army has to “dive in” and start putting plans in place in the next five-year budgeting cycle “because if you want to achieve what the secretary and the chief has said, to be an MDO capable force by 2028, you have to start doing some of these organizational changes early,” Wesley told a group of reporters following the event at CNAS.
And organizational changes need to align with the service's plans to field first units with newly modernized equipment and in some cases, units are slated to receive this equipment in very short order, according to Wesley.
“You need some place for that stuff to land,” he said. “When you talk about long-range precision fires, for example, having an appropriate theater fires command. When you talk about air-and-missile defense and first unit equipped, what kind of force structure do we have to enable that? And it can't just be at the brigade level ... It has to transcend echelons.”
Wesley said while he couldn't discuss specifics yet, he believed evidence of major organizational changes will likely be seen toward the end of the next five-year budget period.
The three-star also said he believed the Army would need to increase the level of units stationed abroad.
“The National Defense Strategy talks about the contact and blunt forces,” Wesley said. “Contact are those that are in theater all the time — either rotational or permanent — and blunt [forces] are those that can rapidly move into theater as necessary.”
Getting the right mix between contact and blunt forces will be necessary, Wesley said.
"You have to have contact forces. What we are working on is how to optimize what that balance is. You have to have headquarters and fires commands and that can be a deterrent effect immediately.”
Over the next few years, the Army plans to war-game the right mix, but “regardless, I think you are going to find that at some point there will have to be a debate on the degree to which we have forward presence, potentially increased, in the future,” Wesley said.
https://www.defensenews.com/land/2019/03/06/major-army-force-structure-changes-afoot/
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Contract Awards by US Department of Defense – October 08, 2020
Navy Gulf Warehousing Co., Doha, Qatar (N68171-21-D-0016); Marine Agency Co. Ltd, Pusan, Republic of Korea (N68171-21-D-0019); and Seaway Agencies Pty Ltd, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia (N68171-21-D-0030), are awarded an estimated $1,061,000,000 under the previously awarded request for proposals (N68171-20-R-0001) multiple award of firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contracts to provide husbanding, management and integration services consisting of general charter and hire, utilities, force protection, communications and land transportation services to support maritime forces of the Department of Defense, other U.S. government agencies and nations, including Navy ships, Marine Corps, Military Sealift Command (MSC), Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, NATO and other foreign vessels participating in U.S. military or NATO exercises and missions. The contracts will run concurrently and will include a five-year base ordering period with one five-year option, with individual requirements performed under task orders when specific dates and locations are identified. If the option period is exercised, the total estimated value of the contracts combined will have a ceiling value of $2,122,000,000. The ordering period of the contract is expected to be completed by October 2025; if all options are exercised, the ordering period will be completed by October 2030. Work will be performed in 30 geographic regions: United Arab Emirates (14%); Philippines (10%); Djibouti (7%); eastern U.S. and U.S. territories (6%); Southeastern Asia 2 (5%); Indian Ocean (5%); Republic of Korea (5%); South America (5%); Singapore (4%); western California (4%); Southeastern Asia 1 (3%); Bahrain (3%); Oman (3%); Oceania (2%); China and Russia (2%); United Kingdom/Western Europe (North Sea) (2%); Italy (2%); Eastern Europe/Black Sea (2%); Western Europe (Mediterranean) (2%); Northern Atlantic (2%); Panama (2%); North America (2%); Japan (1%); Greece (1%); Africa (1%); Middle East (1%); Central America (1%); Caribbean and Bermuda (1%); eastern U.S. territories (1%); and western U.S. territories (1%). Due to the fact that the specific requirements for husbanding support cannot be predicted at this time, more specific information about where the work will be performed cannot be currently provided. Fiscal 2021 operations and maintenance (Navy) funds in the amount of $9,000 will be obligated ($3,000 on each of the three contracts to fund the contracts' minimum amounts), and funds will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Additional funds will be obligated at the task order level with the appropriate fiscal year funding as issued by the main type commanders for each area of responsibility. Typical funding issued by each of the customers include operations and maintenance (Navy) funds from U.S. Fleet Forces Command; and working capital funds (Navy) from MSC. The requirement was competitively procured for the award of multiple contracts with the solicitation posted on beta.SAM.gov; Navy Electronic Commerce Online (NECO); and Euro NECO with 36 offers received. The Naval Supply Systems Command, Fleet Logistics Center, Sigonella, Naples Detachment, Italy, is the contracting activity. (Southeastern Asia 1 is aligned to the Pacific Islands [Palau, Fiji, French Polynesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, New Caledonia-France, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Western Samoa]. Southeastern Asia 2 is aligned to Southeastern Asian mainland countries [Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam]. Arete Associates, Northridge, California, is awarded a $17,976,258 firm-fixed-price modification to exercise Option Three of previously awarded contract N61331-18-D-0012 to provide Coastal Battlefield Reconnaissance and Analysis Block I systems. This option is for additional Coastal Battlefield Reconnaissance and Analysis (COBRA) Block 1 production systems. Work will be performed in Tucson, Arizona (35%); Destin, Florida (35%); and Santa Rosa, California (30%), and is expected to be completed by September 2021. No funding will be obligated at time of award and will be obligated at the time a delivery order is issued. The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Panama City Division, Panama City, Florida, is the contracting activity. McKean Defense Group LLC, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is awarded a $12,228,590 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract with cost-plus-fixed-fee and cost-no-fee pricing to provide engineering support for Consolidated Afloat Networks and Enterprise Services to include technical and programmatic services for networking, communications and computer systems and associated certification and information assurance for new developments, current operations and planned upgrades. This one-year contract includes four one-year option periods which, if exercised, would bring the overall potential value of this contract to an estimated $69,793,839. Work will be performed in the continental U.S.: San Diego, California (76%); Norfolk, Virginia (4%); Hawaii (4%); Washington, D.C. (3%); Charleston, South Carolina (3%); and outside continental U.S.: Japan (4%); Guam (2%); Bahrain (2%); and Italy (2%). The period of performance of the base award is from Oct. 8, 2020, through Oct. 7, 2021. If all options are exercised, the period of performance would extend through Oct.7, 2025. No funds will be obligated at the time of award. Fiscal 2021 funds will be obligated as task orders are issued using other procurement (Navy); operations and maintenance (Navy); research, development, test and evaluation (Navy); shipbuilding construction (Navy); and other funding, which may include Foreign Military Sales; Program Directive Air; and Navy working capital fund. This contract was competitively procured via Request for Proposal N66001-19-R-0036, which was published on the beta.SAM.gov website. Two offers were received and one selected for award. The Naval Information Warfare Center, Pacific, San Diego, California, is the contracting activity (N66001-21-D-0008). ARMY Ibis Tek Inc.,* Butler, Pennsylvania, was awarded a $229,062,184 firm-fixed-price contract for the Family of Heavy Tactical Vehicles protection kit. Bids were solicited via the internet with four received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of April 7, 2027. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Detroit Arsenal, Michigan, is the contracting activity (W56HZV-21-D-0095). DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY Dairy Brands Fluid LLC,* doing business as Pet Dairy, Charlotte, North Carolina, has been awarded a maximum $22,800,000 fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for fresh milk and dairy. This was a competitive acquisition with one response received. This is a three-year contract with no option periods. Locations of performance are North Carolina and South Carolina, with an Oct. 7, 2023, ordering period end date. Using customers are Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2021 through 2024 defense working capital funds. The contracting agency is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SPE300-21-D-V381). Aeronix Inc.,* Melbourne, Florida, has been awarded a maximum $8,516,838 fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for data interface units. This was a sole-source acquisition using justification 10 U.S. Code 2304 (c)(1), as stated in Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1. This is a two-year base contract with three one-year option periods. Location of performance is Florida, with an Oct. 7, 2022, ordering period end date. Using military service is Air Force. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2021 through 2023 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SPE8ES-21-D-0005). * Small business https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contracts/Contract/Article/2377069/source/GovDelivery/