US Army unveils "How the Army Fights" guidance prioritising drones, long-range strikes

Centre · 1The US Army has published new operational warfighting guidance called "How the Army Fights", designed to align its doctrine, training, force structure and technology investments with evolving battlefield threats. 1 Centre · 1Gen. Christopher LaNeve, the Army's vice chief of staff and acting chief of staff, outlined it at the Association of the United States Army's Eisenhower Luncheon on Tuesday; the document had been published the previous week. 1 Centre · 1Anadolu Agency reports that the document sets a common framework for the Army's role in joint operations, drawing on lessons from Russia's war in Ukraine and fighting in the Middle East. 1

Centre · 1LaNeve said the guidance is not a departure from Multi-Domain Operations but is meant to help every leader understand their role in it, and named four elements: convergence, strike, close battle and endurance. 1 Centre · 1LaNeve cited widespread unmanned aerial systems, persistent surveillance, increasingly precise long-range fires, and cyber and space capabilities as reasons the Army must change how it fights. 1 Centre · 1The Army plans to expand autonomous and unmanned systems across its formations, including new military occupational specialties for unmanned aerial systems and robotics, and LaNeve announced that Futures and Concepts Command was redesignated the US Army Futures and Autonomous Systems Command (FASCOM). 1

Centre · 1LaNeve also called on defence industry partners to help field effective technologies at scale, saying the Army "is not turning its back on modernization" but is "sprinting towards" it. 1 Right · 1In an interview and roundtable with Fox News Digital at the AUSA conference, LaNeve said that against a pacing threat "power projection will be contested", and that the Army is moving past assumptions formed during the Global War on Terror, when secure bases and supply lines at home could be taken for granted. 2 Right · 1Fox News reports that the framework emphasises deploying, communicating and sustaining forces when bases, supply lines and communications are under attack, and LaNeve described command and control able to "operate disconnected and then reconnect" while continuing to manoeuvre. 2

Right · 1Fox News linked the concern to China, citing the Pentagon's latest report that Beijing has positioned cyber capabilities inside US critical infrastructure networks, and noted confirmed drone incursions over Joint Base Langley-Eustis and Picatinny Arsenal that have not been publicly attributed to China. 2 Right · 1LaNeve pointed to Joint Interagency Task Force 401, which works with federal and local law enforcement on counter-drone defences around bases and critical infrastructure, and acting Army Secretary Adam Telle said soldiers on the southern border are testing counter-drone technology against real threats. 2 Right · 1Officials also announced that biological incidents will be added to routine combat training. 2

Right · 1Air Force Secretary Troy Meink told a separate panel that surveillance advances could within five years mean an enemy knows where forces are anywhere on the planet, and War Secretary Pete Hegseth criticised the Pentagon's pace on technology under the Biden administration, saying "On drones, they took a nap." 2 Right · 1The Army's leadership is acting after the departures of former Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George; LaNeve remains the Senate-confirmed vice chief of staff. LaNeve stressed that soldiers remain "our number one platform" and must be able to fight without technology. 2