The Army #Operating Concept’s Global Landpower Network
The Army #Operating Concept’s Global Landpower Network by Ray Kimball, The Bridge
There’s a lot to like in the new U.S. Army Operating Concept (AOC): Win in a Complex World. Any government document with 65 endnotes and a Thucydides call-out in its first three pages can’t be all bad. The AOC is appropriately wide-ranging, covering the full range of Army missions. This piece will focus narrowly on an AOC concept that is mentioned, but not significantly fleshed out: the global landpower network.
The idea of a global landpower network (which I’ll abbreviate to GLN because everyone loves a good acronym) revolves around a central aim: Create and sustain relationships with allies and partners that will build confidence, deter conflict, and if necessary, provide forces for a combined campaign. It calls on conventional and special operations forces alike to build these relationships through theater security cooperation activities, presumably ranging from individual schooling all the way to combined maneuver exercises. The idea reflects the significant success of the State Partnership Program, a post-Cold War initiative that joined National Guard forces with post-Soviet militaries to build up their capacity. It also echoes similar service initiatives like the U.S. Navy’s “Thousand Ship Navy”, which unfortunately seems to have been overcome by events…
