The formal decisions, documents, and events that established service roles and functions for the United States military in the early post–World War II years are now over 70 years old (see Box 2.1). Although the foundational documents and agreements have been modified somewhat through legislation—primarily the Goldwater-Nichols Department of Defense Reorganization Act of 1986 (see Box 3.1)—organizational changes, and joint service agreements, the original division of labor among the ...Read more >

TRADOC Pamphlet 525-3-1, The U.S. Army in Multi-Domain Operations 2028 expands upon the ideas previously explained in Multi-Domain Battle: Evolution of Combined Arms for the 21st Century. It describes how the Army contributes to the Joint Force’s principal task as defined in the unclassified Summary of the National Defense Strategy: deter and defeat Chinese and Russian aggression in both competition and conflict. The U.S. Army in Multi-Domain Operations concept proposes detailed ...Read more >

The Department of Defense (DOD) is in the process of a once-in-a-generation modernization of its approach to commanding military forces. Senior DOD leaders have stated that the department’s existing command and control architecture is insufficient to meet the demands of the 2018 National Defense Strategy (NDS). Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2) is DOD’s concept to connect sensors from all of the military services—Air Force, Army, Marine Corps, Navy, and Space Force—into ...Read more >

The United States is facing an unprecedented set of challenges to our national interests. China and Russia continue to challenge the rules-based international order. Both have become increasingly more assertive in an effort to advance their agendas, aimed at supplanting the U.S. globally. By 2040 China and Russia will have weaponized all instruments of national power to undermine the collective wills of the United States, Allies, and partners, while simultaneously cultivating their own ...Read more >

During the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States Army undertook a comprehensive review and analysis—demonstrated principally by the Russian New Generation Warfare study—of the rise in aggressive behavior exhibited by potential great-power competitors (then called near-peer competitors).1 This resulted in several disturbing observations. First, but not surprising, there are nations (most notably Russia and China) that have studied the American way of war and developed concepts ...Read more >

U.S. Army Major Amos C. Fox is the executive officer for 3rd Squadron, 4th Security Force Assistance Brigade at Fort Carson, Colorado. He previously served with the 1st Armored Division, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment and 4th Infantry Division and at the U.S. Army Armor School. He is a graduate from the U.S. Army’s School of Advanced Military Studies at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where he was awarded the Tom Felts Leadership Award in ...Read more >

In the years following 9/11, the U.S. military has predominantly fought lowtech adversaries. In these conflicts, aerial threats to U.S. assets and forces have been rudimentary. To maximize efficiency for the counterinsurgency mission, the U.S. military has had to deprioritize air defense units’ personnel, training and equipment, allowing air defense capabilities to atrophy. Meanwhile, America’s rivals have been pursuing capabilities that ...Read more >

The Multi-Domain Battle (MDB) concept as championed by the U.S. Armed Forces, particularly the U.S. Army, aims to supplant the Air Land and Air Sea Battle concepts.1 This aim is underwritten by a growing appreciation that “[p]otential adversaries are closing the technology gap with the United States and developing strategies to keep U.S. forces at ...Read more >

The U.S. Army is radically changing both military culture and the conduct of operations in their incorporation of Multi-Domain Operations (MDO). U.S. Army Pacific Commander General Robert B. Brown described the Multi-Domain Task Force (MDTF) as “a significant step toward integrated, joint formations,” and declared that “we are driving the progress ...Read more >

The Doolittle Series (DS18) was chartered by the Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force to explore multi-domain warfighting concepts to improve command and control of air, space, and cyberspace forces in support of dynamic and operationally agile operations. The event held 6 - 8 November 2018 at the LeMay Center Wargaming Institute, Air University, was the first in this series. ...Read more >

Any response to Russian or Chinese aggression from the United States and its Allies requires military operating concepts, materiel solutions, and forward deployed forces in well-planned and prepared defenses to deter these adversaries credibly and, if necessary, defend the status quo. These concepts must rely on sound military theories and testable hypotheses that yield a logical theory of victory. ...Read more >

United States (U.S.) Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) Pamphlet (TP) 525-3-8, The U.S. Army Concept for Multi-Domain Combined Arms Operations at Echelons Above Brigade 2025-2045 describes how senior Army warfighting formations at echelons above brigade (EAB) operate throughout the competition continuum to support the Army’s four strategic roles proposes how EAB formations might be structured and employed in the future and identifies the ...Read more >

The MDO concept assumes�Chinese and Russia concepts and force development are sufficiently similar for the Army to solve the problems presented by Russia in the near/mid-term and adapt to the changes China develops mid/farterm. -TRADOC ...Read more >

Synchronised kinetic and cyber operations across domains that present ‘multiple dilemmas’ are a fundamental tenet of multi-domain operations. Recent practice and study of the battlespace use of cyber capabilities in conjunction with kinetic operations, however, have shown the difficulties in creating joint effects due to insufficient synchronisation of operations or lack of coordination and control of cyber effects. This paper outlines ...Read more >

The Army’s emerging multi-domain operations (MDO) concept places new challenges on the recently revised Army doctrine for mission command. The United States has not fought against a peer competitor in 75 years as a result, individual services have focused conceptually on fighting their own symmetrical domain wars and paid less attention to supporting other services in other domains. As technology changes and defense ...Read more >