Chief of Staff expands on Army Vision
http://www.dtic.mil/armylink/news/Jan2000/a20000131shinsekireserve.html
by Staff Sgt. Jack Siemieniec
WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Jan. 31, 2000) - "Chief, are you really going to a wheeled tank?"
That's the one question Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eric K. Shinseki said he gets asked everywhere he goes these days, talking about his vision for the Army of the new century.
Shinseki took the opportunity to answer it last week while speaking to about 300 service members at the Reserve Officers Association Mid-Winter Conference here.
"My response is, the Vision Statement is three-and-a-half pages long. You have to read the whole statement. No fair reading one sentence," he said.
The actual sentence>
"We are prepared to move to an all-wheel formation as soon as technology permits."
This one sentence set off a firestorm of discussion from Pentagon snack bars to installations around the world where the Army's M-1 Abrams Main Battle Tank and Bradley Infantry Fighting
Vehicle rule the day.
It is part of a larger statement that Shinseki and Army Secretary Louis Caldera made public last October. Shinseki said the statement is an attempt to answer how the Army will meet its
responsibilities to the nation in the next century.
"The thing you hear most about is transformation. But if you go back to the Vision Statement ... it talked about several things.
"First of all, it said that this Army was a strategic instrument of national policy and (it talks about) fighting and winning our nation's wars and to do that we would stay trained and ready every
day," Shinseki said.
The general added that the Army was about people and that soldiers enable America to fulfill its leadership responsibilities in the world.
"Soldiers, not tanks, not airplanes, soldiers," he said.
Shinseki said he thought the most talked about portion of the statement was the transformation because it deals with organizations and equipment. He also said the goal for the Army is being
able to deploy a warfighting brigade anywhere in the world within 96 hours, a division within 120 hours and five divisions anywhere in the world within 30 days.
To meet this timetable, he and his planners are exploring ways to cut the lift requirements -- the amount of air and sea assets needed to transport the force.
He said he doesn't know if the wheeled tank will ever come to be. However, he does know that the M-1, designed for the Cold War, challenges the Army to transport it everywhere the Army
goes.
The Army has a "bifurcated force" today, the general said. The heavy divisions were designed for the Cold War, but can't go everywhere. Whereas the light forces don't have the lethality or
survivability to be put into the middle of a war.
The challenge, he said, is to design a new combat system with the M-1 and Bradley's survivability and lethality, but with the deployability of light forces.
He said science and technology may hold the answer, but that answer could be four or five years away.
"The Chief after me will get to decide what that future combat vehicle will look like. But I can tell you that if it's another 70-ton tank, the Chief in 2015 will have the same problem that I have
today.
"That is, a spate of missions that will require you to go to places into which a 70-ton tank is not the most ideal vehicle," the general said.
Interim brigades, currently being assembled, will use off-the-shelf, not newly designed, equipment to contribute to joint requirement to provide ground force capabilities short of war, Shinseki
said. These units will buy the time needed to develop and create the objective force of the future.
"Transformation is about science and technology investments today for the objective force. It's about recapitalization (training and equipment) of the current force, and it's about investment in an
interim capability to fill the gap," he said.
During his remarks, Shinseki also explained his reasoning for advancing the Vision so quickly into his tour as Army Chief of Staff. He assumed his position in June 1999.
A main factor for his prompt action on the Vision was the upcoming Defense Quadrennial Review in January 2001.
"If the Army was going to set the debate about 'Why an army?', 'Why this army?', 'What should this Army be prepared to do for the nation in the next century?' we had to get the message out
early," Shinseki said.
"So, could we have waited a year? Yes. Would the Vision Statement have been better? Probably. But it would have been irrelevant. No one would have heard it," Shinseki said. "The message
would have been more difficult to deliver. And the willingness to participate in a debate about national security at that point would be lost in the national campaign for this year's election."
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also:
http://www.dtic.mil/armylink/news/Feb2000/r20000203amcequip.html
Army to display high-tech soldier equipment on Capitol Hill
The U.S. Army Materiel Command (AMC) will showcase some of the recent innovations developed for America's warfighters at the Army Soldier System Demonstration Feb. 9 and 10 on Capitol
Hill in Washington, D.C.
Hosted by the Army's Office of Congressional Legislative Liaison, the event will provide Congress members and their staffers an opportunity to view the latest soldier technology and sample the
newest field rations available.
A demonstration will be conducted for the House of Representatives from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Feb. 9 in the foyer of the Rayburn Building. Meanwhile, a presentation for the Senate is
scheduled from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Feb. 10 in Room S902 of the Hart Building.
More than 30 items will be on display during the exhibition.
Highlights include:
Land Warrior - a futuristic, modular soldier system that integrates night vision, information, communications, situational awareness and personal protection technologies to improve lethality,
survivability, mobility, sustainment, command and control on a digitized battlefield;
Objective Individual Combat Weapon (OICW) - a lightweight, integrated next generation infantry weapon system for the U.S. Armed Forces that will replace selective M16 Rifles, M4
Carbines and M203 Grenade Launchers;
Interceptor Body Armor - a bulletproof "flak jacket" that weighs 35-percent less than the current system;
Javelin Basic Skills Trainer - a virtual-reality based training device for the medium range, manportable, shoulder-launched anti-armor weapon system;
M16A2 - the Army's primary combat rifle that replaces the M16A1 for front line combat soldiers;
Modular Lightweight Load-carrying Equipment - a modular, quick-release backpack with removable compartments and components, which attaches to a fighting load vest that allows
soldiers to tailor the pocket configuration to the requirements of the mission;
XM50 Joint Service General Purpose Mask - a revolutionary advancement in protective mask technology that provides increased performance, reduced breathing resistance and significantly
enhanced protection by guarding against toxic industrial materiel in addition to nuclear, biological and chemical threats;
Meal, Ready-To-Eat Improvements - advanced field-ration recipes and menu items that cater to the diverse cultural and ethnic food preferences of the 21st century soldier; and
Performance Enhancing Ration Components - improves the warriors' physical and mental performance during sustained combat operations in extreme climates by providing extra energy
and delaying fatigue.
