The U.S. Army’s Multi Domain Task Force operates from the Tactical Command Post as a part of their premier appearance at Valiant Shield 2018 Sept. 20, 2018. (Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Danica M. Sirmans/US Navy)
WASHINGTON: The US Army’s third Multi-Domain Task Force will be “tied” to the Indo-Pacific, according to a top Army official, though it remains unclear exactly where it’ll be based.
The Army’s fiscal 2023 budget request showed that its five-year budget layout funded a third Multi-Domain Task Force, but didn’t specify where it would be focused. James McConville, Army chief of staff, provided additional details on Thursday.
“It’s going to be tied to US Army Pacific. The final stationing decision is still to be made,” McConville said at a roundtable hosted by Defense Writers Group. “It really depends on what it looks like. But we’re in the process of standing that up.”
The Army’s Multi-Domain Task Forces are theater-specific units that employ long-range precision effects, including cyber and electronic warfare capabilities designed to counter China and Russia’s anti-access/area denial systems. The first MDTF was created in 2017 as an experimental unit at Joint Base Lewis-McChord — also focused on the Indo-Pacific — and later codified as an official unit. The second Europe-centric MDTF was established last year.
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While the final decision on basing has yet to be made, McConville said Hawaii may serve as a prototype test bed.
The commander of the third unit will be Col. Dave Zinn, who currently works on McConville’s staff.
The Army is planning five MDTFs in all. The units will be equipped with some of the Army’s new modernization priority systems, including the ship-sinking Mid-Range Capability and Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon. The first MDTF at Joint Base Lewis McChord received its first hypersonic battery last year.
MDTFs also include Intelligence, Information, Cyber, Electronic Warfare and Space battalions, also called I2CEWS. The Army’s top uniformed IT official said last year that the task force would experiment with tactical cloud in 2022, which will allow for an added degree of connectivity in multi-domain operations.
“[Tactical cloud] will be anchored to the Multi-Domain Task Forces so we can increase the numbers of reps and sets, and, quite frankly, increase our learning opportunities as we really work through how do we enable data at the edge so that we can significantly increase our ability to see, sense, understand, decide and act and achieve decision dominance that we’re going to need to for multidomain capable force,” said Lt. Gen. John Morrison, G-6 of the Army.
