WASHINGTON — As the US Army works out a future design of the service, select units deploying around the globe will be given new weapons and training in order to provide real-world feedback to service leadership, according to Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George.
“We’re actually getting [soldiers] involved in how we’re helping to design the force: We have a good starting point and, you know, my view is that we are going to see a lot of refinements from the field that will really help us figure out how we need to adjust,” the four-star general told reporters after an Association of the US Army breakfast today.
“We need to do it across all the [ Army components] as well,” he added.
Since stepping into the service’s top uniformed post last year, George has been eyeing ways to reorganize units, including learning what equipment those units will need and how they receive it, in part, under the Regionally Aligned Readiness and Modernization Model (ReARMM). Enter the new “transforming in contact” initiative, one avenue to help answer some of those associated questions.
George told the audience that he been meeting with Army Forces Command and Army Futures Command in recent days to hammer out additionaldetails about which additional soon-to-deploy brigades should get what capabilities in order to “learn” about what works for them and doesn’t.
While George did not detail the entire plan, he said that selected units will receive updated network capabilities, different unmanned aerial systems (UAS), electronic warfare (EW) capabilities, along with new robots, the Next Generation Squad Weapon and other weapons as they come online. Then after a Joint Readiness Training Center rotation, selected units will deploy and use their new bounty in theater, to include participating in joint exercises with partners and allies.
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The idea is to then have soldiers provide feedback about which piece of equipment worked well and in which scenarios, along with their unit’s EW and drone needs.