In recent years, in order to change its backward position in the US military, the US Army first proposed the concept of multi-domain warfare and multi-domain warfare, and later released white papers such as "The US Army in Competition" and "The US Army's Multi-domain Warfare Transformation: Winning in Future Competition and Conflict" to guide the transformation and construction of the US Army under the background of "big power competition" and change the disadvantaged position of the US Army. This article analyzes the development strategy of the US Army and summarizes the characteristics of its transformation strategy. The main situations are as follows:
1. Guiding principles of the US Army's transformation strategy
The US Army believes that the future combat environment will become more complex and cruel, which requires the army troops to transform to deal with new security threats.
(I) Expand battlefield space
The US military believes that the army needs to break through the traditional conflict linear combat method and command the theater to maneuver from multiple battlefield spaces at the same time to win possible conflicts in the future.
(II) In-depth cross-domain strike
The US Army believes that in the future, the US military is very likely to have conflicts with opponents of major powers with similar strength. Whether it can implement a supersaturation strike on the enemy in full depth will become the key to victory. Based on this, the US Army will take measures in the following three aspects to enhance cross-domain strike force: , the first is to expand land damage capabilities. The second is to expand the depth of the battlefield strike. The third is to develop artificial intelligence equipment.
(III) Establish decision-making advantages
In order to establish decision-making advantages, the US Army has promoted the "multi-domain combat" project, trying to reduce the burden of commanders and staff members in the cognitive field analysis and evaluation by introducing artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies, so that they can concentrate on making judgments and decisions.
(IV) Creating redundancy of damage
The US military believes that opponents of major powers such as China and Russia have strong battlefield survival and can use means such as disguise and countermeasure to offset the US military's technological advantages, making it difficult for traditional strike methods to achieve the destructive effect.
2. Main measures for transformation and development
(I) Continue to improve scene simulation
In the future, the US Army will start from four key backgrounds to improve the existing scenarios. First, refine the geographical background. The second is to extend the time background. The third is to improve the strategic background. Fourth, update the system background.
(II) Advantageous position Preset Force
In the joint combat system, the army's mission is to provide commanders with troops that are both durable, economical, survivable, and maintain distributed deployment and highly technical connection. When facing the opponent's inside deployment, this new type of force can use various advanced capabilities to increase the difficulty of the opponent's perception and strike, ensuring that it can survive in a dangerous environment.
(III) Research and development of new technical equipment
The US military has always emphasized the importance of technological advantages and attached great importance to the modernization of the army and the development of weapons and equipment. In 2019, the US Army issued a guiding document on modernization strategy "2019 Army Modernization Strategy: Investing in the Future", which clarified the six major development directions of Army Modernization. First, long-range precision firepower; second, next-generation combat vehicles; third, future vertical take-off and landing vehicles; fourth, modernization of army network technology; fifth, air defense and anti-missile; sixth, soldiers' lethality.
(IV) Improve the combat readiness level of the troops
The US Army believes that the Army's existing combat readiness level cannot meet the fast-paced combat needs of the future battlefield. It is necessary to reorganize combat readiness. According to the main tasks of the deployed area, focus on the threats faced and possible forms of conflict, and provide advanced equipment, well-trained and ready-to-order troops for future conflicts.
3. Main features
This round of transformation is aimed at responding to the threats between China and Russia, focusing on improving large-scale combat capabilities, and has made certain progress now.By summarizing and sorting out the principles and related measures of this round of transformation, some typical characteristics of its transformation work can be analyzed.
(I) Strategy highlight the threat of major powers and respond to large-scale conflicts
Since the Obama administration proposed the strategy of "returning to the Asia-Pacific", the United States' strategic focus has gradually shifted from "war on terror" to "competition for major powers". The U.S. Army believes that its existing capabilities are difficult to defeat its opponents in future large-scale conflicts. First, China and Russia's "anti-intervention/regional denial" strategy greatly limits the US Army's cross-domain delivery capabilities. Second, the US Army forces lack the ability to survive in the cruel war environment in the future. Third, there is a certain gap in scale and range with the opponent's firepower.
(II) Comprehensively promote construction in content and enhance overall strength
This transformation of the US Army is not only an innovation of weapons and equipment, but also a comprehensive change, involving combat theory, force structure, weapons and equipment and other aspects. First, promotes the development of "multi-domain warfare" theory and shapes the future mode of war. The second is adjusts the army structure and adds two armored brigade combat teams to deal with possible large-scale armed conflicts that may occur in the future. Third, releases the programmatic document "2019 Army Modernization Strategy: Investing in the Future" to guide the modernization of the army equipment, continue to promote the research and development of high-tech equipment, and maintain technical advantages.
(III) Methods emphasize decentralized aggregation and strengthening survivability
The US Army believes that after long-term development, the current major combat opponents have made great progress in the modernization of the army. Its "anti-intervention/regional denial" strategy shapes the combat environment into an environment with difficulty in entering, difficult operations, lack of support and full of dangers, which brings huge challenges to the Army troops in carrying out their missions.
(IV) Strategy in advance in means to deter conflicts
The US Army divides the risks faced into three types: competition, crisis and armed conflict, and emphasizes that the army forces should take a variety of measures to keep the risks at the competitive level and avoid the situation from transforming into crisis and armed conflict. This requires the Army to have a deadly, powerful combat force that can handle crises that may arise at any time.
