Conclusion

The Army is on a solid path towards achieving twenty-first century modernization, but more still needs to be done. A deeper examination of previous efforts to modernize the military in the face of disruptive change will highlight where the Army needs to place additional emphasis. The interwar period, the post-Vietnam era, and other key inflection points provide excellent examples for senior leaders to consider. By revisiting the origins of the Louisiana Maneuvers, the National Training Center, and the development of counterinsurgency doctrine, the Army can compare and contrast how old ideas can become new again.

The tenets of multi-domain operations – calibrated force posture, multi-domain formations, and convergence – may not be the right solutions, but the multi-domain operations concept helps initiate the conversation towards finding the right solutions. In order for MDO to truly replace AirLand Battle, the Army must do three things. First, it must revise its security cooperation doctrine and make that revision a central conversation about how our nation uses its military to prevail in great power competition. Second, it must elevate the Synthetic Training Environment to the top of the modernization priority list in order to ensure the Army has a place to comprehensively test and train on multi-domain operations. Third, the Army must identify a brigade-level unit to serve as its experimental task force in examining possible force structure changes for the twenty-first century. Taking these three steps will complement all of the great work that the Army has already accomplished, and will ensure that multi-domain operations takes its place in the history of great military innovation.