Not Your Grandfather's AirLand Battle Doctrine: Multi-Domain Operations

According to General David Perkins, as the complexity of war increases, more domains are open to competitions against a multitude of state and non-state adversaries. Beyond the traditional domains of land, sea, and air, there now exists space and cyberspace domains. Increasingly US Army dominance in one domain such as land is contingent on access and dominance of the air, cyber, and space domains. Effective cross-domain dominance has always been important in modern war but will become essential to military success in the twenty-first century. Adversaries to the US and its allies will attempt to limit our dominance over the traditional domains via competition in the new domains, particularly cyber. An adversary’s goal would likely first be preventing the US and its allies’ access to the AO; Second, attempt to isolate air, sea, and land forces to prevent mutual support; Third, limit US maneuverability. In 2018, the Army released The US Army in Multi-Doman Operations 2028 pamphlet that detailed possible solutions to an adversary’s goals mentioned above. These solutions include allowing forces to conduct independent maneuver, employ cross-domain fires, and maximize human potential. Unfortunately, the think tank New America believes the Army will fall short on the of the pamphlet’s vision unless the Army adopts its three recommendations. First, the US Army must lead a renaissance in great power competition doctrine; Second, the Army must establish the twenty-first-century verse of the National Training Center; Third, there must be a brigade-level experimental task force dedicated to Army Future Command to diagnose and adapt to disruptive challenges.