Army "Future": Invade Azerbaijan

[Ken White]

Actually, FCS planners have been pretty explicit that it's "optimized for offensive operations in Major Combat Operations."

While that is true as stated, the operators as opposed to the planners (two quite different thought processes, thank goodness) will have to, as always, cobble together solutions that work for the mission at hand and they generally have done and will do that.

One should also consider that a forced entry and a government toppled need not call for an extended stay. Powell's 'Pottery Barn Rule' is as flaky as were the Weinberger and Powell 'Doctrines.' All are platitudes (they were sales talk in their own way...) for an idealized state and none of the three cope with current realities.

The same applies to FCS, is is an attempt to push the state of the art and obtain a capability that would be impressive in an ideal situation. Since most situations are never ideal, it will provide some utility and some useful capabilities. It is overpriced but this is the US, that's to be expected; since it is the US, FCS will also not do all that's advertised but it will do most of those thing to an acceptable degree as the new fielding bugs (ALWAYS present) get worked out.

Anyone who looks at FCS as a panacea and the answer to prayers will be disappointed. So will those who predict its abject failure.

None of which has anything to do with whether or not completing an assault in 38 or 72 hours mandates that the FCS Brigade should stay and pacify or whether someone else can move in and do that job. Nor does it have much to do with whether that job is even necessary.

[Rob Thornton]

Ken is on the money. Prior to picking up the TT tasker I was one of the Ops officers in the FCS experimental element. We fought said excercises in simulation, but Steve and others are correct as well - the political situation was made to fit - it was really about other metrics such as geography/terrain, MOGs, common data bases, etc. In excercises these allow you to manipulate the other elements to get your different data points.

There is some good and some bad to FCS (IMHO), but in the end soldiers will reshape what Industry hands them and shape it to the task. The biggest danger is in assuming that technology replaces the need for leadership and soldiers who can think, shoot, move & communicate. No platform or payload is worth much without good people to employ them and overcome the types of friction you can't find in the A/C'd, hard wired simulation bays where coffee and porclein latrines are always available.

I'm not sure if it will be in the next SWJ but I submitted a piece for review awhile back that includes components of FCS into a JTF like organization. I wrote it about 2 years ago while I was thinking and working those type issues.
Regards, Rob