Quote Originally Posted by Merv Benson
Scales is a smart guy, and we should pay attention to his ideas. However, it seems to me that what he has described is consistent with Secretary Rumsfeld's transformation goals of making the projection of force faster and lighter. It is surprising that he has not been able to sell this idea. History has shown that combined arms or in the new buzz word jointness is the winning formula that reduces casualties on all sides by rapidly overwhelming an enemy. This is really what the major combat operations phase of the Iraq liberation was all about. The forces that Scales suggest whould have made that task even quicker if we could have by passed the Turkey problem and inserted armored forces in northern Iraq or even western Iraq.

Isn't the Styrker intended to operate the way Scales is suggesting?
At the risk of speaking for General Scales I would say his ideas are quite different than those of the Secretary Defense who remains tied to ideas that do not reflect the reality of boots on the ground as the key to winning. Scales definitely believes in boots on the ground.

Combined arms warfare and jointness are interrelated but separate ideas. Combined arms has usually been applied as a doctrine by ground forces (including use of aerial fires); jointness is purely targeted toward improving inner service cooperation, a goal that has been around since we pushed horses over the sides of Navy transports off the coast of Cuba.

Stryker is a medium skinned vehicle designed to speed the movement of lighter forces and improve C2I through its suite of digital systems.


best
Tom