16 Dec 16. The Army this week took another step in articulating what types of investments it deems necessary to support operational ideas about future ground warfare.
The service earlier this year presented its “Big 8” initiatives, a list of modernization priorities designed to stay ahead of global threats and maintain overmatch against present and future adversaries. However, the service’s Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) has refined that list to the “Big 6+1” set of initiatives, with the “+1” referring to soldier and team performance and overmatch which cuts across all other capabilities listed.
According to a set of slides presented at the Army’s Capabilities Information Exchange with industry, which took place at Fort Eustis, Virginia, on Thursday, the service has carved out solid modernization objectives and the resources needed to meet capabilities in the near-, mid-, and far-term.
The Army will prioritize modernizing its aviation fleet, combat vehicles, cross domain fires, robotics and autonomous systems, advanced protection, and cyber and electromagnetic capabilities.
From 2018 through 2022, the Army will complete its aviation restructure initiative (ARI) that it began in 2013 when it decided to retire its OH-58 Kiowa Warrior armed reconnaissance helicopters and use AH-64 Apache attack helicopters paired with unmanned aircraft systems to fill the gap.
The service will also continue to modernize the AH-64 Echo-model, the UH-60 Mike- and Victor-model Black Hawk utility helicopters and the CH-47F Chinook cargo helicopter. And it will complete the Joint Multi-Role Technology Demonstration as the Army heads toward its Future Vertical Lift program of record that will bring a next-generation family of helicopters online in the 2030s. The Army will test fly both a Bell Helicopter- and Lockheed Martin-developed tiltrotor helicopter and a Boeing and Sikorsky-made helicopter with coaxial rotor blades in 2017 and 2018. Further out, in the years 2023 through 2027, the Army will begin fielding its CH-47F Block II. Some of the planned changes in Block II will be upgrades to the electrical system, transmission and rotor system and will align the conventional Army Chinooks more closely with the MH-47s that Army specials operators fly. The Army plans to field FVL helicopters in medium-lift and lighter-lift variants and field CH-47 Block III over a larger window of time — between 2028 and 2050. As for combat vehicles, the Army in the near-term will address shortfalls in mobility and lethality within the Infantry Brigade Combat Teams. This means bringing a Ground Mobility Vehicle online and using the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle as an interim Light Reconnaissance Vehicle until it can afford to buy something else. The service will also improve Stryker lethality for the 2nd Cavalry Regiment, currently considered outgunned by its Russian counterparts. Outfitting the vehicle with a 30mm cannon on 81 of the infantry carriers is being fast-tracked with plans to start fielding in 2018. The Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle (AMPV) will enter into low-rate production, beginning to replace the obsolete M113 armored personnel carriers first fielded in 1960. BAE Systems presented its first general-purpose AMPV variant to the Army Thursday in a ceremony at its York, Pennsylvania, facility.
Future Fighting Vehicle (FFV) synthetic and physical prototyping, modeling and simulation will take place in the next few years as well. The Army will also focus on developing next-generation power trains that will provide a 50 percent increase in power and will also work on a durable light weight track with hopes of reducing weight and cost while not losing durability. In the mid-term, the Army will improve limited Mobile Protected Firepower (MPF) capabilities for both IBCTs and Stryker BCTs through modifications to existing platforms and engineering change proposals. The Stryker will also see lethality upgrades in terms of weapons and optics. The Army