From squads all the way to divisions and corps, the U.S. Army is working hard to build a force ready to win on a future battlefield that promises to be more complex, lethal and volatile than ever.
“Time is not a friend,” said Gen. Andrew Poppas, commanding general of U.S. Army Forces Command. “We need to be prepared when called upon.”
Part of that preparation includes building and sharpening the Army’s ability to conduct large-scale combat operations. For a force that has conducted counterterrorism operations for 20 years, it is a tall order that requires proper planning and synchronization—and many repetitions in the dirt. “You have to have that level of competence, not just winning a battle, but … having the endurance to win over time,” Poppas said.
A force resilient enough to maintain a high tempo over a prolonged period is critical, he said. “That tempo overwhelms the enemy and provides opportunities that can then be exploited,” Poppas said.
Warfighting Mission
Forces Command, which has its headquarters at Fort Liberty, North Carolina, is the Army’s largest command, with 750,000 soldiers from all three components. It is tasked with training and preparing a combat-ready, globally responsive force that can respond to any mission.
It’s an endeavor that nests “completely” with Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George’s No. 1 focus, said Poppas, who has led Forces Command since July 2022.
Sworn in last September as the 41st Army chief of staff, George has outlined four focus areas for the force, with warfighting at the top of the list. “I always tell everybody that that has to be the focus,” George said earlier this year. “I want leaders at every level to understand that’s what we’re focused on. If you’re not relaying that message all the way down with what you’re doing, then we need to recalibrate what we’re doing.”
Warfighting is what Forces Command does, Poppas said. “That’s why we exist, is to build that warfighting capability for our Army,” he said.
To carry out that mission, Poppas and his team looked to build a framework that could help soldiers and commanders build readiness and create cohesive teams that can fight and win the first fight and endure on the battlefield.
The result is the “4-Wins” framework that covers four areas commanders can focus on and prioritize based on their formations’ needs. They are: Win trust and empower leaders, win the first fight, win the future fight, and win as a balanced Total Army.
Winning the first fight is critical. “This comes down to foundational readiness,” Poppas said. “We have to win that first battle, where the squads and platoons are fully trained at the highest levels of readiness.”
Small-Unit Experts
The Army has been working to close a gap caused by moving too quickly to higher levels of readiness and not spending enough time at the small-unit level, Poppas said. “When you go down to the squads and platoons, that’s the battle,” he said. “You’ve got to be experts at the squads and platoons.”
Soldiers must know their battle drills, execute them with precision and even dream about them, Poppas said.
After hitting that level of proficiency, commanders must plan for the ensuing fight, Poppas said. “We focused so much on the first fight, we didn’t stop and plan for the second fight,” he said. “You can’t do that. You have to do it simultaneously and plan over multiple horizons.”
That type of planning allows units, particularly at the battalion and brigade levels, to be predictive in their transitions, and, as a result, they can react faster than the enemy, Poppas said. “If you’re predictive and you’re synchronized and you can plan over the horizon, then you’re operating at a much faster pace than your enemy can react to, and that’s how you build the tempo and create opportunities to exploit for success,” he said.
As training has gotten underway, the Army has found that unit staffs must be “extremely competent,” Poppas said. “We’re fighting in domains we hadn’t previously,” he said. “We’re operating in space, operating in cyber, special operations forces integration, long-range targeting. As we build up our intellectual base, you have to incorporate that into your staff planning process.”
Division Focus
The Army’s squads and platoons have been building their proficiency, and now the service must “elevate our capability up to the battalion and brigade,” Poppas said. Then, it must elevate its divisions, which are now the principal tactical formations for the future fight, as outlined in the Army’s new large-scale combat operations doctrine.
During two decades of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, the brigade combat team was the Army’s principal tactical formation. Now, as the Army looks to its divisions as the primary unit of action, a move the service made as it anticipates a more complex future battlefield, it is beginning to incorporate divisions into its combat training center rotations.
The plan for now is two divisions a year, as the Army continues to conduct brigade combat team rotations at the combat training centers, Poppas said. “That’s sustainable for us with the current demands on the formation and the capacity of the combat training centers,” he said.
A division-level rotation includes not only a brigade combat team but also aviation and sustainment brigades and other functional brigades, Poppas said, “to force them to do those divisional tasks under the duress of a dirt environment.”
So far, two division headquarters, the 3rd Infantry Division and the 1st Armored Division, have completed rotations at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California, Poppas said. The 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) is scheduled for August at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Johnson, Louisiana, he said.
“Winning the first fight requires a level of competency from that individual soldier all the way to the division,” Poppas said. It’s hard to achieve that level of proficiency, but “we’ve done it before.”
High Demand
The Army must then take on the future fight. “That’s modernization,” Poppas said. “We have to fill the formations with people and equip them, [and] that’s hard. In order to modernize, you need time in which to do that. That’s time where you’re not operational.”
There is a high demand on the Army’s formations, Poppas said, with units deploying to South Korea, Europe, the Middle East and the Indo-Pacific.
“We are a force provider,” Poppas said about Forces Command. “How do you balance readiness and modernization along with the demands on the formation itself to meet the [defense secretary’s] directed requirements for deployment? That’s the hard part, but we have to do that.”
The Army must not wait to modernize, he said. “If we don’t do it today, if we don’t make the time to modernize, when we go to the future fight … we’re going to do it with the same equipment today with more miles and more maintenance problems,” Poppas said. “So, it’s our job to synchronize that and to find the opportunity to just do it, and bring that new equipment in.”
George’s transforming in contact initiative, which puts new equipment in the hands of deploying soldiers and units, can help push forward the Army’s transformation efforts without getting tangled in predetermined timelines or schedules, Poppas said. “Let’s not have false horizons. What more can we do today?” Poppas said. “In this uncertain environment, where the threats are much more complex, we don’t have time to wait for a set horizon.”
The Army also is purging excess and obsolete equipment, freeing up space and time, Poppas said. “If we don’t need it, get rid of it so we can focus on training and readiness,” he said. “Those are our priorities.”
‘One Formation’
A balanced Total Army is another element of the Forces Command framework. “We can’t win without the [Army National] Guard and the [U.S. Army] Reserve,” Poppas said.
When the U.S. needed to bolster its NATO allies and partners during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Army quickly was able to deploy two brigade combat teams, Poppas said. But when the combatant command requested additional logistics to support its operations, “all those logistics in-depth reside in the Guard and Reserve,” Poppas said. “If we’re going to sustain the fight, we have to sustain those formations.”
Army National Guard and Army Reserve units are integrated into combat training center rotations and other exercises, Poppas said. “They’re out there. We’re training together, and that’s at a high level,” he said.
“We have to look at our Guard and Reserve as one formation moving forward,” he said. “It’s through the Guard and Reserve, that’s our operational capacity for today, and it’s also our strategic depth. You have to be interoperable. You have to have the same relationships over time. You have to resource properly.”
Trust, Empowerment
The final “win” in the framework is the one Poppas said he’s most passionate about—winning trust and empowering leaders.
“This is the human endeavor,” Poppas said. “The Army is about people. You look at the formations we have. How do you build trust? It’s through shared experiences. It’s having people go through those shared experiences, the challenges that you have, the victories that you have. Hardships build bonds.”
One simple way to start building those bonds is through leader presence, beginning at 6:30 every morning during physical fitness training, Poppas said.
“Leaders need to be there,” he said. “If you’re listening, you’ve heard that Pvt. Jones just bought a brand-new motorcycle, and you also know Pvt. Jones doesn’t have a motorcycle license. You know that Smith had an issue with his spouse. You also know that Pvt. Turner, her daughter just made honor roll. You’re building that human-to-human contact.”
The simple act of being present and doing physical fitness training together builds bonds that extend throughout the day and beyond, Poppas said. “You have to be present, you have to care, you have to have empathy,” he said. “You’re there to set the conditions to lead them forward.”
Increasing Challenges
One challenge the Army faces is what Poppas called the “carousel of leadership.”
“Presence makes a difference. Those bonds are built over time, so you’re looking at that squad leader you’ve built trust with, that team leader, that platoon sergeant,” he said. “You’ve got to give them the opportunity to build that base of trust and communication.”
The Army mans, trains and deploys its forces, Poppas said. “It’s about the formation that’s executing that task, so why would you break it up just because you hit that two-year mark?”
Commanders should have the discretion to manage schools and transitions, allowing leaders and soldiers to stay in place longer and build cohesive teams, he said. They also should know the goals of the individuals under their command and their strengths and weaknesses, Poppas said.
Looking ahead, Poppas said the Army will continue to focus on tough, realistic training. “We continue to increase the complexity as we continue to increase our own competency,” he said.
Divisional rotations at the combat training centers will continue, and the Army’s brigade combat teams will see training scenarios that reflect the challenges of today and the future, Poppas said. “As we continue to adjust the operating environment to reflect the world, the changing character of warfare, they’ll find that their challenges are going to increase,” he said.
There also will be more home-station training and more robust training opportunities, including regional exercises in the Indo-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and elsewhere, Poppas said. “That real-life experience … is imperative,” he said.
Poppas and Command Sgt. Maj. T.J. Holland, Forces Command’s senior enlisted leader, also continue to talk about the 4-Wins framework as they visit troops across the country.
“This is how we build that tempo,” Poppas said. “It only comes through execution and repetition.”