The predictability of conflict from the last couple of decades is over, replaced by a volatile security environment that could erupt anywhere at any moment, said Gen. Andrew Poppas, commanding general of Army Forces Command.

There was a time after 9/11, he said, when leaders knew when and where they were going to deploy, what the human and physical terrain was going to be and even select the bed they’d be sleeping in.

“Well, that level of predictability's gone, the future is not written, and in fact, it is a much more uncertain and a much more lethal world,” Poppas said June 5 during a Strategic Landpower Dialogue event, part of a series co-hosted by the Association of the U.S. Army and the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Poppas pointed to current events, such as the October 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, China’s reaction to U.S.-led exercises in the Indo-Pacific or the tensions brewing in the Middle East, as examples of challenges bubbling up around the world.

“I think that we are continuously on a precipice, and it's going to take one strategic miscalculation. It might not be 30 days until that war comes upon us, but it could be within 30 minutes,” Poppas said. “That’s the world in which we're operating today, and that is literally worldwide.”

In the context of a joint fight, Poppas pointed out that despite the vast oceans in the Indo-Pacific, the Army’s contribution as a land power remains extremely important.

The largest military components of partner nations are ground forces, Poppas said, as he emphasized the importance of the U.S. Army’s integration of those nations in its exercises and soldiers’ engagements throughout the region. “It’s our partnership with them, the assurance that we provide, and then physical presence, obviously, is the deterrence,” Poppas said. “We also provide survivability in terms of long-range precision fires that could be maneuvered and placed in multiple locations out there.”

In a contested environment such as the Indo-Pacific, he said, the Army’s logistics capabilities are “imperative for the overall fight.”

As commander of Forces Command, Poppas said it is his job to make sure soldiers are in the right formations, have the right equipment and the right mindset to move out when the time comes.

To get there, he and his leaders are guided by four focus areas. The first is people, and the bonds built through a foundation of trust and empowerment. Next is winning the first fight.

“That's the contract that we have. If something happens tonight, there's an expectation and a demand that we are ready to move forward with the formations,” Poppas said. He added that behind that win is training and making sure “that we're masters at the basics, that we can execute at the higher echelons … across all the domains and integrate our coalition and allied partners.”

The Army must also win the future fight by developing the right formations and by fighting as a balanced force that includes the Regular Army, the National Guard and the U.S. Army Reserve.

“The way that we fight is not as an active-duty component alone,” Poppas said. “We are absolutely dependent on the inner strength of the active duty, the National Guard and the Reserve. It's the way we're structured. It's the way that we have to fight.”