Author Topic: For 250 years, it’s been ‘change or lose’ for our military. Here’s what needs changing now  (Read 52 times)

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Offline rangerrebew

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For 250 years, it’s been ‘change or lose’ for our military. Here’s what needs changing now
A former commandant and a futurist take stock of Spider’s Web, Rising Lion, and more.
Robert Neller and Peter W. Singer | June 22, 2025
Commentary Pentagon Marine Corps Army Training & Simulation
   
A thread runs through the 250 years of service that the U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps will celebrate this year: adaptability and relentless innovation are not just desirable traits, but essential for victory. No less urgently than at Yorktown, in the halls of Montezuma, and on D-Day, the U.S. military must once again harness everything our people bring to the fight, or lose the next war because we are afraid to change.

The latest reminders came in the form of Ukraine’s Operation Spider’s Web, the bold sneak attack that used small drones to devastate a strategic bomber force scattered all over Russia and Israel’s Operation Rising Lion, which took Iran’s leadership by utter surprise, decimating much of its military and nuclear capability. Again and again, we are warned that new trends and technologies demand nothing less than a radical rethinking of not just the weapons we plan to buy, but how we hope to prepare our service members for what comes next.

The operational environment awaiting our soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, and Guardians will be defined by machine speed and overwhelming amounts of data. Our people in the field will demand, and receive, high-speed access to more information at their fingertips than what was literally in existence a generation ago. To win will not just require faster downloads; it's about the fusion of this data into real-time intelligence, instantaneous decision-making, and a common operating picture that extends from the squad leader to the theater commander.

https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2025/06/250-years-its-been-change-or-lose-our-military-heres-what-needs-changing-now/406205/?oref=d1-skybox-hp
The unity of government which constitutes you one people is also now dear to you. It is justly so, for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquility at home, your peace abroad; of your safety; of your prosperity; of that very liberty which you so highly prize. But as it is easy to foresee that, from different causes and from different quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices employed to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth.  George Washington - Farewell Address

Offline BobfromWB

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Another overlooked battlefield innovation:

Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, June 24, 2025

Excerpts:
Russian forces are expanding their use of motorcycles along the frontline in Ukraine - a tactic that the Russian military may leverage in future wars beyond Ukraine, possibly including operations against NATO states ... Russian motorcycle forces are no longer attacking along roads but mainly attacking through open fields and trying to bypass Ukrainian engineering barriers along the frontline ... Russian forces are mainly using motorcycles as a form of transport for attacking infantry to support diversion, reconnaissance, infiltration, and flanking support missions ... motorcyclists operate in squads of six to eight motorcycles with one or two riders on each motorcycle (between 6 and 16 personnel in total). Each squad reportedly has two to four portable electronic warfare (EW) systems and one device scanning for Ukrainian drones ... Russian forces are also leveraging motorcycles for casualty evacuation and logistics support ...  Russian forces were mainly using motorcycles in tandem with armored vehicles. Russian forces appear to be increasingly relying on motorcycles as a method of transport and advancement independent from tanks and armored vehicles in recent weeks ...

Frontelligence Insight reported that Russian forces have been training troops on motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) at ad hoc motocross tracks in Russia and occupied Ukraine as of Spring 2025 ... Russian forces are also conducting more advanced training programs, including for drone evasion, and that the length of these courses varies between 16 hours to over a month ... Russian forces are mainly using foreign-made motorcycles, primarily those manufactured in the People's Republic of China (PRC), and that volunteer organizations in Russia provide most of the motorcycles for frontline Russian units ... Russia intends to equip over half of its infantry forces with motorcycles, ATVs, and buggies in the future. ISW continues to assess that Russian forces will likely increasingly depend on motorcycles and other quicker unarmored vehicles, as slower-moving vehicles have become a hazard on the more transparent battlefield of Ukraine ...

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-june-24-2025
Another refugee from Jim Rob's very nasty Russian AI bot farm