Archive for category irregular warfare

Commander on Defense News TV

Gen. Mattis taped an appearance on Defense News TV during last week’s JWC10. The first part of that appearance can be viewed online by clicking here.

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Change the way information is shared

Military leaders at Joint Warfighting Conference 2010 were stressing a change in the information-sharing paradigm from “need-to-know” to “will-to-share.”

Read more in this story from Lisa Daniel from American Forces Press Service.

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Mattis keynote closes out 2010 JWC

I listened to Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis, USJFCOM commander, deliver the lunchtime keynote address today to finish the 2010 Joint Warfighting Conference. He talked about today’s young warfighters, commanders’ need to engage in the battle of the narrative, and what he sees as emerging technological needs in addition to briefly touching on “lawfare” – his phrase for violent extremists using U.S. and international laws against the nation’s interests.  Read my full coverage of it here.

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Layfield on small unit excellence

Army Maj. Gen. Stephen Layfield, USJFCOM’s director of joint training and the Joint Warfighting Center, just participated in a panel focusing on small units titled “Small Unit Excellence: What Will it Take?” moderated by retired Army Brig. Gen. David L. Grange.  They were joined by Navy Special Operations Master Chief Petty Officer Dan Marshall and retired Marine Corps Col. Thomas X. Hammes, writer of “The Sling and the Stone: On War in the 21st Century.”

The panel focused largely on units at the company level and below, and each of the panel members emphasized the importance of junior officers and NCOs in small unit excellence.  Hammes pointed out that as we move toward a peacetime footing, training dollars will be pinched and that challenge would pose a problem for small units trying to get the same training they get today.  Layfield emphasized that challenge, pointing out that tasks that were once the domain of larger elements, such as intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance – have been pushed to the battalion, company and platoon levels.

These operations that are complex and that we are trying to do with shrinking dollars are happening at smaller and smaller units every day.  The capability that our country is bringing to bear is being driven lower and lower every single day and is being placed into the hands of smaller and smaller units.

One audience member asked each of the panels what the best and worst actions each had taken early in their times leading small units.  Each tied their best and worst together, Marshall said to focus on the basic tasks as complexity in training made it more difficult to stay proficient in the basics.  Hammes spoke to the difference between listening and learning as a young platoon leader as opposed to simply transmitting things the way a leader wants them.  Layfield credited his NCOs.

The worst thing I did as a small unit leader early on was not listen to my NCOs. The best thing I ever did was listen to my NCOs.

Layfield said a crucial component of training small units to handle the tasks they need to on the ground was getting them and their leaders access to the same types of simulators available to pilots, among others.  He pointed out that an escalation force that leads to increased civilian casualties – in his example caused by an IED detonation – can have just a big a strategic impact as a bomb dropped on the wrong target with similar results.

We don’t have civilian casualties very often from a bomb that’s dropped poorly or in the wrong spot.  One of the reasons for that is we have a lot of trainers for that. We have lots of immersive trainers for cockpits and ships, and [few] for ground ops, for the squad.  With reduced dollars, we’d get more bang for the buck to go over and over, through iteration after iteration, at the squad level so [squad leaders aren't] doing it the first time under fire.

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JIEDDO director speaks to open 2010 JWC

Army Lt. Gen. Michael L. Oates, Joint IED Defeat Organization director, spoke about the future of counter-IED efforts during his opening keynote speech at the 2010 Joint Warfighting Conference, focusing on the needs to better share information and speed the delivery of battlefield requirements. Read more here.

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Intelligence director discusses recent changes, coming challenges

I sat down with Thomas N. Tomaszewski, USJFCOM’s intelligence director (J2), recently for a chat about the directorate’s recent absorption of Joint Transformation Command-Intelligence, which was realigned as the J2/Joint Intelligence Operations Center. We also talked about this summer’s big interoperability demonstration, Empire Challenge 10, and how it will deliver on quickly fielding technology to warfighters on the ground. See more here.

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Joint Warfighting Conference 2010 speakers announced

USJFCOM has announced the list of keynote speakers for the JWC 2010. The list has many top military leaders slated to discuss hot topics with attendees starting with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Navy Adm. Mike Mullen and USJFCOM Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis delivering the final keynote speech.

Also panels with subject matter experts in various fields of interest will be held as well throughout the three days discussing various topics on ways to better help the warfighter.

Read more.

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Looking for industry’s help on irregular warfare simulations

Just posted an article about  USJFCOM’s request for information on the Navy Electronic Commerce on-line system requesting information about irregular warfare (IW) immersive training simulators focusing on technologies and systems to train warfighters in IW missions, activities and tasks at the company level and below.

Inputs are due by March 31.

Read more.

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Introducing the JOE for 2010

Just posted an article about the Joint Operating Environment 2010, a strategic framework that forecasts possible threats and opportunities that will challenge the joint force in the future.

JOE 2010 continues and improves on work first outlined in the 2008 version of the document which was downloaded over a million times from the command Web site.

Army Lt. Gen. Keith M. Huber, USJFCOM deputy commander said,

“The purpose of the JOE is to encourage strategic dialogue – we put out JOE 2008, people responded, we listened and made changes and improvements based on that feedback.”

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Valiant Angel Media Day

WHO: Mr. Andrew Forysiak, USJFCOM Joint Intelligence Directorate (J2), and Mr. Justin Thurber, USJFCOM Joint Intelligence Directorate (J2) will provide a brief and demonstrate Valiant Angel.  Valiant Angel, is a system which uses commercially-fielded technology to improve the warfighter’s ability to process, exploit, and disseminate intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) data. The technology will help access, retrieve and store large ISR data sets down range.

WHEN: Wednesday, March 17, 2010 from 10:30 a.m. – noon. Media interested in attending will need to arrive for parking and escort no later than 10:00 a.m.

WHERE: Joint Technology Experimentation Center (JTEC) Suffolk, Va. NOTE: Media interested in attending please contact Kathleen Jabs at (757) 836-6553 or kathleen.jabs@jfcom.mil or Navy Lt. Cdr. Rob Lyon at (757) 836-6559 robert.lyon@jfcom.mil by 10 a.m. Tuesday, March 16. Please call or email for details.

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