The U.S. Army Concept For Multi-Domain Combined Arms .

The U.S. Army Concept for Multi-DomainCombined Arms Operations at Echelons Above Brigade2025-2045Versatile, Agile, and LethalVersion 1.0September 2018DISTRIBUTION INSTRUCTIONS: Distribution Statement A: Approved for public release.Distribution unlimited.

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U.S. Army Concept for Multi-Domain Combined Arms Operations at Echelons Above BrigadePrefaceFrom the CommanderUnited States (U.S.) Army Combined Arms CenterThe emerging operational environment presents more complex challenges to the Army and JointForce than any experienced in Iraq and Afghanistan. While the Army learned invaluable andenduring lessons over the last 17 years, that experience, sustained over almost two decades,culturally imprinted a generation of Army leaders and the institution for one type of warfare—counter insurgency and other stability operations. Now, counter to this recent experience, we findourselves entering a new era where the threat of large-scale ground combat is more likely than atany point since the end of the Cold War.To meet the challenges of this new and evolving security environment, requiring both conventionaland irregular warfare at much higher scale and intensity, our Army must prepare for the most lethaland challenging threat to our nation: the increasing likelihood of highly contested great powerconflict. This requires changes in how we man, equip, train, and employ Army forces, especiallythose forces at echelons above brigade. The Echelons Above Brigade (EAB) Concept, nestedwithin the higher Multi-Domain Operations Concept, provides the intellectual foundation to drivethis change.As the Army transformed from a division to a brigade-based force, echelons above brigadetransitioned from being large, highly capable formations to mere headquarters, devoid of fixedstructure but tailorable to accomplish a variety of missions. While appropriate at the time, thistransition now leaves us potentially unprepared. In the future environment, characterized byintensive peer and near-peer competition and possible conflict, the U.S. Army must evolve andadapt both its culture and capabilities to stay ahead of our adversaries. It must recast the currentEAB headquarters into interdependent, echeloned multi-domain warfighting formations armedwith the persistent, resident capabilities necessary to prevail against the complex and capablethreats that challenge us across the competition continuum.With the reemergence of peer-capable threats, the future battlefield will rely on divisions, corps,field armies, and theater armies to shape the security environment, prevent conflict, prevail inlarge-scale combat, and consolidate gains for enduring stability. These EAB formations must seizeand retain the initiative now—well before armed conflict—in order to win in the future. We mustarm them with the essential capabilities and authorities, and with sufficient capacity, to see &understand, decide, shape, and strike faster than our adversaries, across all domains, to endure andsustain favorable outcomes. The time is now to prepare our Army for these demands and adapt tothe multi-domain battlefield of tomorrow. Only through enhancing EAB formations and evolvingits warfighting culture can the U.S. Army remain the world’s most lethal ground combat forcecapable of winning anywhere, anytime.MICHAEL D. LUNDYLieutenant General, U.S. ArmyCommander, Combined Arms Centeri

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U.S. Army Concept for Multi-Domain Combined Anns Operations at Echelons Above BrigadeForewordFrom the DirectorU.S. Army Capabilities Integration CenterOur near-peer competitors, leveraging emerging trends in science, technology, and the informationenvironment, have invested in strategies and capabilities to challenge the United States and remakethe global order. They employ innovative approaches to contest U.S. and allies' interests in alldomains, often seeking to attain their goals through ambiguous actions taken below the thresholdof armed conflict. In armed conflict, advances in weapons technology, sensors, communications,and information processing allow future adversaries to generate stand-off intended to separate theJoint Force in time, space, and function. To fulfill the U.S. Army's landpower roles in protectingthe Nation and securing its vital interests, the Army must adapt the way it organizes, trains,educates, mans, and equips to fight these future threats.To that end, the Army developed and continues to refine the US Army in Multi-DomainOperations (MOO) Concept, which outlines the way our Army counters and defeats a near-peeradversary in competition and armed conflict. The US Army Conceptfor Multi-Domain CombinedArms Operations at Echelons Above Brigade was developed in parallel and is nested with theevolving MOO Concept. As part of MOO development, the Army identified three overarchingand overlapping themes to guide subsequent concept and capability development efforts. First,the Army needs to compete below the threshold of armed conflict to deter an adversary fromviewing war as the best approach to achieving strategic objectives. But just as important, the Armymust think differently about competition and actively engage in the operational environment withappropriate authorities to enable rapid transition to conflict if necessary. Second, to defeat a near peer adversary in armed conflict, the Army and Joint Force must be able to converge capabilitiesacross all domains (air, land, maritime, space, cyberspace), and environments (electromagneticspectrum, information) continuously and rapidly. Finally, the Army cannot win wars alone. Awhole-of-government approach incorporating the power of joint, interorganizational, andmultinational partners is essential to winning future wars and creating lasting outcomes.Our echelons above brigade-theater armies, field armies, corps, and divisions-are the linchpinfor all of these actions, and must be resourced as such. These are more than headquarters. Theyare multi-domain capable formations that converge capabilities in all domains and environmentsduring competition and armed conflict, focused on near-peer threats able to win in large-scaleground combat. Our current force, although lethal and experienced after almost two decades ofwar, requires broad-based modernization if it is to accomplish the tasks required to win in futureconflict. This concept is integral in developing and testing the capabilities, doctrine, organizations,Soldiers, and leaders needed to conduct MOO at echelon to defeat future near-peer adversaries.Its publication represents the first step toward the development of the future Army force.Lieute nt General, U.S. ArmyOirec r, Army CapabilitiesIntegration Centeriii

U.S. Army Concept for Multi-Domain Combined Arms Operations at Echelons Above BrigadeExecutive SummaryThis concept describes six challenges in the expanded multi-domain operations framework and howfuture Army forces gain and maintain the initiative across the competition continuum, the full rangeof military operations, and each unique AOR to meet those challenges. The concept is nested andcongruent with the current draft version 1.5 of the Multi-Domain Operations concept.The Army’s four strategic roles—shape security environments, prevent conflict, prevail in large-scaleground combat, and consolidate gains—clarify the enduring reasons for which the Army organizes,trains, and equips, and provide a lens to focus development of future EAB capabilities. To enable theseroles against complex near-peer threats across the continuum of competition, EAB formations andcommanders must be able to see and understand the depth of the battlespace, including across alldomains, the EMS, and the information environment; decide on a course of action that converges multidomain capabilities at a decisive point with increased speed and tempo to shape the battlespace forsuccess through cross-domain action and maneuver and strike the enemy at multiple decisive points orspaces; and possess the endurance to maintain positions of advantage while consolidating gains.This concept explains how enabled EAB formations provide essential linkages to the expandedinstruments of national power, and operate seamlessly with partners to overmatch any future threat.These enabled EAB formations possess the necessary capabilities and capacities to—1)2)3)4)5)Gain and maintain contact to reveal threat areas of influence and enemy dispositions,Persistently compete below the threshold of armed conflict,Posture to reduce vulnerability and rapidly transition to large-scale ground combat,Converge multi-domain effects in depth to create windows of superiority,Exploit the initiative at tempo against critical vulnerabilities to dis-integrate threat systems,and enable maneuver forces to defeat enemy formations in close combat, and6) Consolidate gains to develop and retain an enduring initiative.To achieve this, future enabled EAB formations must include:uniquely tailored theater armies that set conditions for the employment of landpower in their AORsand the defeat of adversary aggression in competition below armed conflict;threat-focused field armies that provide credible deterrence, execute the competition below armedconflict against near-peer threats, and enable rapid transition to win in large-scale ground combatoperations (LSGCO);versatile corps that rapidly tailor to multiple missions and roles, coordinate deep cross-domainmaneuver, shape the deep maneuver area in support of close areas, execute operational deep fires,and follow through to consolidate tactical gains for lasting success; andtactically focused divisions that command brigade combat teams (BCT) and enablers, converge multidomain capabilities, shape the close areas, execute deep maneuver and fires, and dominate the closefight through expert employment of those BCTs and enablers.Together, these EAB formations enable Army forces to quickly respond to crisis, compete below thethreshold of conflict, defeat aggression, and prevail in LSGCO against capable near-peer threats. Thisconcept begins the dialogue to optimize EAB headquarters as robust fighting formations with residentcapabilities and capacities focused primarily on defeating near-peer adversaries and threats in LSGCOwhile still retaining the flexibility needed for limited contingency operations.iv

U.S. Army Concept for Multi-Domain Combined Arms Operations at Echelons Above BrigadeFigure 1. EABC logic diagramv