Page 37 - Williams Foundation Integrated Force Design Seminar
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Designing the Integrated Force: How to Define and Meet the Challenge?
In an interview held later in that week at his office, it was clear why he focused so strongly on this point. His
own combat experiences in the Middle East and elsewhere underscored that getting your concept of
operations right was crucial to combat success. In particular, his experience in Afghanistan, which required
evolving the concept of operations, was directly correlated with combat success. Having the right approach
and the right command structure was an inherent part of success or failure.
This means for the future land force, that shaping an effective concept of operations as part of an integrated
joint force was not a word game, or a bureaucratic game, but fundamental to the combat success of the ADF.
As BG Wainwright put it during the interview: “Joint effect through integration by action is crucial. We need
to frame any design the future force to achieve greater joint integrated effects respectfully across all
warfighting domains. For me the key to this challenge rests in our people. Moreover I see that the younger
generation is a critical component to this design, because they are pretty well joint educated, enabled and
experienced. The question is how can we maximize the future force to be built around those instincts and
experiences?”
And the kind of joint effect he was focused upon was not only the ability to share common resources but to
funnel those resources in terms of the kinds of decisions, which had to be made in the different warfighting
domains.
“I don't want a joint ISR program being developed in isolation at the operational level without a clear
understanding of the ground force considerations. It's dangerous for this to even be conceived as a notion. .”
He emphasized that the changing strategic environment was driving the need to reconsider some of our
traditional models as we strive to design a capable responsive and empowered effective future integrated
force.
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