The Army’s “Multi-Domain Operations in 2028” Is An Important Doctrinal Development (From RealClearDefense)

Last December, the U.S. Army published the latest version of its concept for competing with Russia and China. The U.S. Army in Multi-Domain Operations 2028 (MDO 2028) is intended to guide the Service’s thinking on organizational change, future combat operations and modernization priorities. Today and into the near future, the Army must contend with potential great power adversaries that will have local quantitative superiority. Most significantly, these adversaries have built, and are continually modernizing, an intricate and multi-layered system of offensive and defensive standoff capabilities. The Army Chief of Staff, General Mark Milley, framed the challenge that MDO 2028 is intended to address in the most straightforward and easy-to-understand way: “The military problem we face is defeating multiple layers of standoff in all domains in order to maintain the coherence of our operations.” MDO 2028 is intended to have some of the same effects as AirLand Battle. According to Lieutenant General Eric Wesley, the commander of the Army’s Futures and Concepts Center (AFCC), the Army and the Joint Force need to figure out a way to disintegrate great power adversaries’ layered capabilities, both offensive and defensive. I have written more on MDO 2028 here.