The Modern Louisiana Maneuvers - US Army Center Of Military History

(OTN) assessment. Key points made about
the effort included: Involves participation of
CG, DCS-CDD, and major portions of the
ODCS-CDD staff; Answers CSA question to
the CG; All TRADOC schools and MSCs participated;
Task Force assembled for January
1992 assessment; assessment includes night
vision, electro-optic, primary weapon systems,
radar, laser, intel and EW, and satellite
systems.
May 1992-MG Jerry A. White, Chief of
Infantry and Cmdt, Infantry School, published
"Commandant's Note: Owning the
Night," in Infantry (May-June 1992), in
which he described the need for U.S. forces
to be able to operate as effectively at night
as during the day. He then discussed the requirements
for training and technological developments
needed to ensure that our forces
would continue to "own the night" into the
21st century6
July 1992-MG White published
"Commandant's Note: Light and Lethal," in
Infantry (july-August 1992) in which he discussed
the need for the smaller Army's firstto-fight
units to be both light and lethal. He
emphasized the role advanced technology
must play in giving first-to-fight forces those
characteristics and emphasized the importance
of night vision devices, with weapons
and munitions, command and control equipment,
and environmental survival equipment,
giving them first place in the four categories
of equipment the first-to-fight forces
must have. He then described projected advances
in night vision devices for the force.7
21 August 1992-GEN Sullivan visited
HQ, TRADOC, for wide-ranging discussions
about the TRADOC Battle Labs. During
a video teleconference (VTC) that included
participants from 20 TRADOC and
FORSCOM installations, MG White presented
a briefing on the Dismounted
Battlespace Battle Lab's (DBBL) investigations
into OTN. MG White noted that OTN
was an operational requirement spanning
114
all battlefield functions. He described his
battle lab's purpose in its OTN efforts as
being to improve capabilities for the entire
combined arms force, to extend the envelope
for detection and engagements, to address
current and future systems, to speed
up the development and evaluation process,
and to focus on high payoff solutions. He
further discussed for the Chief his evaluation
and experimentation plans and described,
as well, the integration challenges
he faced, noting that present Army efforts
were not synchronized. He also laid out
plans to conduct OTN-related experiments
at the NTC and the JRTC. Sullivan commented
that he had no conceptual problems
with experimentation at the CTCs-that it
could be done without turning the CTCs
into testing grounds. He also commented
that the power in his conversation with MG
White would inhere in the integration of
OTN efforts that could result. 8
October 1992-DBBL conducted Concept
Evaluation Program test of the infantry
platoon nightfighting system to establish a
baseline against which to evaluate advanced
technologies. The experimentation involved
target detection, range firing, defensive live
fire, and dismounted and mounted squad
and platoon exercises 9
3 December 1992-Senior Officer Review
Conference held at Fort Benning, chaired by
GEN Franks, reviewed the DBBl's organization
and project planning. OTN was the first
project area discussed. GEN Franks commented
that "we are accustomed to working
in terms of systems and not capabilities. We
need to work capabilities so they can be horizontally
integrated across the combined arms
force and not focus on things that were branch
proponency issues in the past. This is a fundamental
change to the way we have done
business." He also emphasized the need to
integrate activities closely with the test community
and that the use of simulations in lieu
of field testing is a key function of the Battle
Lab. Other comments called for integrated
The Modern Louisiana Maneuvers