Five Challenges for Future Infantry: Thinking about ... - Australian Army

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Concepts • Colonel Chris Field 3. Will Future Infantry fight from and/or with L400-CAFS and its associated combat systems? 10 4. Does Future Infantry require L400-CAFS to carry an Infantry Section? Should Future Infantry crew L400-CAFS? 5. To what extent should L400-CAFS be interoperable with allies/coalition partners? Future Infantry Challenge 5: Employing JOINT PROJECT 2048 – Enhanced Amphibious Capability The 2009 White Paper states that Defence would, in future years, receive an enhanced amphibious capability. 11 This project, which is noted in the Defence Capability Plan 2009 as JOINT PROJECT 2048 (JP 2048), includes: two new Landing Helicopter Dock (LHD) amphibious ships with ship-to-shore connectors; a large strategic sealift ship; and six new heavy landing craft. 12 Like L400-CAFS, JP 2048 has the potential to change not only Army, but the entire Australian Defence Force. The following are some questions for possible Future Infantry adaptation and change in the context of JP 2048: 1. What is Future Infantry’s position on amphibious specialised brigades or battalions? 2. Noting current challenges in maintaining Infantry skills, will JP 2048 require specialist roles for Future Infantry to enable amphibious operations? 3. What amphibious training will be required for Future Infantry? Does the ADF need an amphibious training centre of excellence? 13 4. Employing JP 2048, how will Future Infantry achieve: ship-to-objective manoeuvre, distributed operations; and sea-based logistics? 14 5. To what extent should JP 2048 be interoperable with L400-CAFS? Conclusion JP 2048 has the potential to change not only Army, but the entire Australian Defence Force. The purpose of this article has been to note five challenges for the Future Infantry in order to stimulate thinking about Future Infantry’s requirement to adapt and change. These challenges are: 1. Incorporating continuous learning 2. Operating across the fives lines of operation in accordance with Adaptive Campaigning – Future Land Operating Concept page 38 • Volume VII, Number 1 • Australian Army Journal
Five Challenges for Future Infantry 3. Balancing the fighting force 4. Employing LAND 400 – Combined Arms Fighting System 5. Employing JOINT PROJECT 2048 – Enhanced Amphibious Capability. This article has proposed, in the context of adaptation and change, many questions for Future Infantry. Importantly, these questions are only a beginning. They may not be the right questions. They may not be complete questions. Or they may be questions that Future Infantry will address without significant learning and/ or intellectual effort. Alternatively, perhaps Infantry may seek to explore comprehensive thinking on these questions and challenges in order to inform the development of Future Infantry. There is no doubt that Future Infantry—fighting in complex human, physical and informational battlespaces, operating in a combined arms, Joint, whole-of-government context incorporating coalition, contractor and non-government organisations partners against adaptive, agile and lethal enemies—will need to adapt and change. Whatever rank or position held, the breadth, depth and range of this adaptation and change for Future Infantry is now firmly in the hands of Infantry personnel. Endnotes 1 ‘Rifleman’, Defence Jobs website accessed 10 September 2009. 2 Adaptive Campaigning – Army’s Future Land Operating Concept, Head Modernisation and Strategic Planning – Army, Department of Defence, Canberra, September 2009, p. xii; ‘What is the Australian Civilian Corps?’, AUSAID website, . 3 Adaptive Campaigning, p. iv. 4 This idea was generated by Lieutenant Colonel Chris Smith, Staff Officer Grade 1, Future Land Operating Concept, email to author 13 October 2009. 5 FM 3-13 (FM 100-6) Information Operations: Doctrine, Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures, Department of Defence, November 2003, p. 1-5. 6 Todd C Helmus, Christopher Paul and Russell W Glenn, Enlisting Madison Avenue, The Marketing Approach to Earning Popular Support in Theaters of Operation, prepared for the United States Joint Forces Command, RAND National Research Institute, Santa Monica, 2007, p. xv. 7 Ibid., p. 34. 8 Defending Australia in the Asia Pacific Century: Force 2030, Defence White Paper 2009, p. 75. 9 ‘Land Combat Vehicles’ in Defence Capability Plan 2009, (Public Version), Department of Defence, 2009, p. 17; ‘Acquisition Categorisation’ in Defence Capability Plan 2009, (Public Version), p. 6. Australian Army Journal • Volume VII, Number 1 • page 39
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Five Challenges for Future Infantry: Thinking about ... - Australian Army

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