People Still at Core of Military Success

Adm. John Harvey, USN, commander, U.S. Fleet Forces Command, opened Tuesday's Joint Warfighting Conference lunch presentation by proposing that while fear is not new, the public's view of reality can change in an instant. He made this point to emphasize that talking about what warfighters will need in five years is impossible to predict. What is possible, however, remains the work to ensure that the military, government and industry does not create tools and processes that are fundamentally wrong. If operational units can support commanders, that's success, he stated. The weapons systems the military will use in five years either are already in use or are being produced, and the admiral is heartened by the fact that training is in place to prepare the warfighters to use these weapons. Adm. Harvey complimented the Joint Operations Board for pulling together a document that describes what it believes what future combat will comprise, among which are complexity and rapid change. However, he pointed out that these conditions already exist, so the need to prepare for uncertainty is essential. No matter how much we try to describe the future exactly right, the percentage of succeeding is exactly zero, he stated. Despite this dose of realism, the admiral emphasized that "getting the big things right" is certainly possible. Right now in combat, warfighters are still forced to improvise, improvise, improvise; however, if military and industry leaders can better determine what troops will need in combat, the less improvisation will be needed, he stated. And the admiral is not willing to take public apathy or plummeting budgets as excuses for not delivering the best in solutions, doctrine and processes. To prove this point, he described the innovations that occurred after World War I, regardless of poor morale and the Great Depression. In this vein, Adm. Harvey elaborated that combatant commanders will want forces that are ready for tasking and a strong foundation of tools and people to use the tools, "They will need what Adm. Nimitz wanted the day after Pearl Harbor," he only half-jokingly quipped. "The center of mass for the joint force, bar none, is quality people. This may seem simplistic but it becomes more complex when you start to describe their skills and how to develop those skills. Why people? They must provide the ability to adapt to fight the conflict we are in today as well as we're about to fight," he stated. To accomplish this, senior military leaders must examine the policies and processes currently in place in all of the services, most of which have not substantially changed in more than 30 years, Adm. Harvey noted. Combatant commanders will need people who are focused on developing the processes and training for the right people-the 21^st century warfighters who can adapt. It is the people that must be strong and well trained because they are the ones who will use the technology/solutions to solve the problems, he stated.