Commander kicks off conference with key note address
The commander of the U.S. Joint Forces Command gave military, government and industry leaders his view of the future joint warfighting force and the challenges they will face as the Joint Warfighting Conference began in Virginia Beach.
By MC2 (AW) Nikki Carter
USJFCOM Public Affairs
(VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. - May 12, 2009) -– The commander of the U.S. Joint Forces Command gave military, government and industry leaders his view of the future joint warfighting force and the challenges they will face here today.
Marine Corps Gen. James N. Mattis, who serves as both NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Transformation and commander, U.S. Joint Forces Command, discussed the conference’s theme “Building a Balanced Joint Force: How to Best Meet Demands of the the Future Security Environment.”
Mattis stressed the importance of the adaption of the joint force in today’s security environment.
“In the coming years, we will not face wars that have clearly defined beginnings and clearly defined ends. Rather we are going to be in an era of persistent conflict…and this brings with it the greatest rethinking of our military mission in a century. Today we are surely defenders of a realm and that realm is not purely geographic any longer; rather, it’s a realm of ideas, revolutionary ideas,” Mattis said. “We have got to adapt now.
He said that the U.S. armed forces needed to avoid the historic experience of one of our allies using as an example Great Britain which kept watchmen on the cliffs of Dover watching for Napoleon 120 years after he was dead.
“We need to stop looking for Napoleon and start looking for current threats. No military in history has effectively changed or transformed without clearly identifying some military problems that needed to be solved.
He said U.S. Joint Forces Command effort to identify the problem can be found in a document called the Joint Operating Environment (JOE).
The JOE, currently under revision for 2009, “has influenced our Quadrennial Defense Review inputs, it has helped frame scenarios we are putting forward for what we may have to face in the future, it has helped reduce ambiguity so we have the fewest regrets…we can not get it perfect but we can certainly reduce the scope of regrets we have.”
Information from the JOE provided the problem statement according to the general and the answers for that problem statement lie in the Capstone Concept for Joint Operations (CCJO), a document USJFCOM helped to develop for Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen.
The general also said the command, along with partners from across the Department of Defense (DoD), the U.S. government industry and academia will start experimenting with the CCJO in two weeks. He said DoD will play the joint force against three enemies to see if it is agile enough to address all three threats.
* globally network terrorist threat
* peer competitor distance
* a failed or failing state
“We will not use buzz words and slogans masquerading as concepts. We go in there knowing that we might not get it 100 percent right, but we will not get it 100 percent wrong and we have to try to avoid a failure of imagination.” Mattis said.
He said maintaining and sustaining quality troops are “vital” to the joint force. “War has been and will always be a human endeavor,” Mattis said. “Survival of an all-volunteer force is vital to national security.”
Mattis’ speech was the first event of a three-day event cosponsored by USJFCOM, NDIA, the U.S. Naval Institute and AFCEA.
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