Today the US military finds itself in a period of large-scale change in the conduct of warfare. There is wide verbal acceptance in American military circles that we are in the midst of a military revolution, or “revolution in military affairs” that will require a transformation of the US armed forces. Yet despite the rhetoric, the American military is not conducting the kind of Joint and Service field exercises characteristic of military organizations engaged in transformation.
This report makes the case that field exercises, and the experiments they make possible, play a critical role in enabling military innovation and transformation, which can be defined as innovation on a grand scale or on a scale sufficient to bring about a change in warfare regimes (i.e., a military revolution). Properly undertaken, field exercises are a source of great competitive advantage. Their benefits include:
- Reducing uncertainty concerning how best to meet emerging threats;
- Determining the proper mix of emerging and legacy systems in the future force;
- Enabling militaries to develop and evaluate a wide range of military capabilities and forms of operation, which can be fully and rapidly developed if and when a threat emerges;
- Generating successes that inspire enthusiasm for, and sustain the momentum of, military transformation and innovation;
- Complicating the planning of would-be enemies;
- Identifying intra-regime shifts—major shifts in the military competition that, while they do not require large-scale transformation, do require the military to effect significant innovation;
- Helping to avoid premature, large-scale production of emerging systems that may appear promising but that actually offer little in terms of military capability; and
- Identifying and solving the practical problems inherent in developing new operations, force structures and systems that cannot be determined through wargames and simulations.
To meet emerging challenges in such a way as to preserve the current level of national security, the Defense Department must effect significant changes in its approach to Joint and Service field exercises and increase dramatically the priority accorded to experimentation. At present, the Department’s effort lacks focus and is woefully underfunded.