-Caveat Lector-
 

Note co-sponsorship of the conference (with the Marine Corps) by the Institute of Foreign Policy Analysis. Chairman of the Board of the IFPA is none other than Frank Carlucci of the Carlyle Group.
Jim
 ----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, October 17, 2002 1:25 PM
Subject: Pace Says Planning Guidance Will Reshape Military

By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Oct. 17, 2002 -- The vice chairman today
discussed the nuts and bolts behind the current
capabilities planning guidance process that U.S. combatant
commanders are going though.

Marine Gen. Peter Pace said the studies combatant
commanders are making would set the capabilities the
Defense Department must build toward. He was speaking to an
audience here at the Fletcher Conference, a joint effort of
the Marine Corps and the Institute of Foreign Policy
Analysis.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld recently sent his
contingency planning guidance to the combatant commanders.
"Rather than look for a two-year cycle on war plans, he has
directed them to come in within six months with their first
cuts on changing the major battle plans for the nation,"
the general said.

Rumsfeld's direction requires the commanders to update
battle plans that, in some cases, may have been on the
shelf for the past five to 10 years. Commanders will take a
first cut at these new plans within the next six months,
Pace said. The combatant commanders will work with the
secretary and the Joint Chiefs to lay out the exact assets
they need to accomplish their missions, he added.

"A new part of the puzzle is what we are calling an
'operational availability study,'" Pace said. "Put simply,
how much of the nation's combat capability do we want to be
able to deliver anywhere in the world and in what time?"

Pace used Army divisions as an example. The Army has 10
divisions. "If we can get five divisions anywhere in the
world in five months, is that satisfactory?" he said. "If
the Army could get three divisions anywhere in 30 days,
what would be the impact?"

He said that in the past three months, the military has
analyzed current war plans and asked commanders whether the
plans meet their requirements. The responses have been
positive, he said. But what Pace said he doesn't know is
whether commands are scaling war plans to fit the resources
they have or the resources needed and truly available to
accomplish the mission.

He said the same questions go with any other resource. How
many airplanes do combatant commanders need? If they could
arrive faster, what would that mean? How about carrier
battle groups? If freed of current constraints, how would
you fight the war?

"Once we identify the changes we can make, there are
decision points," Pace said. The services and the chiefs
can go to the secretary and say how things can change. "(If
the secretary doesn't) like the fact that it takes this
many divisions this many days, there are things you can
do," he said. Among the solutions are more overseas basing,
more pre-positioned equipment, faster ships and more
airlift.

He said deployment speed is a great force multiplier, but
it is expensive.

The new look at the military will mean changes to many
aspects of the military. Using Pace's division example,
perhaps this might mean Army divisions 10 or 15 years from
today may be a third smaller. The Army today has six heavy
and four light divisions.

"We should look at designing the objective force so that
each of the divisions is interchangeable," Pace said. "They
should be ready to go to Korea or be ready to go to Iraq
and end up going to Afghanistan."

_______________________________________________________
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be viewed at this web page.


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