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Overview
Military transformation— “a process that shapes the changing
nature of military competition and cooperation through new
combinations of concepts, capabilities, people and organizations”—
is on the minds and agendas of everyone dealing with the
military. Many people talk about transformation; the two authors
of this Defense Horizons have done something about it. In fact,
they are among the few who have been responsible for shaping
and implementing the concept. To get a better idea of what goes
into this process, particularly the element of joint experimentation
that is helping to identify and define the nature of change,
Defense Horizons presents the views of two of America’s leading
military officers who have been involved in the process.
Admiral Harold Gehman, the last commander of Atlantic
Command (before it became Joint Forces Command, or JFCOM)
and initiator of the Joint Experimentation Directorate, presents
a framework for how experimentation can advance the goals of
transformation and clarifies terms and relates them to the tasks
at hand. He also considers the role of the joint experimentation
process, uses historical analogies to identify the prerequisites for
successful transformation, and gives examples of where earlier
attempts have failed and why. Finally, he shows how joint experimentation
can help achieve success in our current efforts by minimizing
conditions that have brought about failure in the past.
Moving from the theoretical basis established by Admiral
Gehman to practice, Major General James Dubik, Director of
the JFCOM Joint Experimentation Directorate, describes how
the Joint Concept Development and Experimentation Campaign
is an important catalyst for transforming military capability. He
describes the “two-path strategy to innovation” being employed,
involving Joint Prototypes and Joint Concepts and actionable
recommendations. He leads the reader through how this process
is working today to achieve transformation.
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