Army Reserve refocuses on updated threat picture

By Michael Bold

FORT BELVOIR, Va.—The U.S. Army Reserve is pivoting from 15 years of fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq to prepare for new threats around the world, said Maj. Gen. Michael Smith, deputy chief of the Army Reserve.

In a wide-ranging interview, Smith also said:

• The Army Reserve and the National Guard provide about 70 percent of the Army’s logistical capability, allowing the active-duty Army to focus on brigade combat teams, combat aviation and other large, intensive programs.
• The Army Reserve is shifting its focus to preparing for its role in potential threats from Russia, China, Iran and North Korea.
• The Army Reserve is working with the active duty Army to identify what is needed from it and when it will be needed, and then aligning particular units to carry out those missions.
• It’s important for the Total Force to have one standard, so that the active duty Army, the Army Reserve and the Army National Guard can work together seamlessly.
• Families and employers are part of the Ready Reserve, and the Army Reserve’s Private Public Partnership initiative is working to make sure employers are rewarded for their support with employee-Soldiers who have training in leadership development.

Before assuming his current position on Oct. 1, 2015, Smith served as the assistant deputy chief of staff and director of the Army Protection Program; commanded the 333rd Military Police Brigade in Farmingdale, New York; was deputy commanding general-support, First Army, and commanding general, U.S. Army Reserve Support Command-First Army, at Rock Island, Illinois; served as director of the Iraq Training and Advisory Mission-Police in Baghdad; served as deputy commanding general of the 99th Regional Support Command at Fort Dix, New Jersey.; served as chief of staff and then deputy commanding general for the Civilian Police Assistance Training Team, Multi-National Security Transition Command-Iraq in Baghdad; and as the deputy director, Iraqi Security Forces, 501st Special Troops Battalion, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Forward Operating Base Speicher, Iraq.

Here’s an edited transcript of the AL&T News interview.

AL&T: A lot has been said about the Army Reserve’s role in the Total Force. I was wondering if you could just catch us up: where are we at right now as far as fully integrating the Reserves into the Total Force?

MAJ. GEN. SMITH: I think we’re making some very good progress with that. This is work that’s been going on for a number of years now. And quite frankly, we’re building on the successes of the last 15 years. Over the last 15 years we’ve brought together as a total Army regular Army, Army Reserve and Army National Guard. It was very common in OIF [Operation Iraqi Freedom] and OEF [Operation Enduring Freedom].

I will say our expertise is really maneuver support and sustainment. We don’t have combat arms, so brigade combat teams, combat aviation brigades, that’s not us. We pretty much do everything else. So that’s how we fight. And it’s been very successful. And with the Reserve component, meaning Guard and Reserve, we provide about 70 percent of the Army’s logistical capability, which is a pretty heavy lift. That allows the active duty to focus on brigade combat teams, combat aviation and those very large, capital-intensive programs. And programs where it takes a long time to develop the expertise and the capability to fight and win the nation’s wars. It would take years to develop those formations. Whereas the Army Reserve has picked up the responsibility for logistical support. So that’s how we fight when we’re downrange. But when we come back, we’re not organized the same way back at home station.

The active component goes back to their large bases—Fort Bragg, Fort Hood, Fort Lewis—whereas the Army Reserve goes back to our Army Reserve centers and facilities around the country, of which we probably have about 1,000. We’re a community-based organization spread in 56 states and territories—a far-reaching organization. So what we’re doing now is building upon those successes in the past, rating our formations into all collective training exercises. So if it’s a national training center rotation or one of Army warrior exercises, those exercises have regular Army, National Guard and Army Reserve Soldiers in them working together during training to develop the expertise and the familiarity so that we can train the way we fight. So the interoperability we’re working on and improving.

We have a new chief of Army Reserve now, Lt. Gen. [Charles D.] “Chip” Luckey. He replaced Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Talley. Gen. Luckey comes at the Army Reserve and the Army from being the chief of staff at NORAD NorthCom [North American Aerospace Defense Command and Northern Command] for the last four years. And he has a different view of prefecture, where the prefecture has evolved over the last 15 years.

What we’ve been in Iraq and Afghanistan is really more of a counterinsurgency fight and more in a stabilization mode, and I’ll call it a train, advise, assist or security force assistance mission. So it’s evolved quite a bit from the heavy combat going on, say, 10 years or so ago. Well, looking at the world today and the demands that are being placed on the Army, and in concert with Gen. [Mark A.] Milley, the chief of staff of the Army, Gen. Luckey is updated and he’s refocusing us based on an updated threat picture.

You hear about a resurgent Russia, and certainly over the last 15 years while we’ve been working counterinsurgency, they’ve been developing their military capabilities pretty significantly. Springing over to the Pacific, China is the fastest growing air and sea capability in years. Swing over to North Korea. You have North Korea still testing nuclear weapons and they are testing their ballistic missile capability. And then swing back around to the Middle East. I know that we have a treaty with Iran, but they are still a state sponsor of terrorism. And then you have ISIS.

So all of those things, the threat out there to us is much more than a counterinsurgency fight. Our focus now as an Army Reserve is moving away from a rotational mission-building partnership capacity. What we’re getting back to now is decisive action training … so that we hone our skills in combat operations against a peer/near-peer competitor.

We’re developing our planning guidance, which initiates at the president and goes through the SecDef [secretary of defense]. And in that defense planning guidance, we’re told to simultaneously or near simultaneously defeat an adversary and deny another adversary while at the same time defending the homeland and containing or fighting counterinsurgencies wherever they may pop up.

So that defeat and deny that I talk about, we have been asked to do that and look at a European scenario, Northwest Asia scenario and so forth. The Army is looking at their requirements and what does the Army need to do to accomplish that mission. And then the Army Reserve is partnering very closely with the active component to determine the Army Reserve’s contribution to that. What do you need from us and when do you need it by? We’ve been at this for probably about six to eight weeks now. It is a lot of heavy lifting to do that, but we’re identifying what’s needed, when it’s needed, and then our assessment will align particular units across that. Now once we do that, then we’re looking at the manning level and the training and the equipping level. And so that’s when we get into the identifying and prioritizing equipment and modernization and interoperability. And that could be whether it’s rolling stock, whether it’s pipeline materials, whether it’s construction equipment, whatever the Army requires. Communications is a big one as well, so that we can communicate Army Reserve to the active component, because many of our forces will be required to deploy early. So for that, we need to have the most modern equipment on par with the active component so that we can communicate with them and talk to them without any delay or without any latency in communication.

AL&T: So stepping down to the unit level, when you talk about having active duty units working side by side with Reserve units and National Guard units: Are those three separate cultures that need to be basically melded on the ground? How’s that working?

MAJ. GEN. SMITH: There are different cultures, but I would say it’s more where we come from. So of course, active duty is on all the time, and the Guard and Reserve are community-based organizations. So we’re Main Street USA. The National Guard is a state organization, a state militia, they would call themselves, with the adjutant general in each state controlling those forces … and they work for the governor. When they are put on federal orders, then they [come under Army control].

But we do have one standard. [In the report by] the National Commission of the Future of the Army … there was a lot of talk in there about taking steps to [create] multi-component units and multi-component training. With the National Commission report, we’re much more focused on that interoperability, the Guard and the Reserve units working together. This is on maneuver support and sustainment, so we’re working with sustainment brigades, engineer brigades, military police, doctors, lawyers and so forth. And we partner with them and we have, in the case of the Army Reserve, a total force partnership program where we work closely with our active Army counterparts.

We have a common standard that we all meet, whether it is for a PT test, whether it is for any sort of activity, there’s one standard for the Army, and all three components—active component, Guard and Reserve—meet that standard. That goes very well, because we have become interchangeable then. I was an MP [military police] brigade commander, so one of my MP battalions can easily substitute or plug into a component organization or a National Guard organization. Because when I say military police battalion, everyone knows what those capabilities are, everybody trains to [that] standard and they have become very interchangeable.

So what I would offer: It is one culture, but from an Army Reserve standpoint as citizen Soldiers, our Soldiers have civilian skills as well and different experiences. So I like to say it is a richer background because in addition to their military training and discipline and expertise, they also bring civilian skills to it as well. Many of them are management skills and leadership skills. We have very accomplished people in all professions. So it is more than just doing it full time. We’re still trained to the same standard, but we also have additional life experience, if you will.

AL&T: Let’s talk about acquisition. Is the Army Reserve satisfied with acquisition? Are you being served as well as the activity duty Army?

MAJ. GEN. SMITH: Well, acquisition is my not my area of expertise … but I can talk to it a little bit. As maneuver support and sustainment, we don’t have the huge capital requirements that, say, an armor brigade would have or combat aviation would. We have quite a few Humvees, rolling stock, equipment, computer systems. I mean, we do have substantial amounts of equipment, but not a lot of the high-dollar equipment compared to some of the others. Right now we’re in the process, as I mentioned before, of identifying those units who are early deployers or that have to deploy within 30 days, 60 days and so forth, based on a particular timeline. And once we identify those, we’re going to be asking the Army to increase the prioritization of those units so that they have the most modern equipment or certainly comparable to what the active component has. And that is important. Now that’s just not the equipment itself, but also communication systems and applications as well. Because it is very important that we can communicate with active component forces that’re deploying that we’ll be providing support to. We’ll be opening ports, we’ll be opening the theater. So when ships dock, we’ll be the ones that’re unloading the ship and running the ports to get them onboard, plus providing the fuel, the ammunition, really everything that they need to continue forward into the area of operation.

AL&T: Talk a bit about the Army Reserve’s Private Public Partnership (P3).

MAJ. GEN. SMITH: We continue to emphasize recruiting and professional development, leader development. And one of the things that’s new or evolving is our Private Public Partnership initiative. As I mentioned earlier … our main priority is readiness, that’s what we’re focused on. And our No. 2 priority is future readiness, so we’re ready today and how do we get ready for tomorrow. But the third part is all things family and employers. Because as a community-based organization—I don’t like the term part-time force—but we have dual careers. We have families, we have employers, and they’re all a part of the Army Reserve picture. So it’s important that, to take care of our families and provide for them, we rely on our communities and military service organizations and volunteer service, veteran service organizations, to support those families. And employers are a key part. We ask more and more of our Soldiers, and the employers have been fantastic in terms of providing an opportunity for our Soldiers to go to training. But also where we’ve evolved over the last couple of years is talking to employers and explaining to them what sort of training their employees go to when they go to the Army Reserve. And a lot of it is leader development training, so that when the Soldier leaves General Electric, for example, and comes to the Army Reserve, General Electric is getting back an employee who’s not just a military service member, but they have leadership skills for General Electric as well. How to build teams, how to motivate people, how to coach, teach and mentor—those are skills that the Army is very good at teaching, but they transcend the military, and those are highly sought after skills in the workforce at large.

AL&T: They are sending away an employee, but they’re getting back an improved employee.

MAJ. GEN. SMITH: Absolutely. And it works really well. We have a lot of employers that strongly support the program. Our Private Public Partnership really emphasizes that, where we take it to the next level. It is not just a matter of providing time for the employee, our Soldier, to go to training. It recognizes the importance of that partnership between the company and the military. As we get into areas like cyber, that becomes particularly important. At the rate of speed, at the rate of change in the cyber world, partnering with companies involved in cyber is particularly important. … No one is on the leading edge completely, so partnerships between businesses and academia are really necessary to stay on the cutting edge of the developments. It’s a very rapidly expanding and growing area and there’s something new every day.

So we find that that is particularly important. Private Public Partnership, where that comes into play, as the business world continues to evolve and change, there’s a case where companies leave and our Soldiers become unemployed or underemployed. Through the P3, we have specialists that can help Soldiers develop résumés, help them get interviews with companies that are partnered with us. So it is a win-win, because those companies get skilled employees, our Soldiers get a steady income, and that is really good for everyone. But not only the Army, we have a well-rounded Soldier, but it also helps their families and provides that financial resilience that’s so important in this day and age.

AL&T: Is there anything else you’d like to talk about, general?

MAJ. GEN. SMITH: Another big program that the Army has is Soldier for Life. A lot of times you’ll hear of some active components saying, after 20 years you retire, you return to the community, and we would like those retirees and veterans to hire military people and inspire young people to join the military. I look at it a little bit differently. Recognizing that not everyone stays for 20 years, and when they leave active duty to pursue their civilian career and have families and become a productive member of the community, they have an option to join the Army Reserve and continue their military service.

Last year we had about 4,500 Soldiers who were leaving active duty anyway, learned about the Army Reserve, and they joined. So now we have experienced Soldiers, many of them in logistics, engineering, military police, including some doctors and lawyers as well, who continue to serve and provide a tremendous amount of experience. And [they] leverage that experience while they pursue their civilian careers.

In the future, we see cyber as being a very significant opportunity for us, because as you know, in the cyber world, once you have the credentials in cyber you’ll be able to probably make a lot more money in industry than you would in the military. So working in the Army Reserve and having your civilian career in cyber is a good way to continue serving while pursuing one’s dreams.

---

Subscribe to Army AL&T News, the premier online news source for the Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology (AL&T) Workforce.

---

ONLINE EXTRAS:

National Commission on the Future of the Army report

U.S. Army Reserve Private Public Partnership