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July 19, 2004
Transforming the Military: A SOF Pilot Speaks
JK: On July 9, 2004, Robin Burke published a must-read article on the transformations underway in America's military and intelligence communities. It was good enough to make our all-time Best Of... category, and the outstanding discussions that Robin led made it even better. Helicopter pilot and Air Force Special Operations Command planning officer John Lance was invited to stitch some of his comment posts into a Guest Blog article. My Thoughts On Military Transformation, Done Right As an Air Force special operations guy since 1995, I might be able to shed some light on this whole 'transformation of the military' thing. 'Transformation' has turned into one of those buzzwords that comes along every couple of years, becomes the trendy new 'in' thing, then fades away to be replaced by a new one. 15 years ago, it was 'Quality', we were going to use TQM concepts to improve the military and use the 'peace dividend' wisely. 10 years ago, it was RMA, 'Revolution in Military Affairs. 5 years ago, it was 'Jointness'. Now, it's 'Transformation' and everybody is jumping on the bandwagon. I definitely think tech has a big role on the battlefield (hell, I'm a SOF helo pilot, I love having Blue Force Tracker, IDAS/MATT, DIRCM and all the other alphabet-soup toys on my Pave Low helicopter). I think the 'conventional' military would do well to emulate the way SOF does business. The problem that I see is one of prioritization. All of the money that should be used to 'transform' the most important piece of tech on the battlefield, communications, is being wasted on high-priced major weapons programs with huge cost overruns. People always say you should criticize something if you don't have a plan. Well, here's my idea of what the military needs to concentrate on in order to 'transform' in the middle of a shooting war: Posted By Winds of Change.NET at July 19, 2004 12:35 AM | TrackBackComments
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