April’s AUSA Corner
1. Transformation Underway
Preparing today’s Army for emerging challenges requires providing speed, range and “convergence of cutting-edge technologies,” Acting Army Secretary John Whitley and Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville wrote in a commentary for the April edition of ARMY magazine.
Meanwhile, Army training officials recently said the service is working to equip Opposing Force, or OPFOR, units at the National Training Center/Fort Irwin with a new, modern combat vehicle that replicates Russian or Chinese battle wagons.
Currently, the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment uses OPFOR Surrogate Vehicles, or OSVs, constructed out of M113 chassis and equipped with Bradley turret.
“Over the last year or so, we have been outfitting them with night-vision devices, thermals — something that truly makes them a near-peer threat, the type of threat that we would anticipate fighting in the future, that we really want [Army units] to train against,” Col. Michael Simmering, commander of NTC’s Operations Group, told an audience at the Association of the United States Army’s Global Force Next symposium.
2. Civilian Fitness
Department of the Army civilians are authorized to participate in physical fitness and preventive health activities for up to three hours each work week. Fitness time is granted under Army Directive 2021-03, released in January, as part of the Army People Strategy.
Time off has to be preapproved by a worker’s chain of command and for no more than one hour per day. The program is not an entitlement to time off but is viewed as a voluntary activity. Job requirements will dictate when and if fitness time can be taken.
3. Rethinking Presence
President Joe Biden has frozen the withdrawal of about 12,000 U.S. troops from Germany ordered last summer by his predecessor. “At home and around the world, we face challenges that require us to lean forward, not shrink back,” Biden wrote in a new national security memorandum.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said he’ll “be leading a Global Posture Review of U.S. military forces around the world so our footprint aligns with our national interests. We need to make sure we have the right capabilities in the right places, and we are supporting the work of our diplomats.”
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