It is increasingly clear that continental United States (CONUS)-based in-
stallations no longer provide sanctuary to U.S. military forces prior to their
deployment. The global reach of hostile powers with cyber, space and phys-
ical capabilities can contest friendly rear areas as well as forward deployed
forces.
1
The expanding battlespace includes CONUS-based command posts, critical
supercomputing operations, intelligence, fusion and cyber assets used by a
global force and the joint logistics and sustainment functions required to
support multi-domain operations—all of which emanate from installations
in the Strategic Support Area (SSA).
2
From an energy perspective, this
blurs the distinction between installation energy and operational en-
ergy, suggesting that approaches to energy security at the tactical edge
may be relevant to installations within the SSA.
Modernizing how the Department of Defense (DoD) generates, manages
and consumes power impacts how the Army sustains operations from its
installations and facilities in CONUS to the forward edge of distant battle-
elds. The U.S. Army—and the rest of DoD—needs to maintain focus on
the issue of energy resilience to be a ready, lethal and modernized force.
3
Strategic Context: The Shifting Character of War
The 2017 U.S. National Security Strategy (NSS) describes a world in which
many actors have become “skilled at operating below the threshold of mil-
itary conict” and highlights vulnerabilities in U.S. critical infrastructure
such as the electrical grid.
4
The NSS states that America must “strengthen
Energy Resilience:
An Imperative for a
More Lethal, Agile and
Strategically-Relevant Force
AUGUST 2018
ILW SPOTLIGHT 18-3
PUBLISHED BY THE INSTITUTE OF LAND WARFARE
AT THE ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY
www.ausa.org
1
Department of the Army, Army Field Manual (FM) 3-0, Operations (Washington, DC:
Headquarters, Department of the Army, 6 October 2017), p. 1-9; Colonel Patrick M. Duggan,
Spotlight 18-1, Modernization for Industrial Age U.S. Army Installations, AUSA’s Institute of
Land Warfare, February 2018.
2
Jack Surash, “Multi-Domain Battle: Challenges for Army Energy,” ASA IE&E presentation,
30 January 2018.
3
Department of the Army, U.S. Army Energy Security & Sustainability Strategy (Washington, DC:
Headquarters, Department of the Army, 2016).
4
The White House, National Security Strategy of the United States of America, December 2017,
pp. 3, 12, http://nssarchive.us/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/2017.pdf.
by Colonel Daniel S. Roper, USA, Ret.
ISSUE
The U.S. Army needs to maintain focus
on energy resilience—from factory to
fort to foxhole—to be a more lethal,
agile and strategically-relevant force.
spotlight SCOPE
• Addresses strategic support area
(SSA) vulnerabilities described in
FM 3-0, Operations and Multi-Domain
Operations: Evolution of Combined
Arms for the 21st Century.
• IncorporatesArmyWarghting
Challenges:
– conduct homeland operations;
– conduct joint expeditionary maneu-
ver and entry operations; and
– set the theater, sustain operations
and maintain freedom of move-
ment.
• Highlights continuum between instal-
lation and operational energy.
IMPLICATIONS
• Energy resilience is integral to Army
readiness, modernization and reform;
• energy resilience is foundational
to leveraging emerging capabilities
across a continuum—home station
training, mobilization, deployment
and operational employment;
• the Army has begun to reevaluate
how it delivers power to the bat-
tleeldandhowtoincreaseSSA
resilience; and
• public-private partnerships and inter-
disciplinary education are essential to
achieving energy resilience.
