Special Report
March 2015
Installation of the Future
The All-Volunteer Army will remain the most highly trained and professional land force in the world. It is
uniquely organized with the capability and capacity to provide expeditionary, decisive landpower to the
joint force and to be ready to perform across the range of military operations to prevent, shape and win in
support of combatant commanders to defend the nation and its interests at home and abroad, both today
and against emerging threats.
General Raymond T. Odierno
Chief of Staff, Army
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The Future Operating Environment
The United States Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) recently published the new U.S. Army
Operating Concept (TRADOC Pamphlet 525-3-1, 31 October 2014), which focuses on all three levels of war: tac-
tical, operational and strategic. It describes as “unknown” the future environment in which the Army will operate.
The enemy the Army will face is unknown, the location is unknown and the coalitions involved are unknown. The
Army must focus on the challenge of winning in a complex world. Within this issue is an imperative for installation
professionals to harness a continuum of learning, adapting and innovation in shaping the installation of the future
and tackling the challenges that lie ahead.
As the Army’s operating force enters the future ght, the demand and the ability to rapidly project landpower
will be critical. The Army must ensure that its installations, community partners, joint force enablers and technology
all support these vital imperatives. As stated in TRADOC Pamphlet 525-3-1,
Army forces ensure combatant commanders possess the ability to scale-up land forces rapidly through
forward positioning, strategic and operational airlift and sealift, and use of prepositioned equipment and
supplies. The Army is the only element of the joint force with the capacity to conduct sustained cam-
paign-quality land operations that compel adversaries through the physical occupation of vital terrain and
infrastructure and consolidate gains to achieve sustainable outcomes.
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Installation professionals must also ensure that training ranges and areas remain viable and exible enough
to build cohesive, highly trained units and adaptive, innovative leaders. Ultimately, this provides for an operating
force that is highly trained and ready to meet any contingency. As new technology and capabilities emerge—for
long-range precision strike systems (missiles), high-quality air defenses, cyber capabilities and long-range artillery
and rocket systems—a greater demand will be placed on maneuver operations space. This will require adaptive
leaders, critical long-range planning, leveraged partnerships and timely execution to ensure that the Army meets the
requirements of Force 2025 and beyond.
The strategic environment facing the Army is one of many signicant challenges such as scal uncertainty,
military transition and emerging global threats. A period of scal austerity and constrained resources is expected to
affect the Army over the next several years. As it concludes combat operations in Afghanistan, the Army is faced
with the necessity of rapidly drawing down and reshaping its total force to meet potential threats that undermine
U.S. security interests. Adversaries, recognizing that they cannot succeed in a force-on-force confrontation with the
United States, seek new ways to challenge us by using asymmetric techniques such as cyber, information opera-
tions and irregular warfare and by developing anti-access capabilities. In addition, many of the nation’s traditional
partners and key allies in providing regional security and global stability are facing the same economic downturn
