Army Seeks to Complement AirSea Battle

While the Air Force and Navy were first tasked to hammer out anti-access and area-denial solutions via the AirSea Battle office, the Army is also grappling with these issues, said Army Secretary John McHugh on Tuesday. The A2/AD concept is “a very important part of any successful defense strategy going forward,” McHugh told reporters in Washington, D.C. The Army is now a “full partner” in ASB discussions, and is moving forward with the Marine Corps in opening the Office of Strategic Land Policy, he said. The OSLP, said McHugh, will seek to refine ideas about operations, such as forcible entry, power projection, and the involvement of ground forces in A2/AD scenarios, much like the ASB office did for air and naval forces when it first opened its doors. “Right now we are talking about how the ground forces . . . posture themselves to be a viable part of the national military strategy going forward,” he said. “We envision [OLSP] as a complement to the other ongoing efforts, not a competition, in any way to try and slow down” either ASB or A2/AD discussions, he said during the April 30 meeting. “But I recognize that some have tried to characterize it that way, and I guess that’s understandable.”