Army releases newest manual

FORT LEAVENWORTH, Kan.

The Army has released its first new training field manual in six years, highlighting the need for units to be ready to conduct stability operations after traditional combat has ended.

The manual, titled “Training for Full Spectrum Operations” and written at Fort Leavenworth, explains what soldiers can expect in combat.

It replaces a 2002 edition and comes on the heels of the Army’s release earlier this year of its latest operations doctrine, which emphasized that soldiers must be prepared and proficient in offense, defense and stability skills. The Army says it is the first time it has synchronized the manuals for operations and training.

Army officials say the latest manual, released Tuesday, is a reflection of the past seven years of conflict in Afghanistan and Iraq and a reality that units will be in a period of “persistent conflict” for years to come.

“While we will never be able to fully comprehend the thousands of variables in a complex system, we can train to recognize those which are found in most. So the first time our soldiers come across a certain type of situation is in training, not on the battlefield,” said Maj. Michael Sullivan, 36, of Bardonia, N.Y., and a planner with the 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Stewart, Ga.

The manual’s release comes as the U.S. prepares to reduce its forces in Iraq and shift the focus to Afghanistan, where commanders have requested as many as 20,000 additional troops.

Brig. Gen. Robert B. Abrams, commander of Fort Leavenworth’s Combined Arms Center-Training, said units will have to deal with the current conflicts and still be able to wage conventional warfare against large enemy formations.

The task may seem daunting, Gen. Abrams said, but the training doctrine reflects the combat situations units already have faced in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Our soldiers and our formations are up to this. They do it every single day,” he said.

The manual also refers to units training for homeland security missions, such as helping with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the potential for another Sept. 11 type of attack.

“It means you’re training America’s Army to meet all possible contingencies,” said House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Ike Skelton, Missouri Democrat.

Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Chiarelli said he was aware of concerns among some policymakers and military leaders that the Army is too focused on counterinsurgency, the type of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Critics have said the Army may lose its ability to respond to NATO obligations.

Gen. Chiarelli said soldiers already go from stability operations in neighborhoods to high-intensity combat and back to stability “in a wink of an eye.” That flexibility isn’t something U.S. forces were immediately prepared to do when they trained for Iraq in 2002 and 2003. “I don’t worry about that,” he said.