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17-02-10, 09:41 PM
Ares
A Defense Technology Blog
COIN Field Manual -- Time for a Rewrite?
Posted by Paul McLeary at 2/17/2010 9:54 AM CST
There have been rumblings for some time that FM 3-24, otherwise known as the Army / Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual—released with such fanfare in December 2006—is due for a rewrite. The document, pulled together by a dream team of smart Army and Marine officers and national security experts led by Gen. David Petraeus before he assumed command of the war effort in Iraq in 2007, has been widely praised for helping to reorient the Army’s mindset at a crucial junction of the war in Iraq. But it has also been panned for being too long, too academic, and aside from the general guidance it provides, not something the average field commander can really use to guide operations.
ARES has learned that a rewrite is indeed in the works and a team leader has likely been identified, but the whole process is being held up because said officer is currently deployed to Afghanistan. There is no rewrite team as of yet, but you can bet that plenty of ambitious officers and civilian wonks will be lining up at the chance to break out their red pens and have a go at the three year-old document.
Maj. Neil Smith, an Army officer currently attending the Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, has some thoughts on what the revised manual should look like, and writes in that “I personally advocate shortening the manual - for example, we could eliminate the chapters on stability, design, and advising based on superceding doctrine published in the last 2 years, while adding the host of subjects not addressed in FM 3-24 and still keeping it compact. It takes the US Army almost 300 pages to explain what most COIN theorists do in about a 100 pages.”
The Army has been busily churning out that doctrine. There’s the Army Capstone Concept, released in January, which orders Army priorities from 2016-2028, as well as the Stability Operations Manual (FM 3-07), released in October 2008, which would probably cover much of the COIN manual’s Chapter 6, which deals with developing host nation security forces, and 09–37, Small Unit Operations in Afghanistan, which likely overlaps with the COIN manual’s Chapter 7, Leadership and Ethics for Counterinsurgency.
The reworking of the iconic counterinsurgency field manual will be no small task, and it’s one that ironically looks to have been put on hold, at least in part, due to the counterinsurgency fight in Afghanistan.
A Defense Technology Blog
COIN Field Manual -- Time for a Rewrite?
Posted by Paul McLeary at 2/17/2010 9:54 AM CST
There have been rumblings for some time that FM 3-24, otherwise known as the Army / Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual—released with such fanfare in December 2006—is due for a rewrite. The document, pulled together by a dream team of smart Army and Marine officers and national security experts led by Gen. David Petraeus before he assumed command of the war effort in Iraq in 2007, has been widely praised for helping to reorient the Army’s mindset at a crucial junction of the war in Iraq. But it has also been panned for being too long, too academic, and aside from the general guidance it provides, not something the average field commander can really use to guide operations.
ARES has learned that a rewrite is indeed in the works and a team leader has likely been identified, but the whole process is being held up because said officer is currently deployed to Afghanistan. There is no rewrite team as of yet, but you can bet that plenty of ambitious officers and civilian wonks will be lining up at the chance to break out their red pens and have a go at the three year-old document.
Maj. Neil Smith, an Army officer currently attending the Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, has some thoughts on what the revised manual should look like, and writes in that “I personally advocate shortening the manual - for example, we could eliminate the chapters on stability, design, and advising based on superceding doctrine published in the last 2 years, while adding the host of subjects not addressed in FM 3-24 and still keeping it compact. It takes the US Army almost 300 pages to explain what most COIN theorists do in about a 100 pages.”
The Army has been busily churning out that doctrine. There’s the Army Capstone Concept, released in January, which orders Army priorities from 2016-2028, as well as the Stability Operations Manual (FM 3-07), released in October 2008, which would probably cover much of the COIN manual’s Chapter 6, which deals with developing host nation security forces, and 09–37, Small Unit Operations in Afghanistan, which likely overlaps with the COIN manual’s Chapter 7, Leadership and Ethics for Counterinsurgency.
The reworking of the iconic counterinsurgency field manual will be no small task, and it’s one that ironically looks to have been put on hold, at least in part, due to the counterinsurgency fight in Afghanistan.