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| Science & Technology |
| Jedi Knights Join The Red Teams |
| 2008-10-23 |
| U.S. Army commanders now have a new bunch of inspectors looking over their shoulders. These are the Red Teams, small groups of officers that go over combat plans, and their probability of success. This is unique, as Red Teams are basically questioning how commanders plan to fight. Throughout its history, the U.S. military, like their counterparts worldwide, have had an Inspector General. This was a small organization that insured that everyone in uniform was doing their job the way it was supposed to be done. But because combat was so infrequent, there was never an attempt to inspect how successful a commanders battle plans might be. Red Teams came out of wargaming. There, the "Red" team represented the enemy, while the "Blue" team played the good guys. In the last three decades, the U.S. Army adopted a more form of wargaming based on historical models, where commanders are presented with very realistic situations for future battles. This was applying to wargames the old phrase, "train as you fight, and fight as you train." But in addition to providing more realistic games for training, this style of wargames also made it possible to analyze war plans as never before. In the past, your war plans didn't really get a workout until you were in combat against a real, live Red Team (the enemy). The new wrinkle was that it was now easier to have your own people provide an effective, if not perfect, Red Team experience because of all those officers with wargame experience. So now the senior commanders of the U.S. Army have been sending Red Teams around to the major commands, to play devil's advocate to whatever war plans senior commanders and their staffs have come up with. It's not new, really. The concept of "devil's advocate" has been around for a long time. But now the army is institutionalizing it, and using more powerful techniques (wargaming) to implement it. This all began back in the 1980s, when realistic wargaming was catching on, especially among the students at the Command and General Staff School (C&GSS) and the Army War College AWC). The younger officers at the C&GSS were particularly enthusiastic, and they came to be known as the "Jedi Knights," mainly because the analytic skills obtained from playing lots of wargames, gave them a seemingly magical ability to find flaws in war plans. That's what the Red Teams are all about, Jedi Knights on steroids. Now the senior leadership is sending two man Red Teams down to brigades, to test the war plans at that level. Often the Red Teams find that the war plans are pretty solid, mainly because the commanders and staffs have used wargaming to develop their own plans, and to work out the flaws that an adroit enemy would exploit once it was too late to do anything about it. The Red Teams all report to the head of the army, which insures that none of the commanders they are working with try to pull rank. The Red Teams give the Chief of Staff of the army regular reports on how effective the many war plans developed in the army combat units are holding up to scrutiny, which is a unique capability in the military world. |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #11 Mind boggles. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2008-10-23 19:51 |
| #10 Ask the USN, about when they sent SEAL teams to various bases to test security and every base was penetrated. Yeah, SEALs tend to get real pissed when you wash 'em off the side of the ship with a firehose. That said, the Navy's had a few Jedis of its own. And yeah - they tend to... upset things. The problem is that naval warfare tends to be more fluid (no pun intended). |
| Posted by: Pappy 2008-10-23 17:05 |
| #9 Ask the USN, about when they sent SEAL teams to various bases to test security and every base was penetrated. look where that program ended up; cuz it busted too many fast risers' balloons. |
| Posted by: USN, Ret. 2008-10-23 14:52 |
| #8 And General Lee would object, as he gave broad instructions with enough specificity to achieve success, but at the same time permitting his commanders to exercise their individual initiative and tactical perogative. Yes of course, in the end Lee was not victorious. His numerous battlefield victories however, were accomplished with valor, tactical initiative which seldom culminated with the burning of civilian crops, farms, towns, or cities. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2008-10-23 14:50 |
| #7 Gen W.T. Sherman, founder, US Command School, would have strongly approved. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2008-10-23 14:29 |
| #6 Quite the opposite. It's more likely the Army's version of Top Gun. |
| Posted by: Fred 2008-10-23 12:17 |
| #5 This is just poor reporting. First the Jedi Knights are the SAMS grads at CGSC. They spend an extra year there working Div level or higher planning. They are then sent to Division 3 shop and burried in the future plans section. They are managed seperate from their peers and are a huge asset to the command. Now to the Red teams. From the time your a young officer you learn that during the mission planning the folks in the command that are better educated in the enemies tactics play red side during the war game process. Having a couple experts that understand the enemy better than the commander is a giant asset to the commander. This war is not a simple force on force fight any more. We need experts to advise the commander during the war game on the political, relig, local effects, etc... on the area and the fight. He can't just rely on his S2 any more for this, its too big. In the units I came from we put our very best officers in the opposing force side during the war game. It makes us work harder, think differenly, and in the end it saves lives. When the fight starts, it all on the commander, good or bad. Having a the very best red team before the fight is alway a bonus. |
| Posted by: 49 Pan 2008-10-23 12:12 |
| #4 Brilliant idea but I have to imagine its a somewhat career limiting move. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2008-10-23 11:51 |
| #3 US commanders learned quickly how to deal with humility once they were sent to NTC. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2008-10-23 11:50 |
| #2 And maybe a very begrudging Harrumph. Hey! I didn't get a Harrumph out of that guy! |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2008-10-23 11:49 |
| #1 This is hilarious, if effective. I can imagine the collision of egos, because tactics can be argued forever. (touches forehead) "I sense a great disturbance in your plan." (angry commander) "Why, you smarmy little..." Jedi: "Eh, eh, eh. Colonel, we are here to help." Colonel: (fumes). "Harrumph!" |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2008-10-23 11:43 |