Mission command center to open at Leavenworth - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

Mission command center to open at Leavenworth

The Army has think tanks — it calls them centers of excellence — to address fires, maneuvers, sustainment and other aspects of combat. Now the service is setting up one to help identify what leaders will need for today and tomorrow.

The Army is creating a Mission Command Center of Excellence at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., said Lt. Gen. David Valcourt, deputy commanding general of Army Training and Doctrine Command. Until now, the Army has had a center of excellence for each of its war-fighting functions except battle command, Valcourt said. The Army decided to change the term to Mission Command to reflect the full spectrum of operations that soldiers now face, he said.

“‘Battle command brings to mind major combat operations; what we’re seeing is much broader than that,” Valcourt said.

The centers are intended to identify Army capability gaps and then put in motion the processes to close those gaps, said Lt. Col. Steven Leonard, director of the Commander’s Initiatives Group at Fort Leavenworth. Mission Command will help the Army identify and develop the tools that leaders will need, Leonard added.

The center will develop the concept and organizational design for Mission Command and is expected to coordinate doctrine, training and materiel development for stability operations, security force assistance and counterinsurgency.

The center will also coordinate efforts for capabilities that enable Mission Command: “We’ve been really wrestling with how do we account for electronic warfare, information operations and cyber,” he said. “All three cut across the war-fighting functions, so, under Mission Command, we’re putting a former division commander in charge of trying to orchestrate and synchronize, across the doctrine, materiel, training, personnel ... intel, signals, electronic warfare, information operations and cyber synergy.”

According to Valcourt, the center is still in “concept form,” so the details of how these areas will interact are still emerging.

“It’s not about who owns who, it’s more about relationships and collaboration and that synergy across [doctrine, organization, training, materiel, leadership, personnel and facilities].”

Citing the Army’s recently released Capstone Concept, which paints a future marked by uncertainty, Valcourt said the center is expected to help develop leaders who are comfortable operating in complex environments.

“Central to our success in this environment is developing leaders who are adept operating both within and outside the traditional military framework of hierarchical and deliberate decision-making and control of forces,” Leonard said. Because the center will focus on leader development, it is important to have the center led by someone with recent operational experience, he added.

Lt. Gen. Robert Caslen will serve as the director of the Mission Command center. Caslen assumed command of the Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth on Wednesday. He replaces Lt. Gen. William Caldwell, who took command of the NATO Training Mission in Afghanistan in November.

TRADOC Commander Gen. Martin Dempsey, whose idea it was to create the new center of excellence, wanted it led by a former division commander, someone “right out of the fight,” Valcourt said. Caslen just finished a 12-month deployment in Iraq, where he served as the commander of the 25th Infantry Division.