Embracing Jointness

Army, Feb 2005 by Gourley, Scott R

The late 2004 completion of the first Joint Fires and Effects Course (JFEC), conducted at Fort Sill, Okla., demonstrated an important reality of today's Army-specifically, the Army does not just talk about jointness. It fully embraces the concept and simultaneously applies the benefits of joint operations to broaden the complete spectrum of battlefield effects.

"The Army Chief of Staff's Army Campaign Plan calls for the Army to remain ready and relevant, with a joint and expeditionary focus," explained Col. Gary Kinne, director of the Joint and Combined Integration (JACI) Directorate at Fort Sill. "Acting on that intent, Maj. Gen. David P. Valcourt, chief of Field Artillery and commanding general of the Field Artillery Center and Fort Sill, looked around at what we were doing within the field artillery to make sure that we are joint and expeditionary in nature. He tasked us to determine how we could further facilitate connections with our sister services and in 'all issues joint.'" That tasking led to the creation of the Joint and Combined Integration Directorate at Fort Sill in the summer of 2004. The new directorate serves as Fort Sill's point of entry for all issues joint.

Fort Sill's JACl structure includes participation from Air Force (the JACI deputy director is an Air Force lieutenant colonel), Marine and Navy representatives. In addition, for both a combined arms and international coalition perspective, the JACI includes Army representatives from Military Intelligence, Special Operations, Army Aviation and a range of Army fires specialties, as well as coalition liaison officers from the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Korea and Germany.

One of the most significant early accomplishments of Fort Sill's JACI was the establishment of a new Joint Fires and Effects Course. The pilot JFEC-a three-week course with 25 students-was completed in October 2004. "What we've seen is that there are numerous schools throughout the different services that talk the different pieces and parts of fires, effects and how to do targeting," Kinne explained, "but there has been no 'one stop shop' where we can take a leader and give him a rucksack full of tactics, techniques and procedures that he can take with him. Now, as he leaves JFEC and goes to a battlefield coordination detachment and works with Air Force counterparts, he can immediately go in and make a difference. In the past it has taken 90 days or more to figure out who to talk to, how the different service systems work and what their doctrine and tactics are. What we are trying to do is take the best pieces of the best schools and bring them all together. And our focus is not just on the kinetic. It's on the nonlethal too."

As examples of existing specialty schools, he cited the Joint Targeting School at Joint Forces Command and the air-ground training provided at the Air Force Special Operations Command at Hurlburt Field. "We've taken pieces of those schools and we're trying to incorporate them into a three-week course here that provides these junior leaders who will go out to these different organizations some TTPs [tactics, techniques and procedures] so they can make a difference immediately," Kinne said.

"What we envision, as we head toward a joint and expeditionary mind-set, is the development of junior leaders who understand how to plan, synchronize and execute joint fires-both lethal and nonlethal. That's our real intent and purpose. What is key is for students to understand the systems' capabilities, limitations, and how to plan and integrate the full range of capabilities. And that's what we attempted to get at with our first course," he added.

Critical training tasks identified for JFEC included: developing joint targeting guidance and priorities; coordinating joint targeting operations; facilitating the joint targeting coordination board; developing joint fires guidance; planning joint fires; and integrating joint fires and effects.

Kinne continued, "We don't want to focus strictly on a 'green suiter.' That's why we brought in Air Force, Navy and Marine counterparts. To be honest with you, the greatest learning occurred not just from the podium, but also in the exchanges among the different service personnel. An Army guy could talk quite a bit about artillery but what about the employment of close air support? What about the Navy's employment of the Tomahawk missile system? Those are the kinds of questions where some great discussions occurred and TTPs were exchanged in some of our practical exercises.

"What we're looking for is individuals from all services who will be serving in joint fires and effects cells. Our focus is not just on Army but also on that Air Force individual who is working in the air operations center, or that individual who is working and coordinating fires and effects in the MEF [Marine expeditionary force]. It's a joint concept. We're looking for personnel who will go and fill billets in the fires and effects cells-whatever level, across the different services. We're looking at active Army, Army Reserve, National Guard, Marines, Air Force and Navy," he said.