War Room Podcast
THE FUTURE IS EXPEDITIONARY: JOINT WARFIGHTING HQ (RE-RELEASE)
Why It Matters
As geopolitical competition accelerates, the ability to deploy joint forces quickly and cohesively becomes a strategic advantage. Standing expeditionary headquarters would reduce the time and friction associated with assembling ad‑hoc JTFs, ensuring the U.S. can outpace adversaries in the early phases of conflict. This episode is timely as the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps are already redesigning forces for 2030‑2045, making joint command reform a critical next step.
Key Takeaways
- •Current joint task forces are ad hoc and inefficient.
- •Standing expeditionary headquarters improve rapid, integrated response.
- •American Expeditionary Force model aligns regional, numbered commands.
- •Command councils empower service component expertise in planning.
- •Integration reduces Army‑centric bias in joint staff processes.
Pulse Analysis
The episode opens by diagnosing the chronic shortcomings of today’s Joint Task Force (JTF) system. Since World War II, combatant commands have relied on ad‑hoc, service‑centric headquarters that are assembled at the last minute, often from an Army division or corps core. This patchwork approach creates lengthy preparation cycles, confusing command relationships, and an Army‑biased planning process that hampers air, maritime, and special‑operations inputs. Listeners hear concrete examples—from the brief Gulf War deployment of a combatant command headquarters to the turnover challenges in joint manning documents—illustrating why the existing model struggles to meet the speed of modern conflict.
To address these gaps, Dr. Tom Braschino and Professor Lou Younger propose a permanent, regionally aligned “American Expeditionary Force” (AEF) structure. Numbered and standing, these expeditionary headquarters would exist continuously, ready to plug into any combatant command when a crisis emerges. The AEF model emphasizes functional organization over the traditional joint‑staff format, allowing service component commands to provide specialized “plugs” while a senior command council—mirroring Eisenhower’s World‑War‑II decision‑making group—sets concepts and priorities. This council‑driven process promises faster, more coherent multi‑domain planning, reduces the need for time‑consuming joint staff conversions, and leverages the deep expertise of each service’s planning apparatus.
Finally, the hosts explore how AEFs would coexist with existing combatant commands. Rather than replacing them, AEFs become the operational arm for contingency planning and rapid deployment, freeing day‑to‑day staff to focus on security cooperation and other missions. By embedding standing headquarters within the combatant command hierarchy, the U.S. military could achieve a sustainable joint advantage, aligning with the Army 2030, Marine Corps Force Design 2030, and Navy Force Design 2045 initiatives. The discussion underscores that a shift toward expeditionary, joint‑centric headquarters is essential for maintaining strategic superiority in an era of accelerated, multi‑domain warfare.
Episode Description
Successful military organizations are always assessing and adapting; this includes methods of command and control. The joint task forces with constituent air, land, and maritime components currently used by the U.S. military have demonstrated benefits, but are all too often ad hoc structures that take too long to stand up and fight as a cohesive team. Tom Bruscino and Lou Yuengert are in the studio to talk about their recently released manuscript, The Future of the Joint Warfighting Headquarters: An Alternative Approach to the Joint Task Force, which they wrote with fellow authors Eric Bissonette, Kelvin Mote, Matthew Powell, Marc Sanborn and James Watts. Tom and Lou argue that now is the time to create standing, numbered, and regionally aligned joint warfighting headquarters— American Expeditionary Forces (AEFs)—around a command council and a staff organized into Joint centers and cells. They join host Darrell Driver to share the thought process behind the organizational structure and why the U.S. military must become a superior and sustainable joint force sooner than its adversaries.
The post THE FUTURE IS EXPEDITIONARY: JOINT WARFIGHTING HQ <br><small>(RE-RELEASE)</small> appeared first on War Room - U.S. Army War College.
Comments
Want to join the conversation?
Loading comments...