Army Publishes 16-Year Modernization Plan to Outpace China With New Battle Concept

A concept image showing Bell Helicopters with US ground forces. The Vertical Lift program is one of six priority areas identified in the Army Modernization Strategy. Bell Helicopter

As the U.S. Army hunkered down for the war on terror, phrases such as “counter-insurgency” and “IEDs” became familiar to most Americans, along with the “shock and awe” introduced during the earlier Gulf War.

But now, if Army modernizers have read the runes right, two new phrases are set to dominate the future of U.S. warfare: “multi-domain operations” and “great power competition.”