It’s Time to Upskill Army Talent

By U.S. Army Col. Gregory S. Johnson, Director, Officer Personnel Management Directorate, U.S. Army Human Resources Command 

The time is now to upskill the Army’s Officer Corps to prepare for a more sophisticated and technologically defined operating environment with increased complexity and deadlier strategic threats.

The Operational Environment and the Changing Character of Warfare, U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command reported “the Army will confront strategic competitors in an increasingly contested battlefield across every domain. The emergence of hypersonic weapons, application of artificial intelligence, machine learning, nanotechnology, and robotics are but a few of the disruptive technologies with which we must contend. ... Evolving geopolitics, impactful demographic shifts, competition for resources, and challenges to classic structures, order, and institutions coupled with hyper-connectivity – the Internet of Things – will add additional layers of complexity.”

Future contested environments will be more dynamic, interconnected and complex than the last several decades. We will face new and different adversaries who are more technologically advanced with different capabilities and the means to wage competition and conflict.

We can look at Eastern Europe to see an example. In March 2014, Russia forcibly annexed most of the Crimean Peninsula and now Russia is poised to further challenge Ukraine’s sovereignty. Russia’s operations in Ukraine have been enabled by robust cyber and disinformation operations for years, while their use of fires and maneuver were complex and deadly in execution.

The readiness required to deter a near peer threat, such as Russia and China, means considering the new and modern technological capabilities they have. Capabilities like cyber, AI, the internet of things, enhanced drones and unmanned vehicles, hypersonics and long range fires will require new or expanded skills and education across our Army.

It’s a hard to predict the future, but one thing is certain, it will be our people and their talents that will win the day. It’s our competitive advantage over our competitors. We however, need to prepare for this environment. Emerging weapon systems, unmanned vehicles, robotics and AI require skilled coders and technicians but we need the Officer Corps to understand how this technology can be integrated into a multi-domain and complex environment to improve our own capabilities.

The end of the war in Afghanistan and the Army’s currently reduced overseas operations provides an outstanding opportunity to review what jobs need upskilling across our Officer Corps. With a reduced operations tempo and fewer deployments, we have time to invest in upskilling, can shift focus and invest in technology degrees and experiences that will shape the Officer Corps.  

The Army must review its current skill sets and drive the discussion regarding what knowledge, skills and experiences and what upskilling in the decades to come is needed. But this doesn’t have to happen all at once. The first step is to push officers to upskill and prepare to operate in this current dangerous and complex environment.

To do this we need to define what skills and capabilities will be needed in this technologically dependent environment. We should invest in skills like software engineering, robotics, data, systems engineering, and also capabilities like flexible thinking, problem solving, and resilience in ambiguous situations.  Broadening upskilling programs can serve as incentives to retain and further develop the talent we have. The Army can do this through a number of approaches and initiatives.

1. Review the prioritization of graduate school programs, certifications, and shift focus to position the Army for skills needed by 2030 and beyond. Prioritize emerging technologies and expose our operators.
2. Review and shape the Training With Industry program to ensure training gives meaningful, technology-based experiences to our officers. Utilize those officers then in key positions to drive change.
3. Review Officer Personnel Management System XXI to determine if we have basic officer career and specialty functional areas and branches right. Shifting requirements may be valid.
4. Develop assessment and testing tools to shape the career paths of our officers, enhance the Voluntary Transfer Incentive Program and select our very best for broadening opportunities. Determine who is more attuned toward technology or other key skills in a more modern way.
5. Incorporate Knowledge, Skills, and Behaviors into our force structure documents and update Army Regulation 600-3, The Army Personnel Development System.
6. Develop more broadening pathways for our very best officers to attend graduate school then fill key positions at national training centers, security force assistance brigades, etc.

The Army has made important talent management improvements in recent years with the addition of knowledge, skills and experiences in officer resumes, command assessment programs for unit leaders, and the Army Talent Alignment Process for assignments. But more can be done to upskill our talent. In particular, assessments can be expanded to not only identify quality leaders and weed out toxic ones, but also to identify those officers who have the knowledge and traits which are ripe for upskilling.

We must balance this thinking however with maintaining the readiness in our formations and retaining our fight tonight mentality. Difficult to balance, but it can be done.

With the Army People Strategy and associated implementation plans, talent initiatives, and dramatic technological advances, and the fielding of innovative human resource tools like Integrated Personnel and Pay System – Army, the Army is poised to upskill talent but it must act now.

Colonel Johnson is a career Army Adjutant General Corps Officer. He was a Distinguished Military Graduate of the University of San Francisco, earning a Bachelor of Arts in United States History. He also holds a master’s degree from the United States Army War College, a master’s degree of Policy Management from Georgetown’s Public Policy Institute, and a master’s degree in Education from the University of Oklahoma.