Clash of cultures: overcoming branch biases is key to fires CoE success.

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In the near future, the Fires Center of Excellence (CoE) at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, will meld the education and training of Air Defense Artillery (ADA) and Field Artillery (FA). This is good news for the Army for three main reasons: it will expand the skill sets of our Soldiers, NCOs and officers; it will advance the integration of our offensive and defensive systems and processes; and it will deliver a more capable force to our operational commanders.

Unifying Functions. What does that mean to the Air Defender? Does it mean that the ADA Branch is going away? Simply put, FA and ADA functions will endure as much as Infantry and Armor functions will endure when the Army stands up the Maneuver CoE.

However, we need a Branch that is organized, trained and equipped to fight determined adversaries who employ complex schemes in their operations. Can this best be accomplished by separate FA and ADA Branches, or do we need a new Branch? The path we take should lead us toward unifying our action.

Expanding Opportunities. The threat--unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), rockets, artillery, mortars and ballistic missiles--requires a response that includes a combination of offense and defense, both kinetic and nonkinetic. We've operated our ballistic missile defenses under a doctrine that prescribes integrating activities to defeat the threat--active and passive defense combined with attack operations integrated in an overarching command and control system. We need to apply the same principles to deal with the emerging UAV, rocket, artillery and mortar threat. Information operations (IO) and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) operations play their roles; both IO and ISR are critical aspects of our battlefield campaigns. Arguably, today's target set is more complex and requires an even greater degree of integration across the battlefield operating systems.

In a functional context, we already have a Fires CoE--it is called the Army Air and Missile Defense Command. We recognize the value in unifying our battlefield actions to defeat our determined adversaries. If you buy into the argument that it takes more than defense, then the Fires CoE holds promise for today's Air Defenders and the Army.

The threat drives Air Defenders to have a portfolio of skills that makes us more than we are today. The Fires CoE will provide ADA Soldiers and leaders an opportunity to build a broader set of skills. In turn, these skills open up assignment opportunities by integrating our Soldiers and leaders into the maneuver forces. Increased promotion opportunities should follow integration.

The Fires CoE will give the Army a Soldier whose portfolio enables him to serve in diverse positions throughout the Army where the Army has gaps and shortfalls. As a result, the Army will have a more effective ADA Soldier.

In a future described by the Chief of Staff of the Army as one filled with persistent conflict--conflicts in which adversaries will continue to introduce new tactics, techniques and procedures--can we afford to be "specialists?" I don't think so. We need Soldiers and leaders who have a skill set that spans a range of Army capabilities and that can bring to bear the full arsenal of our capabilities in an integrated manner. For example, an Air Defender was assigned last year as the Effects Officer for MultiNational Corps, Iraq. Perhaps we can build "fires-effects leaders."

As we look to the future as Fires Soldiers and leaders, can we expect our leaders to command firing batteries, battalions and fires brigades? The answer is yes, absolutely, if we build a Fires CoE with sufficiently integrated functions.

However, we cannot achieve the full potential of an integrated Fires CoE if we cling to our familiar past. If we simply collocate two centers on one post, we will miss the opportunity to create a new class of Warrior.

Integrating and Networking Our Systems. Unifying our activities presents opportunities to expand on the vision Major General Robert P. Lennox, former Chief of ADA, created for integrating our current and future systems. The vision is realized in the system-of-systems approach wherein we network sensors and shooters with fire-control and command systems to realize the potential of our deployed systems.

There are many specific reasons for networking our systems. Networking expands our battlespace, provides for a layered defense and extends situational awareness. We should network our systems into a system of systems even, if necessary, at the expense of individual weapons-system lethality. This is a departure from decades of maximizing individual weapons-system lethality, but the synergistic effectiveness of networked systems no longer can be denied.

The system-of-systems approach should not stop at today's ADA brigade tactical operations center, but should extend to include other Army systems. As many know, the Future Combat System brigade combat team is built on an advanced architecture that will network existing fires and maneuver systems. This presents an opportunity to integrate and coordinate offensive and defensive systems.

If we agree we need to fight our adversaries with our full arsenal and deliver precision fires, there is an opportunity to create momentum as we form the Fires CoE.

On a global scale, we are trying to integrate our ballistic missile defenses' active defense systems, sensors and command and control to deliver a coherent, layered defense across combatant commanders' boundaries. We are working the cross-combatant commander processes to integrate the attack operations and nonkinetic capabilities into our concept of operations. Technically, we can get there in terms of system capability, but this requires us to think anew at the combatant commander level.

We no longer can confine our thinking to the combatant commander boundaries drawn on the map, nor can we confine our thinking to one time zone, one country or one adversary. Nor can we expect the time-tested, theater-centric processes to answer the global problems in total--the context has changed. We need to think differently and behave differently to optimize our systems and bring to bear our full suite of capabilities. We must determine not to settle for "lowest-common-denominator" solutions or accept compromises simply because both parties grudgingly agree to them.

The hardest aspect of the global integrated missile defense business is working the cultural biases inherent in our warfighting structures. We can hold firm to our ways and be less, or we can invite new thinking and change our behaviors and approaches.

Today, a similar challenge faces Air Defenders and Field Artillerymen, but on a different scope. It's not a global challenge, but a challenge within our Army combat formations. We have the capability within reach to integrate effectively. The challenge will be culture. If we can let go of our familiar lifeline and adapt, then we can leverage the strengths found in each Branch and begin to build new concepts, new architectures and a new class of Warrior.

The challenge falls on the shoulders of our junior and mid-level NCOs and officers. They will have to see the vision through to reality. Let's not revert to the lowest common denominator and collocate two centers or simply merge centers at Fort Sill--let's create what is needed to fight a determined enemy. Establishing the Fires CoE is a vital step in preparing us for the next fight while supporting the current force. The key to the success will be not only the technology overmatch or the systems' capabilities, but also will be the adaptive fires leaders who begin their journeys at the Fires CoE.

Lieutenant General Kevin T. Campbell is the Commanding General (CG) of the US Army Space and Missile Defense Command and the US Army Forces Strategic Command (STRATCOM) at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama. He has served as the Chief of Staff of STRATCOM at Offutt AFB, Nebraska; Director of Plans, J-5, STRATCOM (West) and US Army Space Command both at Peterson AFB, Colorado. He was the Deputy CG of the Air Defense Artillery (ADA) Center and Fort Bliss, Texas, and CG of the 32nd Army Air and Missile Defense Command (AAMDC), also at Fort Bliss. He has served as the Commander, 94th ADA Brigade and Commander for 2nd Battalion, 43rd ADA (2-43 ADA) (Patriot), both part of the 32d AAMDC, US Army Europe and Seventh Army in Germany, deploying in support of Operations Desert Shield and Storm while Commander of 2-43 ADA. He has two master's degrees, one in National Security and Strategic Studies from the US Naval War College at Newport, Rhode Island, and one in Personnel Management and Administration from the University of New Hampshire in Durham.