T2COM takes shape to unify modernization, training, and force generation

Hello, I'm Jen Judson, land warfare reporter for Defense News, and I am here with General

Hodney, who is the Transformation and Training Command commander, the very first of its kind

General, I had a chance to go down and actually see the activation of T2COM and see you speak

about that. So I'm hoping for our audience here that you could talk about, as the first commander of

T2COM. What's your vision for how this new organization will redefine army

readiness and force development? Yeah, no thanks. Thanks, Jen. Appreciate the time

and it's exciting to be here at AUSA and certainly you know the first answer I'd

give to that question is if you listen to the guidance from the chief and the secretary they were pretty clear you know we've got to deliver capability

rapidly to our formations so what a great opportunity to do that in

Transformation and Training Command. I served in both organizations as senior leader. You and I both were at the stand-up of Army Futures Command in Texas

in 2018. I'm very proud of what AFC did to jump-start modernization efforts, you

know, following the 20 years in Iraq and Afghanistan. I also was a member of the

Training and Doctrine Command. I was the Commandant of the U.S. Army Infantry School and as the FCC director, in addition to being in Army Futures

Command, I was also in the same building and shared a building with the Training and Doctrine

Command Headquarters, so I'm proud of everything. You've worn a lot of hats that are coming together

That's right, and I'm proud of what those organizations have done to contribute to the

readiness of our Army. I also saw where there was some inefficiencies in both organizations, so inevitably whenever

you have two organizations and two separate reporting chains, there's just going to be

a lack of synchronization in some areas. So we certainly collaborated very well, but this provides an opportunity for everyone

to be on the same team. Sometimes when you also have those organizations, you're conditioned to play a position in that

organization as opposed to playing a position across the depth of the organization

So I think it's going to be very, very helpful for the Army. Yeah. Well, it's interesting, you know, having covered Army Futures Command since its birth

and now it's deactivation, and, you know, all the great things that came from that are now folding into there

But, you know, I remember the argument for setting up Army Futures Command

was because the requirements process was nested in the TRADOC side of the house

and wasn't really getting the attention that it needed. and it broke out and had its own four-star command

there will be more attention to the requirements process and hopefully lots of solutions to getting after some of the struggles

that the Army was having with the requirements process. So talk about how you're still preserving all of that with T2COM

This isn't just repeating the past where AFC and requirements go back to live in TRADOC

That's not what this is. So talk a little bit about that organization a little bit more

I know that there's three star commands that are going to be underneath you

So if you could elaborate on that a little bit more. Thanks, Jen. I'll start with requirements

One requirement is really important. They inform the solutions we chase, but they're also just one component of the solution to deliver capability

The acquisition teammates certainly play an important role. contracting the science technology you know you know personnel certainly inform that so

that's that's just one thing i want to state up front the other thing is afc was intended to be

in the cfts specifically i was a cross team director you know to serve as a spotlight and accelerant you know the C did at the Fort Benning the maneuver C did was working on some of the things that informed the signature modernization

efforts that I delivered at the CFT the next-gen squad weapon the enhanced

night vision goggle binocular so it really was about a lot a lot of that was

incredibly important for the Army. But there were also some, you know, we had 48 different

organizations working on requirements, which was not the original intent. So you had the 10

ultimately 10 cross-functional teams. You had 12 capability development integration directorates. You had multiple Army capability managers. You had multiple trade act proponent offices

You had a number of fielded force integration directorates. So there was an alphabet soup

of folks that were all kind of voting and in some cases vetoing in the requirement space

Too many cooks in the kitchen all at the same level. That's exactly right. And this evolved over time

And everyone was trying to do the right thing to deliver capabilities for our soldiers

And they stood up these organizations to try to tackle certain problems

but ultimately when you're an acquisition teammate and you're answering to multiple

you know requirements owners you know across the space it does get confusing so what we've done now

is we've kind of restored the prominence of the centers of excellence so the cfts were

were intended again to be a spotlight and accelerant but they weren't intended to supplant

the work of the Centers of Excellence and their force modernization proponent roles

So the CFTs will now be replaced by what's called a future capability directorate

It's a FCD. There's one in each center of excellence. And I would think it's essentially all of the capabilities of the seeded

but with the culture of the CFT to drive delivery of capability faster

On the kind of the force development side, there's also going to be the Transformation Integration Directorate or the TID

They work directly for the Center of Excellence Commanding General. And that essential, that partnership between the Future Capability Directorate, the Transformation Integration Directorate

all at a Center of Excellence gives that Center of Excellence Commanding General an eye on the force design aspect of their warfighting function

war fighting system, and the real-time integration that's occurring in formation. So less people will certainly streamline our approach

Sure. Talk about the three three-star commands. What are they, and why is it important that they're nested together

Yeah, thanks for that. So I'll start with the leaning edge of this, the Futures and Concepts Command

They're at Fort Eustis, Virginia. That was my formal organization. so they're responsible for the force design aspects of transformation

They do all of the work on the future Army warfighting concept, which is really important

That serves as the North Star for the direction that we're going. A concept informs how we operate, it informs how we organize, and it informs how we equip

So that concept's really important. We've had six concepts over the last 50 years

The first three spanned about a 40-year time horizon. The next three span about 10 years

And when you look at the changing character war and the pace of technology, it's more

going to be a running estimate. So Futures and Concepts Command will stay laser focused on that And they do the associated experimentation that goes with it the project convergence capstone series joint combined experimentation is really important the the concept focused experiments that occur at the centers of

excellence and elsewhere will certainly inform that and lastly there they still

are responsible for generating requirements that come out of the you know these gaps the associated solution sets so futures and concepts command

kind of the pathfinder in this construct. The second command is the Combined Arms Command

They're going to be at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. And they're responsible for the force development aspect of this

All of the centers of excellence, all of the schoolhouses, the new Army University system

which is the Army War College commanding general. He'll be responsible for the Army University system

So we'll link the Army War College with the Command and General Staff College, with the Sergeant Major Academy, with the Warrant Officer, you know, course

So we'll link all of those together under one Army University system

And then the two CONUS, Continental U.S.-based training centers. So the National Training Center and the Joint Readiness Training Center

That's really important because one thing I'll say is, you know, we're here at AUSA

USA, we're surrounded by some really compelling technology, really impressive solutions that

our industry partners are pursuing, but we're also the training command. And what CAC does

for that and how you change an army and how you transform an army does occur at our schools

and centers. So the training and leader development component of that can't be eclipsed by just

the material solutions we're pursuing. In fact, the training and leader development is really our decisive advantage on a modern battlefield. And the, you know, incorporating

the combat training centers allows us to insert the changes we know will occur at the front edge

so units, when they go to the combat training center, will be exposed to an opposing force that's

keeping pace with the, you know, what we know is they're going to encounter on the battlefield

So that's really critical. And then the third command, the U.S. Army Recruiting Command, led by General Davis, they're at Fort Knox, Kentucky

He'll be responsible for the force generation that ties it all together

And one way I'd, you know, offer this construct, so the Army's plan, which is total Army ysis

you know, each of these three-star commands, you know, play a role in that

So the Futures and Concepts Command, they inform the total Army ysis, the direction the Army's going

The Combined Arms Center, or the Combined Arms Command, they implement the Army's plan in real time with our formations

And the Recruiting Command resources that plan. So you link all. They know who to look for

That's right. And they know where the direct, if the Recruiting Command knows the direction the Army's going in a time horizon that's not reactionary

they're able to forecast in their own recruiting efforts, you know, which military occupational specialties we need to be pursuing to be able to fight and win tomorrow

I wanted to ask what, you know, what does full operational capability look like for T2COM

You know, how are you sorting through that, you know, as you build this out? There are still decisions that need to be made

But the activation this year was sort of the year in advance of that

So talk about some of the things that you are looking to accomplish or do in this first year so that you can feel that this has now reached a full operational capability if you will within a year Yeah no that a great question Jen So one this will be different than when we

activated Army Futures Command. That headquarters wasn't even built, and they were, you know

borrowed military manpower from the Pentagon to help stand it up. The CFTs were really the core

of the operating base for that. I had four people the day we activated AFC

and grew the CFTs later. So unlike AFC, the Transformation and Training Command

was delivering on day one. We had drill sergeants training recruits in our schoolhouses

We had recruiters actively recruiting future Army soldiers. So we were delivering on day one

And so our initial operating capability is at a high standard already

At FOC, we're running through the tape a year from now in all of the aspects I described from force design, force development, linking all of those organizations together

and for those that are familiar with like staring at a military organization line and block chart

you know what I would tell folks is this is going to be less about line and blocks on a piece of

paper and more about an integrated system you know nodes and links critical nodes critical links that

all that all communicate and collaborate together I think we'll really be at foc by the summer you

summer of 26, because it's generally when all of our people will move into position

so that way we can run through the tape next October. I did want to ask about the next warfighting concept

I know that that's been in the works. So if you could tease, what can we kind of expect from that

I know it's not out, but when do you sort of anticipate releasing that

I think that's a big benchmark that's going to come out of the command pretty soon

No, thanks for asking. One, I'm really excited about the warfighting concept, because, again, that's how we, defines how we operate, organize, and equip

So also our charge at Transformation Training Command is to turn that warfighting concept

into war-winning capabilities at speed and scale. The Secretary and the Chief have been talking about the urgency of our work

So that warfighting concept is, as you said, it's, you know, we're really close

I'm working directly with Army senior leaders on that right now. Our goal in December is to brief the general officer audience in the U.S. Army

at the Army Profession Forum and inform them on the warfighting concept. And then shortly after that, there will certainly be an unclassified version

that we're going to publish, and then the classified version that will be shared among our formations

And we'll certainly be teasing out some of that already because some of the aspects, many of the aspects of the warfighting concept

we're seeing on battlefields today. And our formations see that. and they're eager to adjust how they operate

because of what they can see online. Well, you have a lot of exciting things ahead

so thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me today. I hope you enjoy the rest of your AOSA

Yeah, thank you. I do want to leave one thing, and this is probably not only for your audience but mine

in Transformation and Training Command. So Colonel Ralph Bucket was a mentor

and even falls in, like, the idol category for me. I really, really respect him

He used to say all the time, you know, be proud but never satisfied

And what we have to do in Transformation and Training Command is think less about what we did yesterday

and more about what we're delivering tomorrow. And that's one of the key messages I'd offer

So thank you for this opportunity. All right. Thank you so much. Thanks, Jen. Appreciate it