Army 2020 and Beyond

The strategic environment of 2020 and beyond will look decidedly different from what planners envisioned at the start of this century. Changing priorities, varying operational environments (OE), and continuing budget constraints will each shape the United States national security policies. The Army will become smaller and leaner, yet it will need to maintain the capabilities to respond effectively and decisively to global challenges. Such a response requires strengthening inter-organizational relationships-our unified action partners-to include geographic combatant commands, functional combatant commands, our sister services, other governmental and non-governmental agencies, private industry, international governmental organizations, and multinational partners.The past 10 years have seen unparalleled change during a period of high operational tempo supporting two concurrent operations and a number of domestic and foreign humanitarian assistance/disaster relief (HA/DR) missions. At no point were operations compromised by a lack of sustainment; albeit there were issues to resolve. The Army is now at a strategic juncture and must develop a well-grounded proposal to guide the design of Sustainment 2020 (and beyond) that is optimized, integrated, and synchronized, while ensuring that it is affordable, relevant and avoids unnecessary redundancy. Sustainment must be capable of meeting the needs of the Army in the future.