General Gorman
Luncheon - 15 January 2003
On 15 January, the West Point Society of Richmond was honored to have
General (Ret) Paul F. Gorman, USMA'50, as its guest speaker at a
luncheon in the Downtown Club of Richmond. Twenty seven members and
guests enjoyed the usually delicious fare of the Downtown Club and then
listened in rapt attention to General Gorman provide a unique insight
into the development of the Future Combat System for the Army. General
Gorman has continued his association with the military after his
retirement by serving as a member of the Institute for Defense Analysis
and a consultant to DARPA.
He outlined the underlying assumptions, the official "requirements",
and
described "what will be new" with the Future Combat System. He said
the
assumptions are that the Army will have to be "expeditionary", armored
vehicles will have to be smaller, lighter, but more lethal and
survivable, and information technology will have a great impact on the
soldiers' battlefield "awareness". Official "requirements"
exist now to
reduce the personnel and logistical footprints, to dominate any enemy in
three dimensions day or night, support the ground force with "layers"
of
unattended aerial vehicles and unattended ground sensors. He described
many aspects that will be new, such as "rockets in a box" available at
platoon/squad level that can either be precision guided for immediate
strike or loiter over the enemy area and then hit, on command, within
seven seconds. Also, the traditional branches of infantry, armor,
artillery are likely to folded into "combined arms battalions".
Finally,
he believes we will change the individual replacement system with a unit
replacement system that keeps personnel together in units for three
years. Judging by the question and answer session, his talk was
thoroughly enjoyed by all.
Sam Wilder '61
