Cebrowski Sketches the Face of Transformation
By Paul Stone
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Dec. 29, 2003 – If you want to see the face of transformation – if
you want to see what it looks like in action – you need not look any further
than Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom.
That's the view from the top by Retired Vice Adm. Arthur
Cebrowski, chief of the Defense Department's Office of Force Transformation and one of
the department's chief architects in the effort to transform the military.
During a recent interview, Cebrowski said several elements of OEF and OIF were
both representative of transformation and historic. He cited speed of
operations as an example – speed of planning; speed of decision making; speed
of physical movement; and speed with which physical barriers were overcome,
particularly in the mountains of Afghanistan.
"The war in Afghanistan was one for which we had not planned – never had an
intention of going there with a military force," he explained. "But the
flexibility and adaptability of the military made it possible less than a month
after the attacks of Sept. 11. That itself is a story of transformation.
"Indeed, not too many years ago, we could not have planned such a campaign so
quickly and executed it so expeditiously," he continued. "The high-speed
collaborative planning, the high-speed team building, and the quickly pulling
together of diverse forces and capabilities is a property of an information-age
force. So you can see it (transformation); you can see it right there in front
of you."
Transformation was also evident in OEF in the ways forces operated, Cebrowski
pointed out. "The Marine Corps, which historically has been used as an
amphibious landing force, probably never thought it would have a force that
large operating 400 miles inland, he said.
"And who would have guessed prior to Sept. 11 that that in the middle of
Afghanistan we would have special operations soldiers linking with a Navy F-
14, or linking with a B-52 to pursue a
target," he said. "This is representative of the expanding joint thrust of the
department's transformation efforts. We're creating a more dynamic, more
adaptive, higher-speed team that's built on the collective capabilities of all
the participants, which is a true cultural change."
Cebrowski said the initial, major combat operations of OIF painted an even more
dramatic portrait of transformation.
The initial phase of OEF, which he described as 28 days of very complex, very
high-speed operations that defied all experience of history, said it "indicated
the way not just modern technology is taking hold, but more importantly, how
information-age doctrine and organization are taking hold."
As an example, he pointed out that when OEF began, three different forms of
operations were being conducted simultaneously. In western Iraq, significant
elements of Special Forces and Air Force elements were conducting their own
brand of operations. In the north, there was more of what he said was "an
economy of force type of operation," in which there was operational maneuvering
from strategic distances and support from the sea. And from the south, there
was a "very dramatic, high-speed thrust that might have been called blitzkrieg
Mach 4."
"We saw new levels of integration between the air, naval and land forces –
levels of jointness we had never seen before," Cebrowski said. "And that
revealed an interesting aspect of transformation. There are many who thought
that when you went to war, or during a high-level optempo, that transformation
had to be put on hold. Instead, what we saw was that the high-tempo operations
created a very fertile environment for transformation."
He said some of this proof of transformation was evident to both those directly
involved in OEF and the American public, who were able to see much of the
initial campaign on television. But he emphasized that some transformation
efforts were not so visible or easily recognizable.
He cited the March 19 attack against Iraq's top leadership as an example.
"We thought we had a good location on Saddam Hussein and we wanted to put some
ordnance on that place right away, and we were able to do so in a matter of
minutes," Cebrowski said. "Oh yes, you could see the results of such an attack
afterwards, but the real excitement was the rapid intelligence gathering,
network structure and high-speed decision making that went into that.
Television viewers couldn't see that. But there were a lot of people involved,
and that's representative of how the force operates today."
Another example he cited was integration of a high-speed transport vessel
dubbed "Joint Venture." Two of the vessels were used in Kuwait: one supporting
Navy special operations forces and the other supporting Army logistics. Joint
Venture is a 300-plus-foot, Australian-built, experimental transport ship
modified for military use that can carry almost 400 troops and crew at speeds
of up to 40 knots. This is in stark comparison to the transport vessels the
Army has used for 50 years to support ground combat operations, traveling at
top speeds of 9 to 10 knots. Joint Venture also can transport 30 to 40 Stryker
fighting vehicles 600 or more miles, or Black Hawk
helicopters, or a wide-range of other equipment.
"This was an example of experimenting with a completely different kind of ship
that resulted in a stunning performance at quite a low cost," Cebrowski said.
"And once again, it's an example of transformation in the middle of an
operation that most people didn't get to see."
Cebrowski said those involved in OEF and OIF have done a superb job of
demonstrating to the entire world what their ingenuity and adaptability can do
when given transformational technologies and equipment to work with.
"By seizing the transformation opportunities, we are seizing the opportunity to
create our own future," he said. "So this is a very exciting time to be in the
operating forces."
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