http://www.ftleavenworthlamp.com/display/inn_news/news3.txt Friday, January 04, 2002 by Maj. Robert Foley, Futures Design and Integration Center Recent events both in America and abroad have shown that the nature of warfare is changing. Information has become both a weapon and battlefield. The Army has developed a new Functional Area - Information Operations - to train soldier to fight and win on this new battlefield. The TRADOC Commander saw a need to increase the Army's IO capability and directed that IO courses be set up immediately to support the ongoing military operations. At Fort Leavenworth, 12 soldiers completed training Dec. 21. More groups are scheduled to train later in the winter and summer. During the training, soldiers completed workshops on subjects such as electronic warfare and psychological operations, conducted information operations planning and worked with classmates as a staff group. A course curriculum designed by the Combined Arms Center in conjunction with Electronic Warfare Associates of Virginia enabled soldiers to train on all aspects of information operations. The course was modified to enable soldiers to be trained in a short period of time so they can quickly return to their units. "The central point of the course is to teach a core of officers the skills necessary to synchronize the existing resources of the Army," said EWA principal analyst Frederick Hellwig. "IO is necessary because our country is facing an asymmetric threat," said Hellwig. "Our Army faces nation-states and non-state entities, such as terrorists and criminal organizations, which avoid our strengths and try to exploit what (they) perceive to be our weaknesses. What IO officers do is synchronize, coordinate and integrate the Army's IO capabilities that have existed for years. In the past, many of these activities were not as effective because they were not coordinated with critical operations." Soldiers in the IO branch include active-duty, National Guard and Reserve lieutenant colonels and majors. This new era of information has led to a new way of thinking in the Army. "If we are to win on today's battlefield, we need to replace the attrition warfare mentality with a decision maker targeting approach. If we can influence, slow down, or even stop what the other side is trying to do, we will gain a decisive advantage over our opponent," concluded Hellwig. The new IO field manual, Field Manual 3-13, is in the final stages of approval. The manual is expected to be released in the near future. The manual will be available online with other Army reference material. - ISN is currently hosted by Attrition.org To unsubscribe email majordomoat_private with 'unsubscribe isn' in the BODY of the mail.
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