Operating in multiple domains: Understanding who engages in Multi-Domain Operations (MDO) and how it impacts and mandates adjustments for the Army's tactical units.

In the ever-evolving battlefield, the ability to operate effectively across all domains - space, cyber, air, land, and sea - is paramount for units to survive and thrive. This is particularly true for tactical levels, where divisions, brigades, and battalions must be prepared to face challenges from radio jamming to unreliable GPS.

The Army's new operating concept, Multidomain Operations (MDO), is not a concept of the future; it's occurring now, and it requires preparation. At the brigade combat team (BCT) level and below, MDO translates into integrated, tactical employment of capabilities across these domains.

Brigades integrate air, cyber, space, land, and sea capabilities by coordinating these effects to enable maneuver and fires at the tactical level. For example, establishing dedicated air cells at brigade headquarters helps the commander effectively integrate air fires, casualty evacuation, and interdiction supporting ground maneuver.

Modern brigades rely on combined sensor and intelligence inputs to "detect" and target effectively. Space assets, operated by specialized forces such as the U.S. Space Force Guardians in joint exercises, provide distributed capabilities that enhance brigade operations globally. Tactical units leverage these space-enabled effects alongside cyber capabilities to gain information superiority and protect their own networks while disrupting enemy command and control.

Integrated and technology-enabled modular formations, like India’s Integrated Battle Groups, emphasize operational autonomy at the brigade or below, enabling rapid, independent action with combined arms and multidomain effects that compress the kill chain and sustain battlefield tempo.

Sustainment in MDO is crucial to ensure brigade forces remain effective over time. Agile sustainment tailored to multidomain fight conditions ensures that logistical shortfalls do not hinder the brigade's ability to exploit multidomain integration.

The brigade combat team embodies the tactical edge of multidomain operations by synchronizing fires, cyber effects, space-enabled capabilities, and air support with ground maneuver to seize and hold terrain decisively. While divisions focus on shaping the deep fight, brigades operate in the close fight using integrated targeting and combined arms employment, with brigade-level staffs increasingly incorporating specialized teams (e.g., air cells) to manage multidomain integration effectively.

However, this approach requires robust command and control, real-time information sharing, and inter-service coordination to maximize the combined effects across all domains for tactical success. The Army assesses a corps to be the optimal echelon for the integration of MDO, and the corps is conducting multidomain operations by integrating capabilities, and divisions and below are participating in MDO by integrating and employing capabilities across multiple domains.

Preparing for the new operating environment, it will be necessary to fully integrate MDO into division and corps warfighters and provide realistic training for what the battlefield will look like in modern environments. Integration and experimentation are beginning to happen to prepare for the new operating environment, and it's crucial to double down on these efforts and ensure they extend across the entire Army.

The Army's Field Manual (FM) 3-0 states that all operations are multidomain operations, but simply operating in multiple domains does not necessarily mean conducting multidomain operations. To conduct effective multidomain operations, units need the ability to see themselves in all domains on the battlefield to understand how to operate offensively and defensively across all domains. This requires more than masking, dispersing, and displacing; they will need to integrate capabilities across multiple domains.

In the face of this new operating environment, leaders need access to capabilities like electromagnetic emission masking, tools to counter unmanned systems, and deceptive emitters to respond to enemy actions. The adversary has built offensive and defensive networks that make them at risk of surveillance and potentially in contact, anytime and anywhere. To survive and fight back, tactical levels will require more than just the traditional methods; they will need to integrate capabilities across multiple domains.

Captain Rebecca Segal, a field artillery officer, a graduate of Amherst College, and a Massachusetts native, is a testament to the adaptability required in this new era of warfare. In the future, units may get tactical-level offensive capabilities in nonkinetic domains to increase their chances of not only surviving, but also conducting their missions effectively.

It's important to note that the views expressed in this article do not reflect the official position of the United States Military Academy, Department of the Army, or Department of Defense.

[1] Department of the Army. (2018). Field Manual 3-0, Operations. Washington, DC: Department of the Army. [2] Department of the Army. (2020). Army Operating Concept 2028: Projecting Power in a Contested World. Washington, DC: Department of the Army. [3] Department of the Army. (2021). Army Doctrine Reference Publication 3-0, Operations. Washington, DC: Department of the Army. [4] Department of the Army. (2020). Army Capstone Concept: Adaptive Security Force. Washington, DC: Department of the Army. [5] Department of the Army. (2021). Army Sustainment Concept 2028. Washington, DC: Department of the Army.

In the realm of military strategy, the use of intelligence and cyber capabilities, for instance, air cells coordinating air fires or space assets providing global enhancements, are integrated to achieve information superiority, thereby defending against potential threats in warfare, similar to how sports teams strategize to outsmart their opponents.
The incorporation of technologies and capabilities across various domains, such as air, cyber, space, land, and sea, in sports isn't unlike the Army's MDO, where brigades seamlessly operate in multidimensional environments to maintain battlefield tempo, seize and hold terrain decisively, and counter enemy tactics - a crucial concept not just for today, but for future warfare as well.

Operating in multiple domains: Understanding who engages in Multi-Domain Operations (MDO) and how it impacts and mandates adjustments for the Army's tactical units.