🪖 The Friday Formation

Friday, 12 June 2026

The Midway anniversary falls in this edition — BJ Armstrong’s piece on what it still teaches about sea power is the right ten-minute read before the weekend.

Two articles this week cover cognitive warfare and reach the same uncomfortable place from different directions: we don’t understand it as well as we think we do. Read Livieratos and Lumbaca together. Then read Buckland’s glass backbone piece and ask whether our logistics assumptions deserve the same scrutiny.

— Chris

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🏛️ Featured Leadership Essays

Ideas Without Rank: Small Wars Journal and the Democratization of Strategic Thought After 9/11

David Maxwell | Small Wars Journal | Jun 8

Traces how Small Wars Journal democratized strategic debate after 9/11, giving junior officers and NCOs a platform to challenge doctrine in ways the formal system could not.

Revisiting The Importance of the Battle of Midway

BJ Armstrong | War on the Rocks | Jun 4

Uses Midway’s anniversary to examine what the battle still teaches about initiative, command climate, and the relationship between intelligence and decision.

How LinkedIn Upped My Military Game

Stephen T. Messenger | From the Green Notebook | Jun 9

Practical lessons on using LinkedIn to build professional relationships and amplify ideas while still in uniform.

⚔️ Warfighting

Is Cognitive Warfare Dead on Arrival?

Cole Livieratos | Irregular Warfare Initiative | Jun 3

Challenges whether cognitive warfare has the doctrinal coherence to survive contact with real operations, or if the term obscures more than it explains.

Sudan’s War Beyond the Battlefield: Governance Collapse and the Struggle for Civil Authority

Fawzi Ahmed | Small Wars Journal | Jun 9

Maps competing governance structures in Sudan’s conflict zones, arguing the war will be decided as much by administration as by arms.

Airpower Under the Nuclear Shadow: Lessons from Operation Sindoor for Limited War Doctrine

Muhammad Waqas Haider | Small Wars Journal | Jun 8

Using Operation Sindoor as a case study, examines how nuclear thresholds compress the space for conventional air campaigns between nuclear-armed states.

What Beirut’s Port Scanners Miss About Militant Supply Chains

Karim Chebaklo | War on the Rocks | Jun 8

Traces how militant networks route weapons around port detection systems using layered commercial cover and exploiting gaps in inspection regimes.

After the Invasion: China Considers the Problem of Ruling Taiwan

Jude Blanchette & Richard McGregor | War on the Rocks | Jun 5

Analyzes the governance, security, and legitimacy challenges Beijing would face administering a resisting Taiwan after a successful invasion.

From Pyongyang to Primorsk: When Sanctions Evasion Becomes System Design

Olivia Vassalotti | War on the Rocks | Jun 9

Argues that North Korea and Russia have deliberately engineered their financial and logistics infrastructure to treat sanctions evasion as a systemic feature, not a workaround.

Restoring Decision Advantage: Operational Art and the Integration of CJADC2 in Multi-Domain Warfare

MAJ José L. Rivera | Gray Space | Summer 2026

Applies operational art to CJADC2 integration, arguing that decision advantage in MDO requires rethinking how commanders use joint all-domain networks, not just fielding them.

SignalStrike: Bridging the Gap in Electromagnetic Warfare Targeting at the Platoon Level

CPT Brenden Shutt | Gray Space | Summer 2026

Proposes a platoon-level targeting cycle for EW effects, arguing that electromagnetic warfare targeting authority and processes must be pushed further down the force.

The Agent on the Desk

2LT Emanuel Walker | Gray Space | Summer 2026

Explores AI agent employment in tactical cyber support roles, examining capability potential and the command-and-control implications of increasingly autonomous cyber tools.

From Data Deluge to Decision Dominance: Forging the Intelligence Data Team

COL James Leidenberg & CPT Jena M. Tyson | Military Intelligence | Jan–Jun 2026

Argues that intelligence data teams must be deliberately designed and trained to convert information volume into actionable analysis under large-scale combat conditions.

Ivy Intelligence (IVI) Large-Scale Combat Operations Targeting

Military Intelligence | Jan–Jun 2026

Unit-level intelligence targeting lessons from the Ivy Division for large-scale combat operations, focused on integrating fires and intelligence at echelon.

🔧 Delivering Ready Combat Power

The Glass Backbone: Why the Army’s Logistics Will Break in the Next War

Jonathan Buckland | Modern War Institute | Jun 3

Argues the Army’s logistics network — dependent on commercial infrastructure, GPS, and predictable throughput — is critically fragile and will fail against a near-peer adversary who targets it deliberately.

Right Sizing EW Expertise in the Army

Kevin Flickinger | Gray Space | Summer 2026

Examines how EW expertise is distributed — and often absent — across Army formations, proposing structural changes to ensure the right skills exist at the right echelons.

The LOGSTAT: TiC in Action — An ABCT BSB Perspective

CPT Garett Pyle with MAJ Patrick Smith | Army Sustainment Professional Bulletin | Jun 4

How an armored brigade combat team BSB integrated Transformation in Contact (TiC 1.0/2.0) lessons learned to adapt ABCT sustainment operations for the modern battlefield.

🔄 Continuous Transformation

Stars and Signals: Why Operational Advantage from Satellites and Drones Decays Faster Than We Think

Michael Posey & David Zesinger | Small Wars Journal | Jun 10

Argues that operational advantages derived from satellite and drone capabilities erode faster than acquisition timelines, and strategy must account for that decay rate.

What Teaching Cognitive Warfare Taught Me About Cognitive Warfare

Jeremiah “Lumpy” Lumbaca | Small Wars Journal | Jun 9

Reflecting on teaching the subject exposed the concept’s doctrinal gaps and the persistent difficulty of operationalizing cognitive warfare at the unit level.

The Lawmakers Fighting to Modernize the Pentagon

Rep. Pat Ryan, Rep. Rob Wittman & Jonathan Panter | War on the Rocks | Jun 8

Congressional perspective on the push to reform defense acquisition and the institutional resistance reformers face inside and outside the building.

Where Are the 10x AI-Assisted Engineers? The Reality of AI-Assisted Development in Early-2026

CPT Kyle Dotterrer | Gray Space | Summer 2026

Honest assessment of where AI coding tools actually deliver productivity gains in Army software development — and where the hype has not materialized.

Army Warrant Officers Instrumental in the Revitalization of the Air Force Warrant Officer Corps

CW5 Robert Hembrook | Gray Space | Summer 2026

Details how Army CW5s with deep technical expertise helped the Air Force design and stand up its revived warrant officer program.

🏛️ Strengthening the Profession

How LinkedIn Upped My Military Game

Stephen T. Messenger | From the Green Notebook | Jun 9

Practical lessons on using LinkedIn to build professional relationships and amplify ideas while still in uniform.

Ideas Without Rank: Small Wars Journal and the Democratization of Strategic Thought After 9/11

David Maxwell | Small Wars Journal | Jun 8

Traces how Small Wars Journal democratized strategic debate after 9/11, giving junior officers and NCOs a platform to challenge doctrine in ways the formal system could not.

Revisiting The Importance of the Battle of Midway

BJ Armstrong | War on the Rocks | Jun 4

Uses Midway’s anniversary to examine what the battle still teaches about initiative, command climate, and the relationship between intelligence and decision.

Seizing the Moment

COL John Hosey | Gray Space | Summer 2026

Argues that the Gray Space community sits at the inflection point of Army modernization and has a professional responsibility to shape how the force adapts to cyber and EW warfare.

BOLC Lessons Learned: Transitioning from Cadet to Cyber Warfare Officer

1LT Andrew Hu, 2LT Quintin Sherrod & LTC Joseph Huitt | Gray Space | Summer 2026

Three junior officers reflect on the specific challenges of transitioning from ROTC to the Cyber Branch, with concrete advice for incoming Cyber Warfare Officers.

Leaders, Mentors, Innovators: The Heart of the Cyber Corps

CW5 Matthias J. Ingle | Gray Space | Summer 2026

Profiles the mentorship culture inside the Army Cyber Corps, arguing that technical excellence and combat relevance both depend on deliberate leader development at every level.

Relationships Forged in Fire

CW4 William Bryant | Special Warfare | 2026

Examines how combat deployments forge professional bonds that define SOF team culture and form the true foundation of mission effectiveness.

The Relentless Pursuit of an Exceptional Experience

CPT Robert Haggerty | Special Warfare | 2026

Argues that SOF units must be deliberate about creating extraordinary training experiences, treating professional development as a competitive advantage in talent retention.

General James Van Fleet: Lessons for Modern Special Operations Soldiers

Lt. Col. Marshall McGurk | Special Warfare | Jun 9

Draws leadership lessons from Van Fleet’s Korean War command style — decentralized authority, aggressive initiative, partner development — for application by modern SOF leaders.

📖 Resources & Calls

· CSA Recommended Articles – Army University Press – The Chief’s reading list.

· Professional Writing Playlist (YouTube) – Talks and discussions on military writing.

· Professional Military Writing – Military Review – Why writing matters.

· Army FAO Association Podcasts – FAO professional development listening.

🧩 TL;DR

⚡ Quick Read — How LinkedIn Upped My Military Game

Stephen T. Messenger | From the Green Notebook | Jun 9

🔍 Deep Dive — After the Invasion: China Considers the Problem of Ruling Taiwan

Jude Blanchette & Richard McGregor | War on the Rocks | Jun 5

🎙️ Listen — MWI Podcast: The Future of the All-Volunteer Force

John Amble with Jaron Wharton & Keith Carter | Modern War Institute | Jun 10

🎖️ For the Formation — The Glass Backbone: Why the Army’s Logistics Will Break in the Next War

Jonathan Buckland | Modern War Institute | Jun 3

🧭 About the Harding Project

The Harding Project is the Army initiative to strengthen the profession through professional writing and public discourse.

The one-stop shop for all branch journal articles is the Line of Departure website – check it out to get your daily dose of Army professional development! If you have good ideas or lessons to share with the rest of the force, please pen them and send them our way at submissions@hardingproject.com.

We’re renewing professional writing across the force—one article at a time. Read. Reflect. Act. The profession doesn’t stand still, and neither should we.

Once upon a time, Army branch journals arrived in stacks to units across the installation. They would land in waiting rooms, staff duty desks, and bathrooms. In a time before smartphones, the journals were always present—something to pass the time.

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The transition to all-digital journals has drastically altered how readers engage with them. Articles no longer have to come in consolidated issues, but can be published more quickly. This is generally a boon for writers—they can see their work appear in digital print weeks or even days after submission, while their forebears had to wait for months.

One component of the old branch journals that has yet to be resurrected is letters to the editor. This section was curated reader feedback, printed each issue. Some were attaboys, some were criticisms, and others were notes about how an article resonated or a contribution that the letter-writer wanted to add. Editors sometimes responded directly to the letters on the same page.

While the letters were meant for readers, they were also a tool for editors. They allowed the editors a form of feedback from the most engaged set of readers. This was an imperfect tool, to be sure, since only readers with the most motivation and time on their hands would write in, but this gauge was better than nothing.

So the question for current and future Harding Fellows across the Army is, how are you soliciting feedback from your readers? Other than letters to the editor, there seem to be three principal alternatives:

Private channels. Editors can and should solicit feedback from readers directly, without intention of printing anything. However, since this correspondence is private, it doesn’t give readers any incentive to join in the dialogue.

Comments sections. These sections allow people to freely comment on articles. Comments are tied to a specific article rather than the journal as a whole—which may or may not be a good thing. Unfortunately, comments sections across social media are frequently toxic and full of bots, and it seems unlikely that it is feasible to host them on an official Army page, though something like a Substack may be an option.

Focus groups. These groups are convened at the editor’s behest, preferably representing some cross-section of readers. They can be convened virtually or in-person and allow the editor to ask probing questions on how content is received and what else the journal might consider adding.

Which brings us back to letters to the editor. Their advantage is that they allow the editor the same level of control that they would exert over private channels, while providing a public signal to the audience that the editor is interested in what readers are saying—and that the editor has the courage to share critical and laudatory remarks, alike. It’s one thing for a reader to know that they are heard through a private channel to the editor, and it’s another thing for a reader to see the editor’s public acknowledgement.

One proposal that might work is to actively solicit letters to the editor over the course of a month or a quarter, and then publish all of those letters—along with a letter from the editor in response.

The comments section is the blaster: fast, indiscriminate, as likely to wound as to find its mark, and increasingly fired by bots rather than people. Letters to the editor are the older weapon—more demanding to wield, requiring discipline from writer and editor alike, but precise, deliberate, and unmistakably human. For Harding Fellows building the next generation of branch journals, it is a tool worth rediscovering. Not out of nostalgia, but because an elegant weapon still has its uses in a less civilized age.

🪖 The Friday Formation

Friday, 5 June 2026

The Iran conflict thread runs through a lot of this week’s writing — air defense analysis, strategic constraint, and the limits of kinetic force. Worth reading those pieces together.

Two pieces stand out. Jonathan Buckland’s “The Glass Backbone” in MWI makes an uncomfortable argument: Army logistics is not structured to survive peer competition. The problem is architectural, not addressable at the margins. Command teams should have this conversation before the next rotation, not after.

COL Laura Weimer’s piece in From the Green Notebook is the other must-read. She commanded a division HHBN when a company commander died by suicide. What she writes is a field account of leading through that — the grief, the readiness pressure, the decisions with no clean answer. That kind of transparency, from someone at her level, is exactly what this project exists to encourage.

Plenty here.

Chris

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🏛️ Featured Leadership Essays

🔧 The Glass Backbone: Why the Army’s Logistics Will Break in the Next War

Jonathan Buckland | Modern War Institute | 3 June 2026

Buckland’s argument is clean and uncomfortable: the Army’s logistics architecture is not designed to survive peer competition. The vulnerabilities are structural, not fixable at the margins. Command teams should sit with this one.

⚔️ Is Cognitive Warfare Dead on Arrival?

Cole Livieratos | Irregular Warfare Initiative | 3 June 2026

Cognitive warfare has attracted major institutional investment — but Livieratos argues the concept may be fundamentally incoherent. A sharp challenge to a fashionable idea, right when the information operations discussion is most active.

📜 In the Wake of a Leader’s Suicide: Leading Through Grief, Readiness, and Organizational Complexity

COL Laura Weimer | From the Green Notebook | 2 June 2026

COL Weimer commanded a division headquarters battalion when a company commander died by suicide. She writes directly about what leading through that actually looks like — the grief, the readiness demands, the decisions with no clean answers. Required reading for anyone in command.

⚔️ Warfighting

⚔️ False Targets, Real Survivability: Here’s What’s Keeping the Army from Borrowing Ukraine’s Air Defense Decoy Techniques

Trevor Alexander & Christopher Burlison | Modern War Institute | 2 June 2026

Ukraine has used decoys to complicate Russian targeting. The Army hasn’t adopted similar techniques. The authors examine the structural, doctrinal, and acquisition barriers keeping the force from fielding proven air defense deception.

⚔️ Designing Judgment: Leadership under Uncertainty on the Modern Battlefield

Jerry Hall | Modern War Institute | June 2026

How do you deliberately develop judgment — the kind that functions under genuine battlefield uncertainty? Hall connects doctrine, experience, and leader development in a framework relevant from platoon to corps.

⚔️ Is Cognitive Warfare Dead on Arrival?

Cole Livieratos | Irregular Warfare Initiative | 3 June 2026

A direct challenge to the concept of cognitive warfare. Livieratos argues that as currently framed, the concept may be analytically incoherent — generating investment without generating clarity. Worth reading alongside the SWJ piece below.

⚔️ Operationally Detached: Why Decentralization, Not Consolidation, Is the Future of U.S. Army Special Forces

Maurice “Duc” DuClos | Irregular Warfare Initiative | 28 May 2026

As consolidation pressure grows on SOF, DuClos argues the opposite direction is correct. Decentralization isn’t a legacy habit — it’s a structural advantage that consolidation would eliminate.

⚔️ The Last A-Team: Special Forces Aren’t Special Anymore

Ned Marsh | Irregular Warfare Initiative (republished in Small Wars Journal) | 28 May 2026

A pointed indictment of institutional drift in Special Forces. Marsh argues the regiment has been so fundamentally changed by risk aversion and bureaucratization that its strategic distinctiveness has been lost.

⚔️ A Case for Integrating Counter Position Navigation and Timing Weapons

CW3 Joshua P. Stevens | Gray Space | June 2026

How the 1st Multi-Domain Task Force is integrating C-PNT weapons to disrupt adversary systems while mitigating electromagnetic fratricide. A practical look at tactical planning and performance steps for counter-GPS operations.

⚔️ Irregular Warfare Is More Than Just SOF: The Need for Statutory Authority for Conventional Forces to Support IW Operations

Army Lawyer | Issue 1, 2026 | 29 May 2026

The argument that conventional forces need clear statutory authority to participate in irregular warfare missions — and that the current legal framework has left commanders with ambiguous authorities at the wrong moment.

⚔️ Between Beijing and the Budget: The Domestic Realities of Taiwan’s Defense Spending Drama

Jessica C. Liao & Kyle Marcrum | Strategic Studies Institute | 2 June 2026

Taiwan’s legislature blocked a major defense budget, then passed a scaled-down version days before a key summit. The authors argue the U.S. media narrative has consistently missed the domestic political dynamics shaping Taiwan’s actual defense posture.

⚔️ Operational-Level Maneuver: Why Tactical Success Alone Is Not Enough

Marc-Andre Walther | Small Wars Journal | 4 June 2026

Tactical wins without operational coherence don’t translate into strategic outcomes. Drawing on Ukraine and doctrine, Walther argues the force needs to re-learn operational art — a discipline crowded out by years of tactical focus.

⚔️ Cognitive Warfare: A New Strategic Frontier?

Jean-Michel Valantin & Fabrice Lollia | Small Wars Journal | 4 June 2026

AI-enabled propaganda, narrative strategies, and cognitive operations as a core dimension of the Iran conflict. A strategic-level examination of what it means to compete in the cognitive domain.

⚔️ Hormuz and the Geometry of Constraint: Rethinking Control in a Closed System

Cong Nguyen | Small Wars Journal | 3 June 2026

The Strait of Hormuz isn’t just a chokepoint — it’s a closed system with geometric properties that shape how control is contested. A novel analytical framework relevant to current Iran conflict planning.

🔧 Delivering Ready Combat Power

🔧 The Importance of TACOM Maintenance Deep Dives Across 2nd Mobile Brigade Combat Team

MAJ Bobbi Walden | Army Sustainment | 2 June 2026

TACOM maintenance deep dives uncovered equipment readiness issues that standard reporting missed. Lessons on how direct engagement between program managers and operational units produces actionable readiness improvements.

🔧 Tele-Maintenance: Predictive Readiness and Forward Repair in the Operationally Independent Brigade Fight

2LT Denzell N. Beecham | Army Sustainment | 29 May 2026

Remote maintenance support, predictive readiness systems, and forward repair concepts for brigades operating in operationally independent environments. Practical implications for sustainment planning in distributed operations.

🔧 A New Era in Army Maintenance: Policy-Driven Technological Change

LTG Michelle Donahue | Army Sustainment | 28 May 2026

How policy changes are driving the Army’s maintenance modernization — and what that means for how formations must train, equip, and sustain their equipment in a peer competition environment.

🔧 Modernizing Army Maintenance Training: Enhancing Technical Depth and Leveraging Emerging Technologies

CW4 Chase D. Givens | Army Sustainment | 28 May 2026

The case for deeper technical education in Army maintenance — and how emerging technologies like predictive analytics and digital twins can be integrated into training pipelines to produce more capable mechanics.

🔧 Sustaining the Final Mission: Contaminated Remains Operations and the Future of Army Mortuary Affairs

CPT Alexander J. Young | Army Sustainment | 28 May 2026

An underexamined logistics challenge: handling contaminated remains in CBRN environments during large-scale combat operations. A frank assessment of gaps in doctrine and capability.

🔧 Strengthening Legal Interoperability: The Urgent Need to Sustain Mil-to-Mil Legal Engagements Across NATO

Army Lawyer | Issue 1, 2026 | 29 May 2026

Mil-to-mil legal engagements are a foundational enabler of NATO operations — and they’re at risk. The article makes the case for treating legal interoperability as a strategic readiness requirement.

🔧 Aviation Forward Arming and Refueling Operations in Large-Scale Combat Operations

Aviation Digest | 28 May 2026

Doctrine and lessons learned for executing aviation FARP operations in contested, large-scale combat environments — covering readiness requirements, survivability, and mission command for AFARP teams.

🔧 Preliminary Observations: JLTV-Mounted Q-50 Innovation Efforts

CPT Tyris Foster et al. | Field Artillery | 1 June 2026

Initial observations from efforts to mount the Q-50 lightweight counter-UAS system on the JLTV platform — expanding the ability to integrate counter-drone fires into mobile fire support elements.

🔧 Reactive Counterfire: Why?

CW2 Ryan Saltzgaber | Field Artillery | 1 June 2026

A principled examination of reactive counterfire doctrine — why it matters, where it falls short, and what the fire support community must get right to execute counterfire effectively in a peer fight.

🔄 Continuous Transformation

🔄 Winning the Systems War: Why the Army Should Reorganize Itself for Modern Combat

Ryan Walters | Irregular Warfare Initiative | 1 June 2026

Walters argues the Army’s current organizational structure is misaligned with the systems-competition that defines modern warfare. He offers a framework for what reorganization should prioritize.

🔄 The Sixty-Ton Problem: Scandium Supply Chain Risk and the US Defense Industrial Base

Morgan Bazilian, Macdonald Amoah & Jahara Matisek | Modern War Institute | 28 May 2026

Scandium — essential to advanced defense materials — is almost entirely controlled by adversaries. The authors map the supply chain risk and what it means for U.S. defense industrial strategy.

🔄 How America Lost Its Most Important Defense Tech Habit

Jack Barry | War on the Rocks (Cogs of War) | 29 May 2026

The U.S. defense tech sector has lost a cultural practice that historically drove breakthrough innovation. Barry identifies what it was and why its absence matters now.

🔄 Closing the Digital Readiness Gap: A Case for an Integrated Signal Training Ecosystem

U.S. Army Signal School | Army Communicator | 3 June 2026

The Signal School proposes a Signal Foundry and Signal Digital Master Gunner program to close the digital readiness gap — creating an integrated training ecosystem for large-scale combat operations readiness.

🔄 Right Sizing EW Expertise in the Army

Gray Space | 2 June 2026

The Army’s electromagnetic warfare expertise is misaligned with operational demand. This article examines how to right-size EW talent across the force to meet the requirements of peer competition.

🔄 Army Warrant Officers Instrumental in the Revitalization of the Air Force Warrant Officer Corps

Gray Space | 3 June 2026

Cross-service lessons on warrant officer development — how Army warrant officer culture and structures influenced the Air Force’s revitalization of its own warrant officer corps.

🔄 BOLC Lessons Learned: Transitioning from Cadet to Cyber Warfare Officer

Gray Space | 3 June 2026

First-person lessons from the transition between USMA and the Cyber BOLC — what the institutional pipeline gets right, what it misses, and what new cyber officers should expect.

🔄 Streamlining the Training Development Process: The Directorate of Training and Doctrine’s Digital Department of the Army Form 2028

Aviation Digest | 3 June 2026

DOTD’s digital DA Form 2028 initiative streamlines the training feedback and doctrine update process — practical transformation that closes the loop between field experience and institutional learning.

🏛️ Strengthening the Profession

📜 In the Wake of a Leader’s Suicide: Leading Through Grief, Readiness, and Organizational Complexity

COL Laura Weimer | From the Green Notebook | 2 June 2026

COL Weimer commanded a division HHBN when a company commander died by suicide. She writes directly about what leading through that looks like — the grief, the readiness demands, the decisions with no clean answers.

📜 Gambling with Influence: Don’t Bet Your Life on Someone Else’s Promise

Joe Byerly | From the Green Notebook | 30 May 2026

A general offered a career-defining opportunity. The author turned it down. A sharp lesson in understanding the actual limits of someone’s authority — and why confusing confidence for power can cost more than a career decision.

📜 Leave the Notebook Behind: Trust, Rapport, and Communication

Center for Junior Officers | June 2026

Putting down the notebook and engaging directly with your formation — a piece on trust, rapport, and what communication actually looks like when leaders are present rather than note-taking. A practical reminder for junior officers and NCOs.

📜 Think Like a Commander

Military Intelligence Professional Bulletin | 3 June 2026

What it actually means to think like a commander in the intelligence context — a challenge to intelligence professionals to move beyond information delivery toward anticipatory, commander-focused analysis.

📜 The Moral Imperative of Our Time—Purposeful Intellectual Growth: Developing and Using the Human Mind to Outthink America’s Enemies and to Stay Abreast of Changing Technologies

Military Intelligence Professional Bulletin | 3 June 2026

The argument that developing and maintaining intellectual capacity is not optional — it’s a moral and professional imperative for every soldier and intelligence professional who wants to outthink adversaries in a rapidly changing environment.

📜 Pivotal Perspective: In Defense of the Formation: How Engaging With Your Unit Increases Lethality

Army Lawyer | Issue 1, 2026 | 29 May 2026

An argument for why leaders who genuinely engage with their formations — rather than managing from a distance — produce more lethal, cohesive units. The case against administrative leadership.

📜 Ready? Set. Go! Readiness in Legal Training and Education Across the JAG Corps

Army Lawyer | Issue 1, 2026 | 2 June 2026

How the JAG Corps is modernizing legal training and education to keep pace with operational demands — a look at the initiatives reshaping how Army lawyers are prepared for the complexity of modern legal support.

📜 The Man Behind the SCOTUS Military Justice Case Names: Warden Jacob J. Parker

Army Lawyer | Issue 1, 2026 | 2 June 2026

A historical profile of the warden whose name appears in Supreme Court military justice case names — connecting legal history to the institutional development of military justice.

📜 Father Time Is Undefeated: Intelligence, and How a Judge Advocate Can Prepare for Its Inevitable Decline

Army Lawyer | Issue 1, 2026 | 28 May 2026

A candid look at cognitive decline and how judge advocates — and by extension any leader — can prepare for and navigate the reality that intelligence changes with age. An honest take on professional longevity.

📜 From Soldier to ‘Condemned Prisoner’: A Review of Modern Military Death Sentence Procedure

Army Lawyer | Issue 1, 2026 | 28 May 2026

A procedural examination of how the military justice system handles capital cases from referral through execution — drawing on landmark SCOTUS cases and the current state of military capital punishment.

📜 The Gunner’s Seat: New Armor School CSM and Focus Areas

Armor Journal | Spring 2026 | 1 June 2026

The incoming Armor School CSM outlines focus areas for the branch — including gunnery proficiency, NCO development, and preparation for large-scale combat operations. A signal of where branch leadership is directing energy.

📜 The Weird Pillar: Spiritual Fitness, Moral Injury, and the Stuff We Can’t Measure

MOPs & MOEs Podcast | 31 May 2026

Spiritual fitness gets the least airtime of the Army’s four pillars — but moral injury is real and reshaping how the force understands readiness. A candid conversation about the dimension of wellness the formation rarely talks about.

📖 Resources & Calls

· CSA Recommended Articles – Army University Press – The Chief’s reading list.

· Professional Writing Playlist (YouTube) – Talks and discussions on military writing.

· Professional Military Writing – Military Review – Why writing matters.

· Army FAO Association Podcasts – FAO professional development listening.

🧩 TL;DR

· Quick Read: Gambling with Influence: Don’t Bet Your Life on Someone Else’s Promise

· Deep Dive: Between Beijing and the Budget: The Domestic Realities of Taiwan’s Defense Spending Drama

· Listen: MWI Podcast: Putin’s Intelligence Services

· For the Formation: The Weird Pillar – Spiritual Fitness, Moral Injury, and the Stuff We Can’t Measure

🧭 About the Harding Project

The Harding Project is the Army initiative to strengthen the profession through professional writing and public discourse.

The one-stop shop for all branch journal articles is the Line of Departure website – check it out to get your daily dose of Army professional development! If you have good ideas or lessons to share with the rest of the force, please pen them and send them our way at submissions@hardingproject.com.

We’re renewing professional writing across the force—one article at a time. Read. Reflect. Act. The profession doesn’t stand still, and neither should we.

Recently while reviewing previous Army Communicator articles, I came across one that resonated with me and is still very relevant today. Additionally, the author and I have a few similarities.

The Article (full version at the bottom)

Published in a 2009 edition of Army Communicator, the article “Army Mentorship is about developing leaders” emphasizes the critical role of mentorship within the Army – particularly the Signal Corps. The author, Maj. Anthony G. Glaude, had 29 years of diverse military experience at the time (I currently have 28 years). Glaude defines mentorship as a voluntary, developmental relationship characterized by mutual trust and respect between a more experienced mentor and a less experienced protégé. Highlighting that mentorship is both a duty and an obligation for leaders at all levels—not just officers but senior noncommissioned officers as well. He stresses that mentorship is essential in developing leaders and retaining talent.

Glaude addresses common misconceptions, such as perceptions of favoritism or “brownnosing,” and refutes them by focusing on mentorship’s true purpose: to coach, advise, and provide constructive feedback that maximizes strengths and minimizes weaknesses. Glaude notes that many junior Soldiers leave the military citing a lack of mentorship as a key factor, rather than subpar pay or deployment hardships.

The article also challenges the widely held technical mindset prevalent in signal units, urging leaders to balance technical competence with the equally vital responsibility of mentoring future leaders. Through shared experiences, honest dialogue, and committed involvement, mentorship serves as the glue that holds effective organizations and units together. In today’s rapidly evolving military environment, where technology and warfare modalities continuously transform, the human dimension – leadership development through mentorship – remains a timeless constant. Modern leaders like me continue to face complex challenges and diverse missions with increased operational tempo that demand more than technical proficiency; they require adaptive, resilient, and well-rounded leaders who are prepared to lead in ambiguity. Glaude’s insights resonate strongly with me and current Army leadership doctrine (such as FM 6-22) which underscores mentorship as a cornerstone of leader development. As the Army integrates more joint, multinational, and technologically sophisticated operations, mentorship bridges the experience gap and fosters a culture of continuous learning and professional growth.
The call to expand mentorship beyond traditional “officer only” circles – to include officer to noncommissioned officers and peer-to-peer relationships – is increasingly relevant today. As a mentor provides guidance to a protégé over time, they develop a professional relationship. By developing this professional relationship, it removes things such as favoritism or “brownnosing,” as mentioned above, and replaces them with bonds of trust to further increase dialogue. In return, the mentor has an obligation to provide time and honest advice to the protégé, regardless of whether they take the insight provided.

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Some Perspective

In one of my previous roles, I was a training academic counselor for new lieutenants. While at the range, I was explaining to a lieutenant how to properly zero a weapon and to take their time when shooting the three rounds to get a tight zero. After explaining in detail how to get the right sight picture, take a breath, squeeze the trigger and repeat, the applicant simply took one breath and fired off all three rounds. I was so upset that the lieutenant did not take the advice. All I wanted was for them to pass, and it seemed as if they were working to fail. In the end, I can’t change the mentee; I can only provide advice for them to change.

As I reviewed Glaude’s article, I kept reflecting on how mentors provide honest sound advice and sometimes this may not be what the protégé wants to hear. In my current role as the 26B (Data Systems Engineer) Career Program manager, one of my duties is to work along with the Directorate of Military Personnel Management, Headquarters, Department of the Army; and U.S. Army Recruiting Command on direct commission. I receive emails daily from applicants who want to become officers through this program. However, some only hear the term “direct commission” and automatically assume they are qualified. My job is to provide honest feedback, and sometimes this may not be what a protégé or applicant wants to hear – especially when informed they are not qualified.

Mentors / leaders must ensure they provide honest advice and not tailor their words for what the protégé wants to hear but what they need to hear. When a mentor tells a protégé what they want to hear, the relationship between mentor / protégé changes to friend / friend. To keep that mentor to protégé balance, leaders must remain professional and provide honest feedback for the situation.

I challenge Army senior leaders to provide feedback on the three commissioning sources, being that direct commission has been opened to all branches. My thought was that United States Military Academy and Reserve Officers’ Training Corps was for individuals who want to come in as an officer and are simultaneously in college to earn their degree. Officer Candidate School was for individuals who are currently serving, just received their degree, and lack the experience to be put into an infantry brigade combat team (IBCT) position such as battalion S6 and have phenomenal performance.

Lastly, I thought direct commission was for applicants who have a wealth of experience, can be considered that “unicorn” who can be thrust into an IBCT, and still have phenomenal performance. Lately, it seems as if some individuals are commissioned as part of a numbers game with no real objective between the three commission sources.

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Call to Action

I challenge senior leaders to provide guidance on the distinct mission of each commissioning source and seek out protégé – as well as protégé to seek out senior leaders – to ensure we keep mentorship alive and continue to give back to the Army. Today’s operational tempo is not slowing down, so to ensure the next generation of leaders is well prepared to keep “rolling along” (as the Army song says), leaders of all ranks must continue to mentor the younger generation.

Lt. Col. Kenneth B. Redd II, an Oberlin, Ohio, native, enlisted in June 1998 as a combat engineer. In April 2009, he was selected as a Signal Corps officer and attended Officer Candidate School at Fort Benning, Georgia. Redd has multiple deployments including Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq.

🪖 The Friday Formation

Friday, 29 May 2026

Good week. The formation is thinking — and writing — across every domain.

The featured essays cover the timeless ground: what it takes to be a lethal lieutenant, what Audie Murphy’s example still demands of NCOs, and whether Army ethics doctrine is built for the fights ahead. From there the issue opens up — AI and autonomous systems, space and near-peer strategy, special operations partnering, a sustainment community making the quiet case that readiness wins wars long before the first shot. Something for everyone in the formation this week.

Worth noting: junior officers and NCOs have bylines across MWI, the NCO Journal, and SWJ this issue. That trend keeps getting stronger, and it should. If you’ve been sitting on a draft, this is your sign.

Good things to read this weekend.

Chris

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🏛️ Featured Leadership Essays

The Lethal, Learning Lieutenant: Advice for New Officers

Modern War Institute at West Point | 22 May 2026

What separates the officer who gets better fast from the one who plateaus? A practical guide to surviving and thriving in the early years of service — and why the habits formed in the first assignment shape everything that follows. Essential reading for new lieutenants and the leaders who develop them.

Strengthening the Army Profession: Audie Murphy’s Legacy

By Master Sgt. Angel I. Alemanmondragon | NCO Journal | 22 May 2026

An NCO makes the case for the Sergeant Audie Murphy Award and Club as one of the Army’s most effective tools for developing disciplined, articulate, and lethal NCOs. Notably: the article explicitly credits the Harding Project as a CSA initiative that makes professional writing accessible to every Soldier — and calls on NCOs to publish. A model for what institutional writing looks like from the enlisted ranks.

U.S. Military Lacks Ethics Doctrine

By Dennis Katolin | War on the Rocks | 26 May 2026

A pointed argument that the U.S. military has world-class professional military education on nearly every subject except ethics — where there is no capstone doctrine, no common framework, and no shared language. The profession has values. It does not have a system for applying them when they conflict. A conversation-starter for any leader development program.

⚔️ Warfighting

Leading in the Dark: Command, Uncertainty, and the Will to Act

By Pasulo Frade | War on the Rocks | 27 May 2026

On what it means to command — and decide — when the picture is never complete and the enemy always has a vote. A meditation on command in conditions of uncertainty relevant to every echelon of leadership.

The Road to Space Runs through the Poles

By Rebecca Pincus and David Marsh | War on the Rocks | 27 May 2026

Why the Arctic and Antarctic are the critical terrain for the coming space competition. With China building Antarctic research stations with satellite ground capabilities and Russia claiming Norwegian facilities violate demilitarization clauses, the polar regions are where American security, Russian survival, and Chinese ambition unambiguously overlap. Argues U.S. strategy is dangerously silent on the poles.

Climate-Preparedness Cuts Are Lethality Cuts

By Caitlin Irby | War on the Rocks | 26 May 2026

The case that cutting climate-preparedness programs is not budget trimming — it’s degrading operational readiness. Extreme weather, sea-level rise, and supply chain disruption are warfighting constraints. Treating them as political football has a direct cost in lethality.

We’ll Go No More Enriching

By Dino Garner | Irregular Warfare Initiative | 25 May 2026

Assesses the latest developments in Iran’s nuclear program and what coercive options — military, diplomatic, and covert — remain viable. Directly relevant to the ongoing U.S. posture in CENTCOM and the debate over deterrence versus prevention.

Russia, AI, and the Limits of Traditional Values

By Anna Varfolomeeva | Small Wars Journal | 22 May 2026

Explores the contradiction between Russia’s embrace of AI for information warfare and the ideological constraints imposed by its traditional values framework.

“An Enviable Position in the Pacific,” an interview with GEN Xavier Brunson

Strategic Studies Institute / Army War College | 22 May 2026

A senior leader’s perspective on the Army’s strategic priorities, the pacing threat, and what readiness actually looks like at the formation level heading into the late 2020s.

Ukraine’s Distributed Combat Power

By Daine van de Wall | Small Wars Journal | 21 May 2026

What Ukraine has demonstrated about the viability of distributed, disaggregated combat power against a conventional peer force — and the lessons for how the U.S. Army should organize and train.

Mosaic Defense and the Iran Problem

By Andre Caralho and Joao Rego | Small Wars Journal | 21 May 2026 [VERIFY exact URL and author]

Applies mosaic defense theory to the challenge of countering Iran’s asymmetric capabilities and proxy network. Argues for a more distributed, resilient deterrence posture in the Middle East.

The Jazz Band of Mars: What if the Army’s Shift to Division-Centric Warfighting is Wrong?

Modern War Institute at West Point | 20 May 2026

A provocative challenge to the Army’s emerging doctrine of division-centric warfighting. Using the metaphor of jazz vs. orchestral performance, the author argues that flexibility, adaptability, and decentralized execution — not massing at the division level — will be decisive in the future fight.

Relationships Forged in Fire

Special Warfare Journal | 20 May 2026

A historical vignette documenting, for the first time from the U.S. side, a Special Forces partnering operation. The Soldiers involved were never recognized for their actions. The SWCS Editor’s Note frames it as applicable to every ARSOF Soldier in the formation — because the relationships built in quiet professionalism are the force multiplier that never appears in an OPORD.

A New Vision for Special Forces

Irregular Warfare Initiative | 20 May 2026

Proposes a reconceptualization of Special Forces’ core purpose in the current security environment — moving beyond the counterterrorism frame of the past two decades toward its original unconventional warfare roots.

Ordinary Crime as Hybrid Threat

Small Wars Journal | 20 May 2026

Argues that transnational criminal organizations are increasingly indistinguishable from state-sponsored hybrid warfare actors — and that the Army’s current threat frameworks fail to account for this.

Corruption and PLA Generals: What Purges Mean for Chinese Military Readiness

Strategic Studies Institute | 20 May 2026

Analyzes what the ongoing PLA anti-corruption purges — particularly among rocket force and logistics generals — mean for Chinese military readiness, doctrine implementation, and the credibility of Xi’s modernization timeline.

🔧 Delivering Ready Combat Power

Restoring the Primacy of Army Mobilization Planning

Strategic Studies Institute Podcast | 27 May 2026

A podcast discussion on why Army mobilization planning — the ability to rapidly expand and deploy the force — has atrophied since the Cold War and what it would take to restore it as a core competency. Directly relevant to force structure, reserve component readiness, and industrial base capacity. [VERIFY blurb]

At the Speed of Relevance: Reforming Army Procurement

Army War College War Room | 26 May 2026

Why the Army’s acquisition system is still producing systems for the last war at the pace of the last decade — and a prescription for reforming procurement to match the speed of the threat. Anchored in current examples from UAS, fires, and electronic warfare programs.

The Combat Field Test Raised the Army’s Fitness Ceiling. Now It’s Time to Raise the Floor.

Modern War Institute at West Point | 21 May 2026

The Army’s Combat Field Test revealed what elite units can achieve physically — but the bigger problem is the formation-level floor. Argues for treating physical readiness as a warfighting function, not a personnel standard, and for cascading the CFT’s lessons across the force.

Podcast — The Spear: Long-Range Precision Fires and the Fight for the First Island Chain

By Dr. Charlie Faint with LTC Ben Blane | MWI The Spear | 21 May 2026

LTC Ben Blane traces his career from traditional artillery to commanding the Army’s first long-range precision fires battalion. Covers hypersonic weapons, networked missile systems, drones, cyber, and space integration — and what it actually takes to build resilient, networked kill webs that enable faster, more precise effects across domains. Drawing on experimentation in the Philippines.

An Endurance-Centric Model for the Principles of War

Military Review Online Exclusive | 21 May 2026

Proposes reconsidering the classical principles of war through the lens of operational and strategic endurance — arguing that the ability to sustain the fight over time is the meta-principle that determines whether all others can be applied. A doctrinal contribution with direct implications for how the Army thinks about operational design.

Podcast — The LOGSTAT #53: Survivability through Dispersion — A New Approach to Aviation Army Sustainment Professional Bulletin | 21 May 2026 | CPT Garett Pyle with LTC Nicklaus Franck and CPT Michael Leinen | 45 min

How aviation is adopting the sustainment community’s base-cluster approach — as outlined in the updated ATP 4-90 (BSB, January 2026) — to maximize survivability through dispersion. Base clusters increase mobility, facilitate concealment, help mitigate indirect fire, and can push assets forward to extend operational reach. CPT Pyle talks with LTC Franck and CPT Leinen from JMRC about integrating aviation and sustainment operations and what the sustainment model offers the broader force.

🔄 Continuous Transformation

Autonomous Ground Vehicles and the Sustainment Problem

Modern War Institute at West Point | 27 May 2026

The Army is investing heavily in autonomous ground vehicles — but the sustainment tail for autonomous systems in a contested environment remains underexamined. Who fixes the robot when it breaks 30km forward? Addresses logistics and maintenance requirements for AV integration that training and acquisition communities are not yet answering.

The Indispensable Interceptor: Air Defense and the Problem of Cost-Exchange Logic

By Peter Mitchell | Modern War Institute | 22 May 2026 |

Argues against letting efficiency logic drive procurement decisions for high-end air defense systems — and for an “all of the above” approach that accelerates cheaper directed-energy and low-cost interceptor layers without gutting the long-range systems that defeat ballistic missiles and hypersonic threats.

Rethinking AI at the Strategic Frontier

By Myke Cohen | Small Wars Journal | 22 May 2026

Examines where artificial intelligence intersects with strategic competition — and the widening gap between how the U.S., China, and Russia are integrating AI into their strategic frameworks.

🏛️ Strengthening the Profession

The Lethal, Learning Lieutenant: Advice for New Officers

Modern War Institute at West Point | 22 May 2026

What separates the officer who gets better fast from the one who plateaus? A practical guide to surviving and thriving in the early years of service — and why the habits formed in the first assignment shape everything that follows. Essential reading for new lieutenants and the leaders who develop them.

Strengthening the Army Profession: Audie Murphy’s Legacy

By Master Sgt. Angel I. Alemanmondragon | NCO Journal | 22 May 2026

An NCO makes the case for the Sergeant Audie Murphy Award and Club as one of the Army’s most effective tools for developing disciplined, articulate, and lethal NCOs. Notably: the article explicitly credits the Harding Project as a CSA initiative that makes professional writing accessible to every Soldier — and calls on NCOs to publish. A model for what institutional writing looks like from the enlisted ranks.

U.S. Military Lacks Ethics Doctrine

By Dennis Katolin | War on the Rocks | 26 May 2026

A pointed argument that the U.S. military has world-class professional military education on nearly every subject except ethics — where there is no capstone doctrine, no common framework, and no shared language. The profession has values. It does not have a system for applying them when they conflict. A conversation-starter for any leader development program.

Finding Your Michael Jordan: Leader Lessons from the 1984 NBA Draft

By Sgt. Maj. Brian M. Disque, Chief, Nominative Sergeants Major Program Office, Office of the Sergeant Major of the Army | NCO Journal | 26 May 2026

Portland passed on Michael Jordan because they were filling a positional gap, not selecting the best player available. NCOs are in the talent management business every day — promotion boards, selection panels, evaluation reports. The lesson: stop over-relying on tangible indicators (schools, scores, career management fields) and learn to identify the intangibles that actually predict leadership performance.

Podcast — From The Green Notebook Ep. 179: Developing a Monk’s Mindset

From The Green Notebook | 22 May 2026

What does it mean to bring monastic discipline — deep focus, deliberate practice, intentional solitude — to a profession defined by noise, urgency, and constant demands on attention? An episode for leaders trying to think more clearly about what self-development actually looks like in a high-tempo environment.

Navy SEAL Fitness at 50 Years Old

Mops and Moes | 24 May 2026

What does peak physical performance look like — and what does it demand — from an operator who has been doing it for three decades? Practical and philosophical in equal measure. Relevant to any leader thinking seriously about sustained physical readiness across a military career.

📖 Resources & Calls

Calls for Papers

MWI — Call for Submissions: Reflections on Security Force Assistance and the Afghan War

MWI is soliciting first-person accounts, analytical pieces, and after-action reflections on SFA and the Afghan war as the five-year anniversary approaches. Officers and NCOs with direct experience should consider contributing.

MWI — Call for Submissions: Innovation and Autonomy in the Future Fight

MWI seeks practitioner-authored work on how autonomous systems, AI, and emerging technology are changing tactical and operational art. Submissions from company- through brigade-level leaders with firsthand experience especially welcome.

Submit to the NCO Journal

The NCO Journal actively seeks submissions from NCOs at all levels. Topics include leadership, tactics, professional development, history, and Soldier welfare. Email: usarmy.leavenworth.tradoc.mbx.armyu-aup-nco-journal@army.mil

The Harding Project

The Harding Project is the Chief of Staff of the Army’s initiative to revitalize professional military writing. Find your branch journal, find a topic worth writing about, and get after it. Every branch journal submission guide is accessible through Army University Press: armyupress.army.mil/Journals/Branch-Journals

🧭 About the Harding Project

The Harding Project is the Army initiative to strengthen the profession through professional writing and public discourse.

The one-stop shop for all branch journal articles is the Line of Departure website – check it out to get your daily dose of Army professional development! If you have good ideas or lessons to share with the rest of the force, please pen them and send them our way at submissions@hardingproject.com.

We’re renewing professional writing across the force—one article at a time. Read. Reflect. Act. The profession doesn’t stand still, and neither should we.

In 1976, COL Russell Parker and LTC Joseph House wrote an article for the Air Defense Magazine discussing the lack of sufficient air defense units for a ground war following the Korean and Vietnam wars. Because those wars were more comparable to counterinsurgency than large scale combat operations, the Army did not have a requirement for a large air defense force to be successful. Looking to the future, Parker and House did not believe the current force structure of the branch was sufficient for a near-peer war. They elaborate on the statistics of WWII that the majority of enemy aircraft kills were from the “curtain of lead” provided by anti-aircraft artillery (AAA) guns. These guns were so effective that they acted as major deterrents to Axis aircraft, preventing them from flying at lower altitudes. They draw comparisons to other nations’ air defense capabilities like USSR and Egypt as an example of just how lacking our defense are.

“Egypt alone has more SAMs along the Suez Canal than we possess in our total inventory”

The authors then provide a proposed unit organization that can bring the branch to the point it needs to be to be prepared for the next major conflict. They suggest the creation of Division Combat Air Defense (DIVCAD) or Corps Combat Air Defense Brigades (CAD). These units would give a mixture of shortrange air defense, surface-to-air missiles (SAMs), improved automatic weapons, and stingers to be at the disposal of the Division or Corps.

Figure 1. Proposed DIVCAD Structure

Figure 2. Proposed CAD Structure

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The Cyclic Nature of Army Priorities

One of the most interesting parts about reading this article from 1976, 50 years later, is that it highlights that the Army appears to work in cycles. Modern day ADA is going through nearly the same process as Parker and House were describing back in 1976. In the early 2000s, air defense had Divisional Air Defense (DivAD) in nearly every major division in the Army. But with the Global War on Terror, the focus shifted from defending maneuver forces from air-breathing threats (helicopters, fighter jets, etc.) to defending strategic assets from ballistic missiles. With this change in focus, DivAD battalions slowly went away to make room for more Patriot Battalions to protect the growing list of strategic assets in the Middle East. Fast-forward to the 2026, the priority has switched from counterinsurgency to preparation for large scale combat operations against near-peer adversaries (Russia, China, Iran) which has highlighted a deficiency in air defense for the maneuver force. In order to combat this deficiency, the branch is standing up DivAD once again and developed the SGT Stout to provide needed coverage within the division.

Mix Simplicity with Complexity

With the growing technology in the world: artificial intelligence, electronic warfare, hypersonic cruise missiles, drones, etc.; the initial thought from a defense perspective is to “chase” advancement with more complexity. The emerging technologies for defense are constantly seeking to be “smarter” and more advanced. In some ways, this advancement is needed for the threats we see today like hypersonic cruise missiles and multi-release sub munitions that we must compete with in an “arms race”. This arms race is leaving behind some useful weapon systems that are not seen as advanced enough to keep up with the modern battlefield. Specifically, the AAA gun, a simplistic yet effective measure against low and slow flying threats like helicopters and small UAS. The writers of the original article acknowledged the technological growth in the 70s meant the requirement for SAM systems to compete with some of the threats, but they also acknowledged the effectiveness of the old AAA gun system (specifically the Vulcan).

“The MIGs and the SAMs get most of the publicity and glamour, but guns get most of the kills”

With their acknowledgment that both systems are crucial to defense, they suggested mixed capabilities units to provide a new “curtain of lead” capable of defeating the wide variety of threats. As today’s DIVAD battalions are being fielded with the SGT Stout, they aren’t mixed capability units. And with new increments of the SGT Stout, like directed energy, the complexity of the equipment continues to grow. Much like Parker and House suggested, DIVAD should consider a mix of the various increments of the SGT Stout to account for various threats.

The Importance of the Past

There are many lessons that can be learned from the past. There are rarely “new” problems in the Army, rather problems that are repeated from the past with slight changes. This article illustrates the Army’s priorities being cyclical between “COIN” to “LSCO” which changes the needs of the branch. ADA has transitioned from maneuver focused to point defense a couple of times in its history, so policy makers do not need to completely re-invent the wheel when it comes to determining what growth looks like and how to do it.

Here’s the full article, in its archived glory (Air Defense Magazine, April–June 1976, pp. 29–33):

Excalibur Article

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CPT Peter Neil II is the Air Defense Artillery Harding Fellow. He works for the ADA Commandant’s Office, FCOE, Fort Sill, Oklahoma. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Citadel: The Military College of South Carolina.

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This article attempts to answer a few questions. Namely, what can a deception operation conducted 865 years ago teach us about cyber key terrain? And what is cyber key terrain to someone who doesn’t understand even the most basic workings of computers or firewalls?

Cyber in MDO.

In “Cyber Key Terrain for the Non-Technician”, LTC Althoff attempts to bridge a gap between personnel who live and breathe zeroes and ones to other specialties that may not in an attempt to make the “so what” part of the nuanced technical requirements more approachable to other specialties. This article does an excellent job employing everyday analogies and terms to help the reader understand the basics of cyber and, more importantly, why should we care about cyber on the modern battlefield? Read the full article below:

Article Cyber Key Terrain Communicator

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LTC Althoff is currently a graduate student. He will head to Army Cyber Institute at West Point upon completing his degree.

🪖 The Friday Formation

This week’s dispatch on the Army, professional writing, leadership, and learning.

Friday, 15 May 2026

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🏛️ Featured Leadership Essays

From Hedgerows to Kill Webs: The Soldier Leads Army Transformation

GEN (Ret.) James Mingus & LTC Dwayne Steppe – Modern War Institute

The squad and individual soldier are the real engines of change. This capstone draws Normandy lessons to today’s lighter formations, load discipline, and feedback loops—proving transformation succeeds only when leaders at the edge own it.

Change, Innovate, Prevail: US Army Pacific Troops, Partnerships Adapt to Rising Challenges

GEN Ron Clark – ARMY Magazine

INDOPACOM’s senior leader lays out how soldiers and allies are adapting doctrine, training, and partnerships in real time to meet theater demands. Essential context for anyone supporting or deploying to the Pacific.

⚔️ Warfighting

The Army Needs to Build Better Command Posts

Justin Lynch – War on the Rocks

TOC Mahals that shine in training would be destroyed in hours under persistent surveillance and precision strike. Calls for incentivizing survivable designs - urban concealment, underground options, and training that rewards survival over perfect staff process.

The Clarity Fallacy: Decision-Making and the Cost of Being Seen

SFC Jerae Perez – Modern War Institute

Even with perfect feeds and pushed authority, persistent observation creates hesitation. Leaders pause to confirm instead of acting - clarity solves information problems but introduces behavioral ones. Practical ways to reclaim tempo and disciplined initiative.

Army Doctrine for Defending the Littorals

CPT Daniel S. Hogestyn – Military Review

The Army lacks mature doctrine for amphibious/littoral defense, especially critical in the Indo-Pacific. This piece identifies the gap and charts a path forward for landpower in maritime terrain.

🔧 Delivering Ready Combat Power

Conflict, CASEVAC, and the Golden Hour in the Age of Persistent Surveillance

Kai Gilmour Gath – War on the Rocks

Drawing from Ukraine’s Pokrovsk axis, evacuation is now a tactical event under constant drone surveillance. The “Golden Hour” is collapsing - shifting to prolonged casualty care, warrior-medics, and decentralized decisions that balance medical need against unit risk.

Army Aviation at the Joint Readiness Training Center: A Concept for Optimization

MAJ Stephen D. Smallwood – Military Review

Practical recommendations to layer more realistic, complex aviation scenarios at JRTC so rotational training better replicates LSCO demands.

Forging an Engineer Regiment for Large-Scale Combat Operations

LTC Michael P. Carvelli – Military Review

Refocus the Regiment on core combat engineering (mobility, counter mobility, survivability). Divest non-maneuver missions and simplify to deliver decisive effects in contested environments.

🔄 Continuous Transformation

Unmanned Systems and Army Special Forces

MAJ John W. Kowalski, USARNG – Military Review

Case for dedicated unmanned systems NCOs in ODAs and expanded RUSIC training. Lessons from Ukraine, Houthi, and Myanmar on scaling UXS for strategic effects.

Balancing Artificial Intelligence with Army Leadership Competencies and Attributes

André Nelson & Matthew J. Scott, PhD – Military Review

AI excels at decision speed but cannot replace adaptive, ethical leadership. Guidance on integrating the two without losing the human edge.

🏛️ Strengthening the Profession

Late Nights Are a Signal to JOs, Not a Standard

LTC Michael Carvelli – Center for Junior Officers

As a battalion S-3, the author enforced a hard release time and treated late nights as a diagnostic for poor guidance, prioritization, or support. Powerful call for disciplined execution within the duty day and protecting people from performative busyness.

When AI is Wrong, Will Our Leaders Know?

Michael Hay – Modern War Institute

AI introduces new risks: over-deference, accept-and-forget bias, and eroded critical thinking. Leaders must deliberately train intellect, communication, and redundancy so units can fight through AI failure or deception.

Professional Military Education Is a National Security Imperative

Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Mike Plehn et al. – Military Review

PME as a strategic investment. Strong call to leverage civilian institutions, allies, and reform to produce better strategic thinkers.

📖 Resources & Calls

• Line of Departure - Access all the Army’s Journals

• Monthly Recommended Articles – Army University Press

• Professional Writing Playlist (YouTube) – Talks and discussions on military writing.

• Professional Military Writing – Military Review – Why writing matters.

🧭 About the Harding Project

The Harding Project is the Army initiative to strengthen the profession through professional writing and public discourse.

The one-stop shop for all branch journal articles is the Line of Departure website – check it out to get your daily dose of Army professional development! If you have good ideas or lessons to share with the rest of the force, please pen them and send them our way at submissions@hardingproject.com.

We’re renewing professional writing across the force—one article at a time. Read. Reflect. Act. The profession doesn’t stand still, and neither should we.

Line of Departure is the Army’s one stop shop for its professional bulletins. Whether you’re reading to educate yourself, solving an Army problem, or finding inspiration for your next article, make Line of Departure your first stop.

View Line of Departure Website

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About the Harding Project

The Harding Project is the Army initiative to strengthen the profession through professional writing and public discourse. So far, since 2023, we’ve increased Army journal reach by 10 times and authorship by 3.5 times. While those numbers are good, what’s better is the impact that the journals, their staffs, and authors are having across the force. Leaders are more connected with their Soldiers, Soldiers can influence top-level change through discourse, and peers have the ability to share information and lessons to avoid solving problems for the “first time.”

If you have good ideas or lessons to share with the rest of the force, please pen them and send them our way at submissions@hardingproject.com.

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🪖 The Friday Formation

This week’s dispatch on Army writing, leadership, and learning

Friday, 08 May 2026

🗓️ Editor’s Note

I’m covering down on the Friday Formation for a couple weeks, enjoy!

Marcel

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🏛️ Featured Leadership Essays

Army Transformation: One Weekend a Month

MAJ Kyle Bennett & MAJ Jeffrey Edgar - Infantry

National Guard IBCTs converting to MBCTs must squeeze maximum value from limited drill weekends — this piece delivers a practical playbook for part-time leaders to build full-time mechanized warfighting capability before the new equipment arrives.

Joint Readiness Is Not Optional: Closing the Army’s Preparation Gap

CW3 Emmanuel Tello - Warrant Officer Journal

A no-nonsense warrant officer assessment of the institutional and training shortfalls that leave units unprepared for high-intensity conflict — with direct recommendations every leader and commander can act on now.

⚔️ Warfighting

Missiles, Guns, Lasers… and Nets: The Case for Passive Drone Defenses

William Mayne - Modern War Institute

Drawing on Ukraine lessons, this piece makes the practical case for low-cost, non-kinetic passive measures (nets, decoys, obscurants) as a necessary complement to kinetic C-UAS systems in saturated drone environments.

Moving to Survive: Transforming Artillery Training for Modern Warfare

CPT Vincent Verdile - Field Artillery

Field artillery units can no longer afford static “shoot-and-stay” tactics; this article lays out the doctrine, TTPs, and training shifts required to master constant displacement and survive Russian-style counterfire cycles in large-scale combat.

🔧 Delivering Ready Combat Power

Autonomy, Robotics, and Predictive Analytics: Sustainment’s Technology Trifecta and the Future of War

MAJ Charlie Phelps - Modern War Institute

A scenario-driven argument showing how autonomous systems, robotics, and predictive AI can keep logistics alive and units moving when traditional sustainment is contested or denied.

Data-Enabled Assessments: What Factors Correlate with Gunnery Excellence in ABCTs?

LTC Brian Bifulco - Armor

Statistical deep-dive into real tank and Bradley crew qualification data reveals the decisive roles of cognitive aptitude, NCO density, experience, and unit culture — giving commanders hard metrics to drive lethality instead of guesswork.

When Ground Movement Stops and the Mission Doesn’t: Project Hermes and Drone-Delivered Medical Resupply

LTC Yu-Sheng Chen - Modern War Institute

Real-world testing of drone medical resupply during exercises demonstrates how units can maintain life-saving logistics when ground lines are cut — a replicable model for contested battlefields.

🔄 Continuous Transformation

Acquisition Reform Needs Its Own Wargame

Stephen Bittner - War on the Rocks

Argues that acquisition policy itself must be wargamed like operations to understand real battlefield impact, using hard lessons from current munitions and Iran-conflict sustainment demands.

Purple Teaming with Offensive and Defensive Cyber

CW2 John Mosqueda - Gray Space

Offensive and defensive cyber teams working together in realistic purple-team exercises can expose vulnerabilities and build true resilience faster than siloed training — a practical framework every cyber formation needs.

🏛️ Strengthening the Profession

Dear Future Sergeants Major

CSM Tammy Everette – Muddy Boots

A retiring Command Sergeant Major shares a heartfelt, no-nonsense letter of hard-earned wisdom to the next generation of senior enlisted leaders — emphasizing humility, guarding reputation, remembering your roots, and the duty to build something better than what came before.

Making the Right Decision: A Proposed Army Decision-Making Model

Chaplain (Lt. Col.) Jared L. Vineyard - Military Review

The author presents a model that integrates ethics, values, and the Army Ethic into practical decision-making for leaders at all levels.

📖 Resources & Calls

· Monthly Recommended Articles – Army University Press

· Professional Writing Playlist (YouTube) – Talks and discussions on military writing.

· Professional Military Writing – Military Review – Why writing matters.

🧰 TL;DR

· Quick Read: Lessons from the Eastern Front

· Deep Dive: What Does Landpower Bring to an Air and Naval Fight?

· Listen: Mops & Moes: The Human Demands of Modern Combat

🧭 About the Harding Project

The Harding Project is the Army initiative to strengthen the profession through professional writing and public discourse.

The one-stop shop for all branch journal articles is the Line of Departure website – check it out to get your daily dose of Army professional development! If you have good ideas or lessons to share with the rest of the force, please pen them and send them our way at submissions@hardingproject.com.

We’re renewing professional writing across the force—one article at a time. Read. Reflect. Act. The profession doesn’t stand still, and neither should we.

🪖 The Friday Formation

This week’s dispatch on Army writing, leadership, and learning

Friday, 24 April 2026

🗓️ Editor’s Note

April presses on — and so does the reading list.

This week’s Formation covers the full spectrum: landpower in contested maritime environments, AI accountability in lethal decisions, irregular warfare’s structural failures, China-Iran intelligence cooperation, and hard lessons from Ukraine’s front lines. There’s something in here for every echelon.

A note from me: this is my last issue for a few weeks as I PCS. SFC Marcel Blood will be holding down the Formation while I’m on the move. He’s got it covered — keep reading, keep writing.

Chris

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🏛️ Featured Leadership Essays

Mops & Moes: The Human Demands of Modern Combat

Hosts: Alex Morrow & Drew Hammond; Guest: MG (Ret) John Kline — Mops & Moes

A conversation with a combat-proven general officer on what sustained high-intensity warfare actually asks of Soldiers and leaders — physically, psychologically, and institutionally. Essential listening for anyone thinking seriously about readiness.

What Does Landpower Bring to an Air and Naval Fight?

John Spencer — MWI

A timely examination of the Army’s indispensable contribution to joint warfighting, making the case that landpower is not a supporting player but a decisive one even in air and maritime-dominant scenarios.

Lessons from the Eastern Front

David McCammon — The Cove (Australian Army)

A hard-hitting, firsthand-informed account of what the war in Ukraine actually looks like at the front — written for soldiers by a combat-tested leader. The lessons here transcend nationality and speak directly to any Army preparing for high-end conflict.

⚔️ Warfighting

🗺️ Mind the GAPP: Strategic History and the Case for Western Hemisphere Command

Joshua Dulaney — MWI

Draws on strategic history to argue for a dedicated Western Hemisphere Command — a case that is gaining urgency as near-peer competition reaches into America’s own backyard.

🏔️ Lessons from the Eastern Front

David McCammon — The Cove (Australian Army)

A second-hand account of the reality of war in Ukraine, distilling front-line observations into lessons applicable across allied armies preparing for high-intensity conflict.

🤖 Designing Lethal Decisions: AI Accountability and the Future of Military Judgment

Michael A. Santoro — MWI

Tackles the hard question of moral and institutional accountability when AI is embedded in lethal decision-making — a framework every military leader will need.

🌐 What Does Landpower Bring to an Air and Naval Fight?

John Spencer — MWI

A clarifying argument for land power’s decisive role even in contested maritime and aerospace environments — essential reading as joint force design debates intensify.

🔧 Designed to Lose: The Institutional Features That Undermine US Irregular Warfare

Andrew Rolander — MWI

A structural critique of how American institutions systematically undercut irregular warfare effectiveness — identifying the cultural and organizational roots of repeated failure.

🇮🇷 China-Iran Intelligence Cooperation and the 2026 War

Tahir Mahmood Azad — IWI

Examines the intelligence dimensions of China-Iran cooperation and what those ties mean for understanding the current conflict and U.S. strategic positioning.

💸 Insurfare: Economic Warfare in the Global South

Tom Johansmeyer and Matthew Flug — IWI

Introduces the concept of ‘insurfare’ — the weaponization of insurance markets as a tool of economic coercion — and its implications for irregular and gray-zone competition.

🎙️ Geoeconomics of Irregular Warfare: Iran and the Global Ripple Effects (Part VII)

Gianni Koskinas, Hamlet Yousef, and Matt Flug; Moderator: Jackie Giunta — IWI

Continues the IWI series on economic dimensions of the Iran conflict, mapping the cascading effects across global markets and security architectures.

🎙️ What the Hell Is Irregular Warfare Anyway?

Host: Alisa Laufer; Guests: Chris Tripodi, Eric Robinson, and LTG (Ret) Mike Nagata — IWI

A foundational conversation that revisits the definition and scope of irregular warfare with three practitioners who have lived it at the highest levels.

🏝️ On Islands, Straits, and Strategy: The United States, Iran, and the Islands of the Persian Gulf

Jacob Stoil — SSI

A rigorous strategic analysis of the geographic chokepoints and island terrain at the center of the Iran conflict — and their implications for naval and joint operations.

🌍 Unrestricted Warfare Without War: China’s Below-Threshold Strategy in Latin America

Alexander Anderson — SWJ

Maps how China is applying below-threshold tools of influence and coercion across Latin America in ways that circumvent traditional deterrence frameworks.

🎯 The Limits of Leadership Decapitation

Ron MacCammon — SWJ

Critically examines the strategic logic of leadership targeting and makes the case that decapitation strategies consistently underperform against adaptive adversaries.

💻 Assessing US Cyber Power

Joshua Spooner — SWJ

A sober assessment of American cyber capabilities and gaps — where the U.S. leads, where it lags, and what the implications are for integrated deterrence.

🕵️ Drowning in Data: Solving the Data Overload Problem in OSINT

Jared Martin — SWJ

Addresses the practitioner’s real challenge in modern intelligence: too much signal, not enough sense-making. Offers frameworks for OSINT analysts and commanders alike.

🇷🇺 The Decimation of Russia’s Specialized Troops and Its Effects on the Ukraine War

Julian McBride — SWJ

Tracks the attrition of Russian elite forces and what that erosion means for Russian operational capacity and the broader trajectory of the war.

🌏 A Formal Defense Pact in the Indo-Pacific Is the Wrong Answer

Ryosuke Hanada — War on the Rocks

A counterintuitive argument against formal alliance structures in the Indo-Pacific — contending that rigid pact architecture could undermine the flexible deterrence the region demands.

🔫 Five Questions for a General: GEN (Ret) Daniel Allyn

Host: Cadet Nik Badinelli; Guest: GEN (Ret) Daniel Allyn — MWI

A cadet-led interview with a former Vice Chief of Staff of the Army that covers leadership, readiness, and the enduring demands of senior command.

🔧 Delivering Ready Combat Power

📊 The Command Friction That the Army’s Division-Centric Warfighting Approach Must Overcome

Michael Carvelli — MWI

Identifies the organizational and doctrinal friction points created by the Army’s shift to division-centric warfighting — and what commanders must do to master them.

🎙️ Standing Up the Strategic Competition Corner

Antulio J. Echevarria II and MAJ Brennan Deveraux — SSI

Introduces SSI’s new Strategic Competition Corner and frames the intellectual work ahead for Army strategists operating in a contested great power environment.

📡 NGC2 at the Tactical Edge

COL Tyler D. Olsen — Army Sustainment

Examines how Next Generation Command and Control is changing the information architecture at the tactical edge — and the sustainment implications that follow.

📋 Sustainment Proactivity

2LT Nicholas R. Thierfeldt — Army Sustainment

A junior officer’s case for shifting sustainment culture from reactive to anticipatory — actionable thinking for any lieutenant standing up a logistics section.

🎙️ LogStat: SEAM & NextGen OCIE Management

Host: CPT Garett Pyle; Guest: COL Adam Seibel

Digs into the latest OCIE management innovations and the SEAM initiative — practical sustainment content with direct applicability for S4s and logisticians across the force.

🚁 Counter-Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems

CW3 David D. Tyo — Aviation Digest

A practitioner’s look at C-sUAS from an aviation perspective — the threats, the tools, and the TTPs that aviation units need to integrate now.

🔬 Efficiency Buys Flexibility

Fred Kelso, Kenny Lee, and Jack Schaefer — Army AL&T

Makes the acquisition case that efficiency in resourcing isn’t just about savings — it’s about creating the flexibility to respond to emerging requirements faster.

🪖 Soldier-Led Solution

Brianna Clay — Army AL&T

Highlights a case where Soldiers drove a capability solution from the bottom up — a model for how the force can generate innovation without waiting for institutional permission.

📦 Manage the Load

COL Matthew G. Clark and LTC Edwin Kolen — Army AL&T

Addresses the persistent challenge of Soldier load management and brings new data to a problem that has killed effectiveness for generations of infantrymen.

🔩 Miniature But Mighty

Brian B. Feeney — Army AL&T

Explores the outsized operational impact of miniaturized technologies being fielded across the force — small footprint, large effect.

🎙️ Doctrine Debrief: A Leader’s Guide (Episode 100)

Host: LTC Derek Thompson — Combined Arms Command

The 100th episode of Doctrine Debrief covers how leaders at every level can engage with doctrine as a living tool rather than a shelf document.

🏋️ Mops & Moes: The Human Demands of Modern Combat

Hosts: Alex Morrow & Drew Hammond; Guest: MG (Ret) John Kline — Mops & Moes

What does sustained high-intensity combat actually demand of Soldiers and units? A general officer who has seen it makes the case for a more rigorous, honest approach to readiness.

👁️ Eyes in the Sky

CPT Patrick M. Elsenbast — Infantry

Practical lessons on integrating aerial ISR at the company and battalion level — how junior leaders can maximize the value of assets they often receive but rarely master.

🏥 Innovation at the Speed of Relevance

75th Ranger Regiment Brain Protection Task Force — Infantry

The Ranger Regiment’s Brain Protection Task Force shares their approach to TBI mitigation and human performance innovation — a model for how units can lead from the front on Soldier health.

🔬 Predictive Analytics for Force Health Readiness

Dr. Anders Wallqvist and Dr. Jaques Reifman — Infantry

Applies predictive analytics to Soldier health and readiness data — a look at where data science can give commanders early warning before readiness degrades.

🎯 Moving to Survive

CPT Vincent Verdile — Field Artillery

The imperative of displacement and maneuver for fires units on the modern battlefield — why staying still means dying, and the TTP discipline required to move and shoot.

🎮 Wargames

CPT Benjamin Harrell — Field Artillery

An artillery officer’s case for wargaming as a deliberate training tool at the battery and battalion level — how to make it rigorous rather than theatrical.

🔄 Continuous Transformation

💰 Seeing the Cyber in Economic Statecraft

Jason Blessing — War on the Rocks

Connects the worlds of cyber operations and economic statecraft, arguing that practitioners in both domains are missing critical integration points that adversaries are already exploiting.

🛡️ Resilience Without Capacity: The Fatal Flaw in America’s New Cyber Strategy

Jesse Humpal, Alexander Noyes, and Emily Valentine — War on the Rocks

A sharp critique of the current U.S. cyber strategy, arguing that resilience framing without commensurate offensive capacity creates structural vulnerability.

🇮🇷 Why Iran Metabolizes the Pressure That Broke Venezuela

Rashed M. Aba-Namay — War on the Rocks

Explains Iran’s structural resilience to economic coercion by contrasting its experience with Venezuela’s — a framework for understanding why sanctions-based strategies face limits.

📖 Book Review: Flawed Strategy — Why Smart Leaders Make Bad Decisions

McKayla Swan — SWJ

A review of a timely new volume on strategic miscalculation — why high-IQ leaders still make catastrophic choices, and what institutional safeguards can help prevent it.

🎙️ War Room: Twins (Rebroadcast)

Derek Baird, TJ Baird, and Ron Granieri — War Room

Revisits a rich conversation on military strategy and competition through the lens of two practitioners who’ve thought deeply about institutional change.

🎙️ War Room: Military Might and the Defense Marketplace (Rebroadcast)

Jennifer Mittelstadt and Jacqueline E. Whitt — War Room

Examines the political economy of defense acquisition and what the relationship between military and market means for readiness and transformation.

🎙️ War Room: TIADS

Host: Tom Spahr; Guest: Sean Heidgerken — War Room

A focused conversation on the Tactical Intelligence and Acquisition Data System and its role in integrating intelligence into the acquisition process.

🤖 Stop Looking Up: Organic Brigade...

John Bismark-O’Brien — Field Artillery

Argues for pushing fires integration authority down to the brigade level — a doctrinal shift with significant implications for how combined arms teams fight.

🏹 Gunnery Branch C92

Weapons and Gunnery Branch — Armor

A technical update on Armor gunnery standards and Branch training priorities — essential reading for tankers and leaders managing crew certification.

🔌 Designating the Electromagnetic Spectrum

CW2 Jeff Newsome and CW2 Travis M. Whitesel — Warrant Officer Journal

Makes the case for treating the electromagnetic spectrum as a maneuver space requiring deliberate designation and control — a doctrinal argument with operational teeth.

🏛️ Strengthening the Profession

🏛️ Build the House: How a Simple Drawing Conveys Mission Command

Rich Creed and Scott Pence — Center for Junior Officers

A visual and intuitive tool for teaching mission command to junior leaders — simple enough to use in the field, powerful enough to change how a platoon thinks.

📡 Offsite Fosters Discussion

Laura Levering — Army Communicator

How deliberate leader development offsites can break organizational stagnation and create the shared understanding that transforms good units into great ones.

🇺🇸 Once a Patriot, Always a Patriot

Laura Levering — Army Communicator

Profiles the Patriot community’s enduring professional identity — and what it means to sustain that culture across generations of Soldiers.

📏 Military Standards Dropped

MSG Stephen Tackett — Army Communicator

A non-commissioned officer’s candid assessment of standard degradation and the professional responsibility of every leader to hold the line — wherever they stand.

🎖️ More Than a Uniform

1LT Su M. Nandar — Army Communicator

Reflects on what it means to serve in an Army that is larger than any individual identity — and how that understanding shapes professional purpose.

🪖 What Is Next Generation Command and Control?

CSM Waylon D. Petty — NCO Journal

A command sergeant major’s primer on NGC2 — written for the NCO corps to understand not just what the system does, but how leaders must adapt to it.

🎯 Building the Lethal Sergeant Major

SGM Jermaine Render — NCO Journal

Lays out a framework for developing Sergeant Majors who are tactically lethal and institutionally effective — a guide to the senior NCO the Army actually needs.

💪 Once the Backbone

CSM Nancy Weinberger — NCO Journal

Reflects on the evolving role of the NCO corps and makes a spirited argument for why the backbone of the Army must grow stronger, not more comfortable.

📖 Resources & Calls

· CSA Recommended Articles – Army University Press – The Chief’s reading list.

· Professional Writing Playlist (YouTube) – Talks and discussions on military writing.

· Professional Military Writing – Military Review – Why writing matters.

🧰 TL;DR

· Quick Read: Lessons from the Eastern Front

· Deep Dive: What Does Landpower Bring to an Air and Naval Fight?

· Listen: Mops & Moes: The Human Demands of Modern Combat

🧭 About the Harding Project

The Harding Project is Chief of Staff of the Army General Randy George’s initiative to strengthen the profession through professional writing and public discourse.

The one-stop shop for all branch journal articles is the Line of Departure website – check it out to get your daily dose of Army professional development! If you have good ideas or lessons to share with the rest of the force, please pen them and send them our way at submissions@hardingproject.com.

We’re renewing professional writing across the force—one Friday at a time. Read. Reflect. Act. The profession doesn’t stand still, and neither should we.

🪖 The Friday Formation

This week’s dispatch on Army writing, leadership, and learning

Friday, 16 April 2026

🗓️ Editor’s Note

April moves fast. The Iran conflict reshapes strategic calculus in real time. Unmanned systems are redefining what it means to hold ground. And the profession keeps asking its people to think harder, write better, and lead with more precision than ever before.

This week’s Formation covers the full spectrum: strategic competition with China, the IRGC’s financial center of gravity, unmanned systems doctrine, sustainment modernization, and the hidden career markets shaping officer trajectories. Plus a full slate from the branch journals and a strong showing from the NCO Journal.

The profession doesn’t wait. Get after it.

Chris

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🏛️ Featured Leadership Essays

🎙️ Ep. 176 — The Hidden Markets Shaping Your Career, with Judd Kessler

Host: Joe Byerly; Guest: Judd Kessler — From the Green Notebook

A behavioral economist joins Joe Byerly to unpack the informal, often invisible markets that govern officer career progression — essential listening for anyone trying to navigate the talent management system with clear eyes.

🔑 Leadership Initiative

Josh Bowen — 3x5 Leadership

A practical examination of what it means to take initiative as a leader — not just acting first, but acting with purpose and ownership in the face of ambiguity.

🧠 Brains, Heart, and Courage: What Leaders Really Build

Jakob Hutter — Military Mentors

Hutter reframes leadership development around three enduring attributes — intellect, character, and moral courage — arguing that what leaders really build in others is the capacity to act rightly under pressure, not just competently under orders.

⚔️ Warfighting

🪙 The Foundational Metal of War: Aluminum, the Middle East War, and America’s Strategic Vulnerability

Morgan Bazilian, Jahara Matisek, and Macdonald Amoah — MWI

Traces how aluminum dependency links domestic industrial capacity to battlefield readiness and strategic exposure — a resource-competition argument with direct implications for how the U.S. sustains a protracted fight.

🤖 Aerial Drones Change How Wars Are Fought — Unmanned Ground Vehicles Will Decide Who Wins Them

James Chaney — MWI

Argues that while aerial drones have transformed tactics, unmanned ground vehicles represent the decisive next frontier — a forward-looking assessment of where robotic competition is actually headed.

💀 The Dead Zone and the Empty Battlefield

Kevin T. Black, Tarik Fulcher, and Joshua Ratta — MWI

Examines how sensor saturation and lethal drone coverage create a ‘dead zone’ that forces dispersion and rethinks how forces mass, move, and survive on the modern battlefield.

🛡️ Tactical Success, Strategic Failure: Washington Walks the Path to Defeat in Iran

Ryan Evans — War on the Rocks

A sharp critique arguing that U.S. tactical gains in the Iran conflict are masking a strategically incoherent campaign — a sobering read on the gap between winning engagements and winning wars.

🇮🇷 From Rejection to Acceptance: Why Iran Agreed to a Ceasefire

Arsalan Bilal — Small Wars Journal

Unpacks the political, military, and economic pressures that brought Iran to the ceasefire table and what the agreement’s terms reveal about the conflict’s trajectory.

🛢️ Oil Revenues as the IRGC’s Center of Gravity

Lance Gordon — Small Wars Journal

Identifies IRGC oil revenue as the financial engine sustaining Iran’s military and proxy network — and argues this economic center of gravity has been systematically under-targeted.

☠️ Silent Killers, Not Signals: Why States Use Poison in Assassinations

Naomi Rio and Glenn Cross — War on the Rocks

A rigorous analysis of state-sponsored poisoning as a covert tool — examining why poison is chosen over other means and what it signals (or deliberately obscures) about state intent.

🌍 The Limits of Leadership Decapitation

Ron MacCammon — Irregular Warfare Initiative

Challenges the strategic effectiveness of targeting enemy leadership and examines under what conditions decapitation actually degrades an adversary’s capacity to fight.

🌍 Syria Detention Crisis: Al-Hol and the Risk of Collapse

Sam David — Irregular Warfare Initiative

Assesses the security and humanitarian crisis at Al-Hol detention camp and the cascading risks if the situation deteriorates further — a looming irregular warfare problem with strategic consequence.

🗺️ Conflict Memory and Local War Trajectories

Steven M. Radil and Olivier J. Walther — Irregular Warfare Initiative

Explores how communities remember past conflict and how that collective memory shapes the likelihood and character of future violence — a ground-level lens on conflict recurrence.

🇵🇰 How the Baloch Insurgency Threatens U.S. Strategic and Economic Interests

Kiyya Baloch — Small Wars Journal

Links the Baloch insurgency to broader U.S. strategic equities in South Asia, including CPEC infrastructure and regional stability — an underreported conflict with outsized implications.

🔒 GRU Lessons for Digital Force Protection

Christopher Moede — Small Wars Journal

Draws operational security lessons from GRU tradecraft to inform how Army units should approach digital force protection against sophisticated adversaries.

🇮🇱 The Demise of Strategic Planning in Israel

Shimon Arad — War on the Rocks

A frank institutional autopsy of how Israel’s strategic planning capacity eroded over decades — and what that failure meant when put to the test in October 2023 and beyond.

🇨🇳 Strategy Without Hubris: How China Rose by Managing America’s Reaction

Luis Simón — War on the Rocks

Argues that China’s rise was enabled by strategic patience and deliberate management of U.S. perceptions — a framework that carries direct implications for how Washington should approach competition going forward.

🔭 PLA Army Places Growing Emphasis on Tactical Indirect Firepower with New Grenade Launcher

Joaquin Camarena — SSI

Examines China’s fielding of new indirect fire systems at the squad and platoon level and what this doctrinal shift means for U.S. forces who may face a PLA-equipped adversary.

🎙️ Intelligence Revolution

Host: Tom Spahr; Guest: Jeff Rogg — War Room

Explores how the intelligence community is being reshaped by AI, open-source collection, and data proliferation — and what that transformation demands of commanders and analysts.

🇺🇳 Three Rings

MG David S. Doyle and MAJ Lam Nguyen — Military Review

A practitioner’s framework for understanding the three concentric rings of influence that shape operational environments and how commanders can navigate each.

🔧 Delivering Ready Combat Power

🤖 Transforming in Contact: The Army Needs an Unmanned Systems Command Now

James Peterson — Small Wars Journal

Makes the institutional case for a dedicated Army Unmanned Systems Command — arguing that the velocity of UAS/UGV integration outpaces the current organizational structure’s ability to manage it.

📡 NGC2 at the Tactical Edge

COL Tyler D. Olsen — Army Sustainment

Examines how next-generation command and control capabilities are being pushed to the tactical edge and what sustainment commanders must do to keep pace with the digital battlefield.

🏭 Forward Fabrication: Strengthening Autonomous Vehicle Support

CPT Jack Orion Harden-Ploeger — Army Sustainment

Explores how additive manufacturing and forward fabrication capabilities can sustain autonomous vehicle fleets in austere environments — a logistics adaptation for the unmanned future.

📦 Modernizing Army SSA

CPT Danielle M. Turner and CPT Timothy R. Maginn — Army Sustainment

A ground-level look at what it takes to modernize Army Supply Support Activities and the institutional and procedural barriers that slow transformation.

⚡ Sustainment Proactivity

2LT Nicholas R. Thierfeldt — Army Sustainment

Argues for a proactive sustainment mindset over reactive logistics — making the cultural and procedural case for anticipatory supply chain management at the junior leader level.

🚗 Replacing the Humvee

MAJ Scott Wolfe — Army Sustainment

Assesses the strategic and tactical implications of transitioning away from the Humvee platform and what the replacement calculus means for unit readiness and logistics planning.

🌐 Distributed C2

MAJ Adam Black and MAJ Nathan Tarter — Army Communicator

Examines the architecture and leadership requirements for effective distributed command and control — essential for units operating in degraded and contested communications environments.

📊 Data-Driven Future

Candy C. Knight — Army Communicator

Charts the Army signal enterprise’s shift toward data-centric operations and what leaders must understand about the infrastructure driving modern battle command.

🔧 Beyond the Immediate Fix

MAJ Ryan G. Tintera — Army Communicator

Challenges the Army’s tendency toward short-term technical patches and makes the case for deliberate, enduring communications architecture investment.

📡 Beyond the Static

SGT George Mattison — Army Communicator

An enlisted practitioner’s perspective on how signal Soldiers must evolve beyond traditional radio operations to serve as versatile integrators on the digital battlefield.

🔗 Integrating ATP

CPT Daniel M. Horoho — Army Communicator

A practical guide to integrating Army Technical Publications into unit training and operations — making doctrine work at the point of application.

❄️ Breaking the Ice

Rebecca Wright — Army AL&T

Examines Army acquisition challenges in the Arctic environment and how the acquisition community must adapt to support operations in extreme cold-weather conditions.

💻 Better Off With CEDS

Kelly Burkhalter — Army AL&T

Makes the case for the Common Equipment Data System as a readiness multiplier — and what full implementation could mean for Army property accountability and lifecycle management.

🎯 FODA Pt. 1: Fire and Forget — Fires in the Operational Deep Attack

LTC Westly T. Lafitte, CW3 Jerrad W. Rader, and CW2 Jon R. Delima — Field Artillery Journal

Part one of a two-part series examining fires integration for deep operational attack — with specific attention to targeting timelines, sensor-to-shooter chains, and long-range precision fires employment.

🎯 FODA Pt. 2: Deep Attack Execution

LTC Westly T. Lafitte, CW3 Jerrad W. Rader, and CW2 Jon R. Delima — Field Artillery Journal

Part two completes the operational deep attack framework, detailing execution sequencing, coordination requirements, and lessons from exercise and rotational training.

🎙️ LogStat: Modernizing the Army Food Program with CSDV

Host: CPT Garett Pyle; Guest: COL Adam Seibel

Digs into the Consolidated Standard Dining Vessel initiative and what it means for how the Army feeds Soldiers in garrison and field environments — a logistics modernization story with direct quality-of-life implications.

🎙️ On the Impossible Mission: The Office of Security Cooperation and U.S. Forces

Host: Stephanie Crider; Guests: LTG (ret.) Robert L. Caslen and Katelyn K. Tietzen-Wisdom — SSI Podcast

A candid assessment of Security Cooperation offices — what they’re being asked to do, whether the mission is resourced for success, and what reform might look like.

🔒 Revamping U.S. Military Assistance

Peter W. Aubrey — Small Wars Journal

A systematic critique of U.S. military assistance programs and a reform agenda for making security cooperation more effective, accountable, and strategically coherent.

🔄 Continuous Transformation

📚 Want a Lethal, War-Winning Army? Read Ulysses S. Grant’s Memoirs

Rudy Weisz — MWI

A compelling argument that Grant’s Personal Memoirs remain one of the most underutilized leadership and strategy texts available to the Army — drawing direct lines from Grant’s experience to the challenges of large-scale combat today.

🔭 What Is Strategic Rivalry? Why Should We Care?

Antulio J. Echevarria II — SSI

A foundational conceptual piece that defines strategic rivalry with precision and explains why the term’s imprecise use is causing strategic confusion in policy and planning circles.

🌐 Strategic Hubris

Marshall McGurk — War Room

Examines how strategic overconfidence has repeatedly driven powerful states into avoidable failures — a cautionary analysis with direct relevance to current U.S. competition with China and Russia.

📜 Strengthening the Profession of Arms

🪖 Enhancing Individual Physical Training

CSM John P. Rivera Jr. — NCO Journal

A senior NCO perspective on building physical training cultures that develop Soldiers beyond the ACFT — emphasizing resilience, sustainability, and the link between physical readiness and mission performance.

🪖 Transforming the Sergeants Major Course

SGM Lisa Walker and SGM Jennifer Fulkerson — NCO Journal

An inside view of how the Army’s capstone NCO course is being redesigned to develop senior enlisted leaders for the complexity and pace of 21st-century conflict.

🏍️ Rethinking the Army’s Motorcycle Program

SGM Rene O. Aleman — NCO Journal

A frank assessment of the Army motorcycle safety program’s current state and a practical reform agenda focused on actually reducing rider risk rather than checking compliance boxes.

🎖️ A Staff Officer’s Guide to the Galaxy

Hunter Whitney — Center for Junior Officers

An honest, practical guide for junior officers entering the staff world — demystifying the processes, relationships, and rhythms that determine whether a staff officer thrives or just survives.

👁️ Leadership Presence and the Perception You Carry

Jakob Hutter — Center for Junior Officers

Explores how junior leaders develop and manage their professional presence — the often-unspoken signal that shapes how Soldiers, peers, and seniors read their competence and character.

🎙️ Mops & Moes: Is Walking Exercise?

Hosts: Alex Morrow & Drew Hammond; Guest: John — Mops & Moes

A deeper-than-expected conversation on the science and profession of physical fitness — whether walking counts, what it counts for, and how leaders should think about movement as part of a holistic readiness approach.

📖 Resources & Calls

· CSA Recommended Articles – Army University Press – The Chief’s reading list.

· Professional Writing Playlist (YouTube) – Talks and discussions on military writing.

· Professional Military Writing – Military Review – Why writing matters.

· Army FAO Association Podcasts – Foreign Area Officer perspectives on the global operating environment.

🧰 TL;DR

· Quick Read: Want a Lethal, War-Winning Army? Read Ulysses S. Grant’s Memoirs

· Deep Dive: Aerial Drones Change How Wars Are Fought — Unmanned Ground Vehicles Will Decide Who Wins Them

· Listen: LogStat: Modernizing the Army Food Program with CSDV

🧭 About the Harding Project

The Harding Project is Chief of Staff of the Army General Randy George’s initiative to strengthen the profession through professional writing and public discourse.

The one-stop shop for all branch journal articles is the Line of Departure website – check it out to get your daily dose of Army professional development! If you have good ideas or lessons to share with the rest of the force, please pen them and send them our way at submissions@hardingproject.com.

We’re renewing professional writing across the force—one Friday at a time. Read. Reflect. Act. The profession doesn’t stand still, and neither should we.

🪖 The Friday Formation

This week’s dispatch on Army writing, leadership, and learning

Friday, 10 April 2026

🗓️ Editor’s Note

A strong issue this week — and one worth pausing on for a moment.

Military Review’s March-April edition is out, and it’s a serious collection. The range of contributors alone tells you something: a 1LT writing on barracks quality of life sits alongside a COL on river crossings, a chaplain on moral development, and a two-author team on parental leave policy. That’s a cross-section of the profession — junior to senior, tactical to strategic — all contributing to the conversation about what the Army is and what it should be.

I want to specifically call your attention to 1LT Tyler O’Quinn’s piece in Military Review. O’Quinn is a company-grade officer writing at the institutional level about a problem that affects soldiers every day — barracks conditions and the task forces assembled to address them. He’s doing what this project exists to encourage: seeing a problem, thinking hard about it, and putting it on paper. That matters. So does the fact that Military Review published it.

Chris

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⚔️ Warfighting

💥 The Campaign Ends at the Breach: Lessons from Ukraine on Why Armies Fail

Michael Carvelli — War on the Rocks

Examines the tactical and operational failures at breach points in Ukraine — and the deeper institutional and training deficiencies they expose for armies attempting deliberate combined arms operations under fire.

🛡️ Closing the Air and Missile Defense Gap in the Indo-Pacific

Christopher J. Watterson and Peter J. Dean — War on the Rocks

Identifies the growing AMD shortfall in the Indo-Pacific theater and proposes multilateral and architectural solutions before the window of opportunity closes.

🔭 Iran’s Anti-Access and Area-Denial Strategy Is Cruder Than China’s — But Still Dangerous

Brigadier Anil Raman — War on the Rocks

Compares Iranian and Chinese A2/AD approaches, arguing that Iran’s less-sophisticated but adaptive strategy still poses a serious threat to U.S. force projection in the region.

🕰️ The Age of Unlearning: How Democracies Lost Their Grip on Strategic Time

Beniamino Irdi — War on the Rocks

Argues that democratic societies have systematically eroded the strategic patience and institutional memory needed to compete over long time horizons — and what it would take to recover it.

🤖 Poland Bought Reapers. The Battlefield Has Moved On.

Samuel Nahins — MWI

Challenges the logic behind Poland’s Reaper acquisition, arguing that the modern drone-dense battlefield has already made large, expensive UAS platforms more liability than asset.

⚙️ The Changing Character and Enduring Nature of Command

Philip Swintek, Charlie Phelps, Rudy Weisz, and Matt Linarelli — MWI

Examines how the demands of command are evolving under the pressures of transparency, speed, and distributed operations — while arguing that its essential human nature remains constant.

🎧 Five Questions for a General: LTG Curtis Buzzard and MG Volodymyr Horbatiuk

Host: Cadet Zach Olson; Guests: LTG Curtis Buzzard and MG Volodymyr Horbatiuk (Ukraine) — MWI

A candid dialogue between a U.S. Army corps commander and a senior Ukrainian general on coalition operations, hard lessons from active combat, and what each army can learn from the other.

🎧 The Spear: The Ranger Regiment’s Fighting Platoon Sergeant

Host: Charlie Faint; Guest: CSM (Ret) Curt Donaldson — The Spear, MWI

A deep conversation on what it takes to be an elite platoon sergeant in the Ranger Regiment — the tactical instincts, leadership presence, and standards that separate good from exceptional.

🌍 Commercial Pathways to Proxy Forces

Branko Ruzic — Irregular Warfare Initiative

Explores how state and non-state actors are leveraging commercial contracting networks to build and sustain proxy forces — with implications for how the U.S. should think about competition short of war.

🎧 Chokepoints: American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare

Host: Ben Jebb; Guests: Secretary Jack Lew, Daleep Singh, Edward Fishman — IWI Podcast

Former senior officials who shaped U.S. economic statecraft discuss how sanctions, financial coercion, and chokepoint strategy have become central tools of national power — and what that means for the military.

🏛️ Securing Europe, Shaping the Pacific

SGT Julian Patricio — AUSA Landpower Essay

An enlisted soldier’s strategic-level analysis of how U.S. commitments in Europe interact with the requirements of Indo-Pacific competition — a rare and welcome perspective from the formation.

📡 Intelligence Officer Training for Network-Centered Warfare in Ukraine and the United States

MAJ Anton Maksymov (Ukraine) — MIPB

A Ukrainian intelligence officer examines how his army adapted intelligence training and tradecraft for the networked, transparent battlefield — with direct lessons for U.S. Army MI development.

🌊 Tactical River Crossings

COL Paul Munch — Military Review

A detailed examination of the doctrinal and practical requirements for successful river crossing operations — a capability the Army must relearn for large-scale combat.

🌍 Forward Presence

LTC Ryan C. Van Wie — Military Review

Argues for a reassessment of how and where the Army maintains forward presence, connecting force posture decisions directly to deterrence effectiveness and escalation risk.

🏛️ XIV Corps

MAJ Evan L. Horner — Military Review

A historical study of XIV Corps operations that surfaces enduring lessons about corps-level command, combined arms integration, and the management of large formations in sustained combat.

⚡ A Swift Answer to the Unknown

LTC Michael B. Kim — Military Review

Examines how commanders can build decision frameworks that allow faster, more confident action in ambiguous situations — balancing speed against the risk of acting on incomplete information.

🔫 Training in Poland

MAJ Christopher Nisa, with contributions from CPT Chloe Garrison, CPT Sarah McCann, CPT Cody Mclaughlin, 1LT Bijan Shokrgozar, and 1LT Zachary Webb — Field Artillery Journal

Documents lessons learned from field artillery training in Poland — operational environment realities, interoperability challenges, and the readiness insights that come from training on the actual terrain of potential conflict.

🏛️ Artillery Insights from the American Civil War

Dr. John Grenier — Field Artillery Journal

Draws on Civil War artillery operations to surface principles that remain relevant to today’s fires community — a reminder that history is a professional development tool, not just an academic exercise.

🔍 The History Behind Warfighting Terms

CW2 Kristopher Carroll — Special Warfare Journal

Traces the etymology and operational origins of common warfighting terms — revealing how language shapes doctrine and how losing that history can lead to shallow understanding of the concepts themselves.

🎧 The Kremlin’s Intelligence Strategy

Host: Tom Spahr; Guest: Sean Wiswesser — War Room, Army War College

An in-depth conversation on how Russian intelligence services operate, adapt, and project power — essential context for leaders who will face Russian-influenced adversaries in any theater.

💥 Information Lethality Revisited

Bill Rivera — Small Wars Journal

Revisits the concept of information lethality in the modern operational environment, examining how information effects can be weaponized at speed and scale to shape both battlefield and narrative.

🎯 Welcome to the Party, Pa

Siamak Naficy and Ryan Bilyeu — Small Wars Journal

Assesses the operational consequences of Iran’s regional network being disrupted — and what it means for adversary reconstitution, proxy adaptation, and U.S. strategic options in the aftermath.

🌍 Destabilizing Iran: Regional Fallout

Kiyya Baloch — Small Wars Journal

Maps the regional second-order effects of Iranian destabilization across the Middle East and Central Asia — a necessary frame for understanding the strategic environment beyond the immediate conflict.

🔧 Delivering Ready Combat Power

📊 LogStat: Adopting a Data Culture

Host: CPT Garett Pyle; Guest: CPT Chris Sherrill — LogStat Podcast

Breaks down what it actually means to build a data culture at the unit level — moving beyond dashboards to genuine data literacy that improves maintenance, supply, and readiness decision-making.

🚢 Revitalizing U.S. Naval Shipbuilding

1LT Jared Simonelli — Small Wars Journal

A junior Army officer turns his analytical attention to the naval shipbuilding industrial base — arguing that Army and joint force readiness are downstream of a healthy defense industrial capacity that is currently at risk.

📡 4th CAB

CW2 Cody T. Fields — Army Communicator

Documents signals and communications lessons from the 4th Combat Aviation Brigade — integrating comms capability into complex aviation operations with implications for network-dependent formations across the force.

🧠 The Knowledge Paradox

CPT Raymond M. Ferris and CMDR Stephen P. Ferris — Military Review

Examines the tension between information abundance and decision quality — arguing that more data without better frameworks for sense-making can actually degrade rather than improve command decisions.

🌏 Strengthening Deterrence in the East

CPT James Bath — Army Sustainment

Analyzes the sustainment requirements for credible deterrence in Eastern Europe — and the logistics gaps that must be closed before forward-stationed forces can serve their deterrence function effectively.

🔐 Strengthening Information

CW4 William Bryant — Warrant Officer Journal

Examines how warrant officers can lead information security and network defense efforts at the unit level — connecting technical expertise to operational readiness outcomes.

🎧 MOPs & MOEs: The Coolest Fitness Test You’ve Never Heard Of

Hosts: Alex Morrow & Drew Hammond; Guests: Andrew Herrington and Greg Grieco — MOPs & MOEs

Explores an emerging physical performance assessment framework that goes beyond traditional Army fitness metrics — with implications for how units think about readiness, injury prevention, and combat performance.

🔄 Continuous Transformation

🔮 Advanced Foresight

Carl Van Dyke — Military Review

Proposes frameworks for institutional foresight — the disciplined practice of anticipating future operational environments before they arrive, rather than retrofitting doctrine after the fact.

🔄 Restructuring by Assembly

LTC Brad Hardy — Military Review

Argues for a modular approach to force restructuring — building capability by assembling adaptive components rather than wholesale redesign — with lessons from recent transformation efforts.

🌐 Breaking Babel

Luke Herrington — Military Review

Examines how language barriers and cultural distance degrade coalition effectiveness — and what structural and educational investments could help the Army communicate more effectively with partners and allies.

🤝 Military Advising Missions

LTC Jahara ’Franky’ Matisek, Alexander Noyes, and Robert Schafer — Military Review

Provides a rigorous assessment of what makes military advising missions succeed or fail — drawing on case studies to identify the institutional behaviors and individual skills that produce effective advisors.

📖 Transforming NCO Professional Military Education

Tammy Everette, Sean McCracken, and Janina Simmons — Small Wars Journal

Makes the case for a fundamental rethinking of how the Army educates its NCO corps — arguing that the current PME architecture is not producing the adaptive, critically-thinking leaders the force needs.

⚖️ Lawyers and Planning

COL Andrew Morgado and MAJ Curtis Cranston — Military Review

Examines how legal advisors can and should be integrated into the operations planning process — moving JAG from a compliance function to a genuine planning asset at every echelon.

🌍 Army Foreign Area Officer Association Podcasts

Army FAO Association

The FAO Association’s podcast library covers regional expertise, partner nation relationships, and the unique demands of the foreign area officer career field — a resource for leaders who need regional context.

📜 Strengthening the Profession of Arms

⭐ Barracks Task Force

1LT Tyler O’Quinn — Military Review

Examines how the Army’s barracks task force approach addresses substandard housing conditions — and what the recurring need for such interventions reveals about institutional priorities, resource allocation, and the gap between stated commitment to soldier welfare and physical reality.

✝️ Moral Development

CH (LTC) Jared L. Vineyard — Military Review

Argues that the Army must treat moral development as a deliberate, structured professional responsibility — not a byproduct of training — and outlines what that looks like from initial entry through senior leadership.

🎖️ Truth, Lies, and Mission First

SGM (Ret) Robert Nelson and WO1 Gavin Paton — NCO Journal

Confronts the ethical tension at the heart of ’mission first’ culture — when does a bias toward mission accomplishment slide into a tolerance for dishonesty, and what does that cost the profession over time?

👨‍👩‍👧 Military Parental Leave

MAJ Caitlin M. Withenbury and MAJ Alexander T. Withenbury — Military Review

A practitioner’s assessment of military parental leave policy — how it works, where it falls short, and the retention and readiness implications of getting it right or wrong.

📖 Review Essay

Daniel Burland — Military Review

A substantive engagement with recent professional literature — the kind of critical, analytical book review that models the intellectual habits the profession needs more of.

🎖️ Leading from the Front

CSM Dennis A. Doyle — NCO Journal

The command sergeant major of a major formation on what leading from the front actually looks like in garrison and at home station — and why presence and example remain the foundation of NCO leadership.

🧠 Cognitive Warfare

Dr. Robert Nelson and SGM Benjamin Pingel — NCO Journal

Examines cognitive warfare as a domain NCO leaders must understand — and how to develop the mental resilience and critical thinking skills to counter adversary influence at the tactical level.

📖 Are You Chasing Daisies?

Joe Byerly — From the Green Notebook

A reflection on leadership distraction — the tendency to chase interesting problems and shiny opportunities at the expense of doing the hard, necessary work of developing people and building unit cohesion.

🎧 Bend But Do Not Break: Rethinking the Future of the All-Volunteer Force

Host: Joe Byerly; Guest: Jaron Wharton — From the Green Notebook

A frank conversation on the stresses facing the all-volunteer force — recruiting shortfalls, retention pressure, and what must change to keep the model viable for the next generation of service.

🚓 Guardians of the Community

1SG Michael G. Spearman — Military Police Journal

An MP first sergeant on what it means to protect and serve the military community — and the professional identity, standards, and moral weight that come with the law enforcement mission within the Army.

📜 The Life of MG Squier

Ivan Zasimczuk — Army Communicator

A biographical study of MG George Owen Squier, the Army’s first aviation officer and a pioneer of military communications technology — a story about the long arc between vision and institutional change.

📖 Leadership Initiative

Josh Bowen — 3x5 Leadership

Explores the concept of leadership initiative — the disposition to act, decide, and lead before being told to — and how to develop it in yourself and your soldiers.

📖 Resources & Calls

• CSA Recommended Articles – Army University Press – The Chief’s reading list.

• Call for Papers – Army Civilian Journal – Invitation to contribute.

• Professional Writing Playlist (YouTube) – Talks and discussions on military writing.

• Professional Military Writing – Military Review – Why writing matters.

• Army Foreign Area Officer Association Podcasts – FAO professional development listening.

🧰 TL;DR

· Quick Read: The Campaign Ends at the Breach: Lessons from Ukraine on Why Armies Fail

· Deep Dive: The Changing Character and Enduring Nature of Command

· Listen: MOPs & MOEs: The Coolest Fitness Test You’ve Never Heard Of

· For the Formation: Barracks Task Force — 1LT Tyler O’Quinn, Military Review

🧭 About the Harding Project

The Harding Project is Chief of Staff of the Army General Randy George’s initiative to strengthen the profession through professional writing and public discourse.

The one-stop shop for all branch journal articles is the Line of Departure website – check it out to get your daily dose of Army professional development! If you have good ideas or lessons to share with the rest of the force, please pen them and send them our way at submissions@hardingproject.com.

We’re renewing professional writing across the force—one Friday at a time. Read. Reflect. Act. The profession doesn’t stand still, and neither should we.

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The speaker said, “when given an open-ended task, do your bosses’ job and redefine it for them.

A. Pick a known issue

B. Scope it first to a specific problem and then scope it again to a current priority.

C. Then leverage history and repurpose what we’ve done successfully to address the current issue, problem, and priority you’ve chosen.”

With that in mind, first we define the current situation:

Communist China represents an existential threat to the United States and the world order that has guaranteed the global economic success of the past 80 years.

China’s aggressive and coercive actions in the Western Pacific and threats to forcibly reunify the democratically elected government of Taiwan with the Chinese mainland represent the greatest threat to peace, stability, and American leadership.

The President has said that China will not successfully invade Taiwan during his tenure. U.S. Indo-Pacific Command has the military mission to deter, and if necessary, defeat an invasion of Taiwan. Commander USINDOPACOM has stated his intent to “turn the Taiwan Strait into an unmanned hellscape using a number of classified capabilities.”

Then we broadly define the problem:

The U.S. Government has not maintained sufficient stocks of critical munitions, and has not built a system capable of identifying, prototyping, and fielding classified unmanned capabilities at scale, speed, and quality.

Next, we scope the problem.

First, the military’s munitions requirements process (MRP) is a bureaucratic two-year cycle that does not respond to rapidly changing conditions.

Second, the National Defense Authorization Act directs USINDOPACOM to report to Congress a list of critical munitions and systems that support the Pacific Deterrence Initiative. (Section 1313).

Third, history provides two examples of the U.S. government rapidly developing needed capabilities during a crisis.

· First the Defense Production Act (DPA) of 1950 (extended through 2026) empowers the President to influence domestic industry, ensuring the supply of materials needed for national defense and emergencies.

· Second Operation Warp Speed (OWS) created a public-private partnership to accelerate the development, testing, and fielding of COVID-19 vaccines.

Reviewing our three-step approach, we have focused on the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command’s war fighting requirements. Our input will first use DPA to develop and field critical munitions. Then second use OWS to field unmanned systems (UxS) at speed, quality, and scale. Third, we will recommend aligning what we say (strategic guidance) with what we do (operations, activities, investments, and what we sell to our allies and trusted partners)

Input:

Our nation needs to fill gaps in critical munitions and rapidly field classified unmanned capabilities at scale in the Taiwan Straits.

To address shortages In critical munitions, the President should implement a Deterrence through Strength approach to deter, and if necessary defeat an invasion of Taiwan.

• Appoint an Assistant Secretary of War with the role, responsibility, and authority to centralize acquisition, procurement, and reprogramming authority over section 1313 critical munitions.

• Assign a Joint Staff J-8 Joint Requirement Office to assist.

• Implement a Defense Production Act to close gaps in those critical munitions in the section 1313 report.

• Utilize multi-year procurement to purchase full production rates and any surge capacity.

• Expand the Partnership for Indo-Pacific Industrial Resilience (PIPIR), a multilateral initiative launched to enhance defense industrial resilience in the Indo-Pacific region, and work with partner nations to close gaps in critical munitions in the section 1313 report.

• Work with the White House and Congress to modify and waive policies and regulations.

• Require a validated supply chain for each munition. Which traces each part from raw materials through manufacturing, final assembly, testing, and delivery.

To address the shortage in classified unmanned systems (UxS) the President should implement an Operation Warp Speed for New Weapons to deter, and if necessary, defeat an invasion of Taiwan.

• Appoint a White House-led tiger team with a clear, measurable product goal of fielding unmanned systems (UxS) in the Taiwan Straight at speed, quality, and scale.

• Utilize advanced market commitments, purchase guarantees, milestone payments, and innovation prizes.

• Implement a whole of government strategy to speed decision making and streamline regulations.

• Work with industry and take a portfolio approach to rapidly identify:

  • What does industry have?

  • What can we modify?

  • What can we scale with speed and quality?

  • What is the concept of operations?

Next, the President should direct the alignment between our strategic documents and our military actions in order to grow and preserve our military readiness for the existential challenge of China and the Defense of the Homeland.

• Our overseas military Posture as defined by the Global Defense Posture and Global Posture Review and subordinate processes.

• Our rotational military presence, operations, and exercises as defined by the Global Force Management, Request for Forces, Secretary of Defense Operations Book, and subordinate processes.

• Our strategic planning and procurement as defined by the Defense Planning and Programming Guidance, Contingency Planning Guidance, Joint Strategic Planning Guidance, and subordinate processes.

• Our Foreign Military Sales and Foreign Military Funding, to include the Partnership for Indo-Pacific Industrial Resilience (PIPIR), to build Defense through Strength with our allies and trusted partners.

• Identify which capabilities can and should be shared in an export version with our allies and trusted partners.

• Utilize all levers of national power to negotiate the FMS/FMF agreements and the access and basing agreements to field those capabilities overseas.

• Specify and fund the specific operations, activities, and investments needed to ensure the interoperability of those capabilities with our allies and trusted partners.”

Sending your input to the printer, you grab another cup of coffee. Then read your input aloud, make corrections, and iterate until you have a concise, spell-checked, and grammar-checked input. Pasting the text into an email, you hit send, log off your computer, and head for the Metro ride home.

🪖 The Friday Formation

This week’s dispatch on Army writing, leadership, and learning

Friday, 27 March 2026 - 03 April 2026

🗓️ Editor’s Note

Two weeks, one Formation. Last week’s issue didn’t drop — so this one carries both weeks of reading.

The content spans a lot of ground: the Iran conflict and its strategic aftermath, LSCO fundamentals from the branch journals, the continuing evolution of AI and data at the tactical level, and a strong slate from CJO and the NCO Journal on what it actually takes to develop people. Pace yourself. Bookmark liberally. Read what’s most relevant to your current assignment first.

A few personal highlights worth calling out: the MWI piece on cognitive fratricide is one of the sharper things written about the transparent battlefield in a while. The MCOE “Winning the First Fight” piece is mandatory reading for anyone in armor or combined arms. And Senator Gallego’s War on the Rocks essay is worth sitting with regardless of where you stand politically — it asks hard questions about planning and accountability that the profession should engage with.

Plenty here. Get after it.

Chris

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⚔️ Warfighting

🦖 The Infantry Division Transformed: Four Fighting Principles

James “Jay” Bartholomees and Greg Scheffler — MWI

Argues the contemporary infantry division must embrace four enduring fighting principles to remain effective — and that recent force design has drifted from them.

🤔 Cognitive Fratricide: How the Transparent Battlefield Creates Decision Paralysis

Jerae Perez — MWI

Examines how information overload on the transparent battlefield degrades decision speed and quality, creating a new form of self-inflicted friction.

🔫 How to Kill a Multidomain Task Force

Ben Blane, Ryan DeBooy, and Dale Hunter — MWI

A red-team analysis of the MDTF’s vulnerabilities — written to help the force understand what adversaries will exploit and how to harden against it.

🏘️ Want Combat-Ready Units? Don’t Let the Connected World Fracture Unit Cohesion

John Spencer — MWI

Argues that smartphones, social media, and constant connectivity are quietly eroding the cohesion that makes units fight and survive.

📊 The Industrial Window of War: How to Measure Russia’s Munitions Throughput and How to Disrupt It

Cosimo Meneguzzo and Fabrizio Minniti — MWI

Offers a framework for assessing Russian artillery production rates and identifies leverage points for disrupting the Kremlin’s industrial war machine.

🦖 From Proficiency to Lethality

SFC Chas D. Ward and SFC Kenneth L. Shelton — Armor Journal

Outlines a progressive leader development model for armor and cavalry NCOs, bridging the gap between technical qualification and tactical lethality.

🦖 A Rapidly Changing Operational Environment

SSG Matthew Watson — Armor Journal

An NCO’s ground-level assessment of how rapidly the operational environment is shifting — and what armor leaders must internalize to keep pace.

🏛️ Historical Vignette: June 7th, 1944

CPT Peter Neil — Air Defense Artillery Journal

A historical vignette examining ADA operations on D+1 at Normandy — and the enduring lessons for air defenders operating in complex, high-threat environments.

🚁 Targeted and Exposed: Why Command Requires Rethinking Aviation Survivability

SFC Samuel Karoki — Aviation Digest

Challenges aviation leaders to reckon with how near-peer adversaries now target command nodes, and what that means for mission planning and survivability.

🏙️ Building Trust in the Urban Environment

CPT Anthony J. DiNallo — Aviation Digest

Explores how aviation forces can build the trust and interoperability needed for effective operations in complex urban terrain.

🔫 A New Era for Mortarmen

SFC Jessie E. Lauritzen and SSG Charles W. Pferrer — Infantry Journal

Argues that the mortar platoon is entering a new era of relevance — and that the Army must invest in training and doctrine to realize its full potential.

🚦 Five Wargames Every Force Design Process Needs

Nathaniel Ambler, Maegen Nix, and Travis Reese — War on the Rocks

Proposes a taxonomy of wargames that should be embedded in every major force design effort to stress-test concepts before they are locked into structure.

💥 The Arsenal as the Battlefield: The War on Iran and the Return of Counter-Industrial Targeting

Tyler Hacker, Greg Malandrino, and Evan Braden Montgomery — War on the Rocks

Argues that targeting Iran’s defense-industrial base — not just its fielded forces — may be the decisive lever in any future conflict with Tehran.

🔭 The Folly of Seizing Kharg Island

Bilal Y. Saab — War on the Rocks

Makes the strategic case against seizing Iran’s main oil export terminal, arguing the costs and second-order effects would far outweigh any tactical gain.

🔭 Warden and Iran

Jacob Stoil — War Room

Applies Col. John Warden’s Five Rings model to Iran’s strategic architecture, identifying the centers of gravity most vulnerable to strategic pressure.

🎖️ Perspectives: The Weight of War and Reclaiming Combat Agility

CW2 Aaron McClendon — SWCS Special Warfare Journal

A personal account of the psychological and physical burden of sustained special operations, and what the force must do differently to sustain its people.

🎧 Urban Warfare Project Podcast: Drones and Urban Warfare in Ukraine

Host: John Spencer; Guest: Dr. Anthony Tingle — Urban Warfare Project, MWI

Analyzes how drone proliferation has fundamentally changed the tactics, tempo, and survivability calculus of urban combat in Ukraine.

🔧 Delivering Ready Combat Power

🤖 Can Biometric Data Make Units More Combat Ready? Yes — and This Brigade Gunnery Exercise Showed How

Jon Bate, Stephanie Hightower, and Rebecca Rough — MWI

A Stryker brigade used wearable technology to link sleep and recovery data to crew lethality — finding that measuring human readiness can meaningfully improve qualification results.

📈 Maximizing Combat Readiness: Leveraging SABIR

MAJ Ian Morris and CPT Brooks Seeger — Army Sustainment

Explains how the Standard Army Battle Rhythm and SABIR system can be used to drive predictive readiness and reduce equipment deadlining across the formation.

🚚 Steel Meets Sustainment

CPT Ben Kusinski — Armor Journal

Explores the integration challenges between armor maneuver and sustainment elements during large-scale combat operations.

🚁 Optimizing the Ammunition Process

CW2 Dennis Puccini Jr. and SSG Devante J. Mckenzie — Aviation Digest

Bridges the gap between ammunition planning and execution in aviation operations, with practical process improvements for aviation units.

🚁 Cartridge Actuated Device and Propellant Actuated Device

1LT Letherio R. Jones Jr. — Aviation Digest

A technical primer on CAD/PAD safety and handling for aviation crews — knowledge that directly impacts survivability and mission success.

💰 Financial Light in the Darkness

MAJ Wesleigh J. Cochrane — The Army Lawyer

Explains the legal and financial resources available to soldiers and families in crisis — and why JAG officers must proactively connect them to those resources.

🎖️ Joint Readiness Is Not Optional

CW3 Emmanuel Tello — Warrant Officer Journal

Makes the case that warrant officers must understand and operate effectively in joint environments — and that technical expertise alone is no longer sufficient.

🎧 LogStat: JPMRC Trends at BDE & Below

Host: CPT Garett Pyle; Guest: LTC Keith Twichell

Continues the series with readiness and logistics trends from JPMRC rotations — pattern analysis that every sustainment leader should track.

🎧 MOPs & MOEs: Offset PT and Performance

Hosts: Alex Morrow & Drew Hammond; Guests: COL Christopher Brawley, CSM Jeremiah Waggoner, and Dr. Ellie Van Luit — MOPs & MOEs

A data-driven conversation on how offset PT — physical training decoupled from unit formation — actually improves individual performance and unit readiness outcomes.

🔄 Continuous Transformation

🌍 The Sisyphean Struggle for Influence Campaigning in Competition

Jeremy S. Mushtare — MWI

Argues that influence operations in the competition phase are structurally resistant to decisive outcomes — and proposes a more realistic framework for what success looks like.

💻 NotPetya Cost Russia

Tom Johansmeyer — IWI

Reassesses the blowback from Russia’s NotPetya cyberattack, arguing the unintended economic damage to Russian interests exceeded Western losses.

🕵️ Terrorist Attribution: Patterns of Claimed and Unclaimed Attacks

Mahmut Cengiz — IWI

Identifies patterns in when and why terrorist organizations choose to claim — or deliberately withhold credit for — attacks, with implications for intelligence analysis.

🌍 Preventing ISIS’s Rising Resurgence After Syria’s Power Shift

Cudi Zerey — SWJ

Assesses the conditions enabling an ISIS resurgence in post-Assad Syria and proposes a framework for disrupting its reconstitution.

🧊 Greenland and Strategic North American Defense in the 21st Century

Troy Bouffard, Cameron Carlson, and Dr. Lilliam Hussong — SWJ

Makes the strategic case for Greenland’s growing importance to Arctic defense, NORAD modernization, and great-power competition in the High North.

🕵️ Engineering Conspiracy Theories: Information Warfare

Douglas Wilbur — SWJ

Analyzes how state and non-state actors deliberately engineer and amplify conspiracy theories as instruments of information warfare.

🌏 Japan First in the Indo-Pacific: Takaichi’s Shift from Pacifist Constraint to Allied Mobilization

Christopher Lee and Ben Blane — SWJ

Examines the strategic implications of Japan’s shifting defense posture — and what it means for U.S. alliance management and Indo-Pacific deterrence.

🌍 Is the United States Drifting Toward Rogue State Status?

Michael Greif — SWJ

A provocative assessment of whether recent U.S. foreign policy behavior is eroding the rules-based international order from within.

🌍 Trump, Iran, Water Desalination, and War Crimes

George Headley — SWJ

Examines the legal and strategic dimensions of targeting water infrastructure in the Iran conflict, and where the line between military necessity and war crime falls.

🌍 Germany’s Military Reawakening

Tahir Azad — SWJ

Traces Germany’s rapid shift from strategic restraint to rearmament — and assesses whether the Bundeswehr can actually deliver on its new commitments.

🛡️ Proxy Pressure on Iran: The Promise and Pitfalls of Arming the Kurds

Jonathan Schroden and Zack Gold — War on the Rocks

Evaluates the strategic logic and practical risks of using Kurdish proxy forces as a lever against Iranian influence in the Middle East.

🔭 The Most Important Deterrent That NATO Needs Is Creativity

Ethan Eagle and Jeroen Franssen — War on the Rocks

Makes the case that NATO’s deterrence posture is increasingly defined by structural inertia — and that strategic creativity may matter more than hardware.

🌍 CJIATF-PR: Lessons from Coalition Operations

Michael Margolius and Travis Pantaleo — War Room

Draws operational and organizational lessons from the Combined Joint Interagency Task Force — a model for integrating partners in complex, multi-domain operations.

🎧 SSI Live #123: Obama and the Bomb

Host: MAJ Brennan Deveraux and Dr. Frank Jones — SSI

Examines the Obama administration’s nuclear posture and decision-making — and what it reveals about the enduring tensions between deterrence, disarmament, and modernization.

🕵️ Redefining Open Source Intelligence

Dr. Jeffrey A. Mader — MIPB

Argues that the explosion of open-source data demands a fundamental rethinking of how OSINT is collected, analyzed, and integrated into intelligence products.

🤖 Efficient Workforce: Building for Tomorrow

Douglas R. Bush — Army AL&T

The Army’s top acquisition official makes the case for workforce efficiency as a strategic imperative — not just a management concern.

📜 Strengthening the Profession of Arms

🪖 Engaged Leaders

SSG Melinda B. Jones — NCO Journal

Makes the case that genuine leader engagement — not presence alone — is what separates high-performing units from merely compliant ones.

🪖 Through the Lens of the Singapore Army

First Warrant Officer (1WO) Kok Leong Ho, Singapore Army — NCO Journal

Offers an outside perspective on U.S. Army NCO development — and the habits of excellence that a partner nation’s senior NCO corps considers foundational.

📖 Train as You Write

MSG Nathan P. Feinberg — NCO Journal

Argues that writing quality reflects thinking quality — and that NCOs who train their soldiers to write clearly are building the same mental discipline they need under fire.

🧠 Cognitive Warfare

Dr. Robert Nelson and SGM Benjamin Pingel — NCO Journal

Examines cognitive warfare as a domain NCO leaders must understand — and how to develop the mental resilience and critical thinking skills to counter it.

📖 Talent Management at Echelon: People Are the Platform

David A. Beaumont — Center for Junior Officers

Argues that talent management is not an HR function — it is a core leadership responsibility at every echelon, and the platform everything else is built on.

📹 FM 1: The Army — A Primer to Our Profession of Arms

CADD — Center for Junior Officers

A video primer on FM 1 and what it means to serve in a profession of arms — useful for introducing new soldiers and officers to the foundations of the Army.

📖 Yes, Clausewitz Still Matters for Today’s Lieutenants

Noah Jager — Center for Junior Officers

Pushes back against the tendency to dismiss Clausewitz as obsolete — arguing his core insights on war, politics, and friction are more relevant than ever.

📖 Working the Marketplace, Not Hoping for It

Robert Beyer — Center for Junior Officers

Practical guidance for junior officers on how to actively manage their careers in the Army’s talent marketplace — rather than waiting for assignments to happen to them.

🤝 Why Mentoring Matters

Michael Hackney — Military Mentors

Makes the case for structured mentoring as a force multiplier — and explains why informal relationships alone are not enough to develop the Army’s next generation.

📖 Leadership Initiative

Josh Bowen — 3x5 Leadership

Explores the concept of leadership initiative — the disposition to act, decide, and lead before being told to — and how to develop it in yourself and your soldiers.

🎖️ Forging the Expert Infantryman

CPT Patrick M. Elsenbast and 1SG Ryan D. Shaw — Infantry Journal

Examines what it takes to develop expert infantrymen — and how leaders at every level can build a culture of genuine mastery rather than checkbox competence.

🎧 Bend But Do Not Break: Rethinking the Future of the All-Volunteer Force

Host: Joe Byerly; Guest: Jaron Wharton — From the Green Notebook

A frank conversation on the stresses facing the all-volunteer force — recruiting shortfalls, retention pressure, and what must change to keep the model viable.

📖 Resources & Calls

• CSA Recommended Articles – Army University Press – The Chief’s reading list.

• Call for Papers – Army Civilian Journal – Invitation to contribute.

• Professional Writing Playlist (YouTube) – Talks and discussions on military writing.

• Professional Military Writing – Military Review – Why writing matters.

• Army Foreign Area Officer Association Podcasts – FAO professional development listening.

🧰 TL;DR

· Quick Read: Cognitive Fratricide: How the Transparent Battlefield Creates Decision Paralysis

· Deep Dive: Discovery Before Disaster: The Louisiana Maneuvers and the Untested Warfighting Concepts of Today’s Army

· Listen: MOPs & MOEs: COL Adisa King on Leadership and Culture

· For the Formation: Winning the First Fight — MCOE

🧭 About the Harding Project

The Harding Project is Chief of Staff of the Army General Randy George’s initiative to strengthen the profession through professional writing and public discourse.

The one-stop shop for all branch journal articles is the Line of Departure website – check it out to get your daily dose of Army professional development! If you have good ideas or lessons to share with the rest of the force, please pen them and send them our way at submissions@hardingproject.com.

We’re renewing professional writing across the force—one Friday at a time. Read. Reflect. Act. The profession doesn’t stand still, and neither should we.

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The man who had posed the question, Dr. Sherman Kent—Yale historian, wartime intelligence officer, and arguably the most rigorous analytical mind in the room—was alarmed by this discrepancy. He believed that analytical judgment was only as sound as the reasoning behind it, and that reasoning was only as good as the language used to express it. The revelation that the greatest national and military intelligence minds in the country couldn’t agree on what a simple estimative word meant wasn’t just alarming to Dr. Kent. It was unacceptable. So, he did what any good academic would do in that situation: he wrote a paper about it.

The paper, published in 1964 in the CIA journal Studies in Intelligence, had exactly the kind of title you would expect from a Yale historian working for a government agency: “Words of Estimative Probability.”¹ The solution it proposed, however, was elegantly simple: to eliminate linguistic ambiguity, standard estimative language must have agreed-upon numerical probability ranges. “Certain” should indicate a 100 percent certainty; “almost certain” should be a probability of 93 plus or minus 6 percent; “probably” should be 75 plus or minus 12percent; and so on, all the way down to “almost certainly not” with a probability of 7 plus or minus 5 percent (see figure below). Intelligence professionals would, at last, be working from a shared vocabulary, eliminating the dangerous guesswork that happened when producers and consumers of intelligence read the same word and arrived at entirely different numbers.

Figure. Sherman Kent’s proposed probability ranges

Of course, there was pushback. Some analysts resisted what they saw as an attempt to impose false precision on an inherently uncertain craft. Others acknowledged the need for linguistic uniformity and enthusiastically embraced Dr. Kent’s suggestions. To some extent, this linguistic skirmish has continued to the present day. However, Kent’s core insight—that vague language in analytical writing isn’t just lazy; it’s downright irresponsible—has subtly shaped analytic tradecraft standards from America’s military intelligence enterprise to the broader NATO intelligence community ever since.

Thumbing through back issues of the Military Intelligence Professional Bulletin with Dr. Kent’s paper on wordcrafting in mind is enlightening. A careful hedge here, a precisely chosen qualifier there, the deliberate distinction between “indicate” and “suggest”—none of these is the result of random chance. They are the thoughtful descendants of a historian’s argument 60 years ago that the words analysts choose are as vital to quality analysis as the analysis itself. Dr. Kent served in wartime, but he didn’t carry a weapon. Instead, he carried a metaphorical red pen, using it to shed light on the rigor authors owe their readers.

“Throwback Thursday” isn’t just about looking back. It’s also an opportunity to recognize which lessons from the past continue to influence modern military practice. In professional military writing, whether you’re drafting a report, presenting the results of months of research, or writing for one of our journals, say what you mean and mean what you say. Your readers will thank you for it—probably.

Endnotes

1. Sherman Kent, “Words of Estimative Probability,” Studies in Intelligence 8, no.4 (1964), https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP93T01132R000100020036-3.pdf. Declassified May 4, 2012.

Ms. Lorilynn Iversen is an editor for the Military Intelligence Professional Bulletin, the professional journal of the U.S. Army Military Intelligence Corps.

🪖 The Friday Formation

This week’s dispatch on Army writing, leadership, and learning

Friday, 20 March 2026

🗓️ Editor’s Note

March closes with a full slate — drones, algorithms, the Arctic, the Middle East, and the enduring questions of what it means to lead.

This week’s Formation covers the proliferation of unmanned systems across every domain, the strategic stakes of algorithmic advantage, and the human dimension that no technology can replace — resilience, courage, and the willingness to start something new.

Read widely. Think critically. Close the month strong.

Chris

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🏛️ Featured Leadership Essays

Ep. 174 – The Courage to Start Something New (with Andy Yakulis)

Host: Joe Byerly; Guest: Andy Yakulis — From the Green Notebook

A conversation about the mindset and courage required to step into the unknown — whether that’s a new assignment, a new organization, or a new chapter of life after service.

You Can’t Stockpile AI: Military Advantage in the Age of Algorithmic Diffusion

Kyle Dotterrer — Modern War Institute

Challenges the assumption that AI creates durable military advantage, arguing that algorithmic diffusion means advantage is fleeting — and that how the Army adapts its processes matters more than any single capability.

Inside Recruiting Company Command: Leadership Beyond the Numbers

Tanner Cook — Center for Junior Officers

A ground-level look at what company command in a recruiting context actually demands — and what it teaches about leading people through ambiguity and mission pressure.

⚔️ Warfighting

🪖 Who Owns the Drones? Why Modernization of Army Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Should Be a Maneuver Responsibility John Dudas — MWI

Makes the doctrinal and organizational case for placing small UAS modernization and employment authority within maneuver formations — a timely argument with major implications for how the Army equips and trains.

🪖 India-Pakistan Drone Warfare Tahir Mahmood Azad — IWI

Examines the emerging drone competition between India and Pakistan and what it signals about the proliferation of UAS in regional conflict.

🇹🇼 Taiwan’s T-Dome and Drone Warfare Ben Biedrzycki — SWJ

Assesses Taiwan’s T-Dome counter-drone system and its implications for the air defense calculus in a Taiwan Strait contingency.

🪖 Kurdish Resistance Drones and Iran Zak Kallenborn — IWI

Traces how Kurdish resistance groups are leveraging drone technology against Iranian forces and what it means for non-state UAS employment.

🚫 Don’t Count Launches: Misreading Iran’s Drone Capacity Kelly A. Grieco — War on the Rocks

A methodological critique of how analysts are counting Iranian drone launches and why raw numbers badly misrepresent operational capacity and strategic intent.

🪖 The Menace of Misunderstanding: Learning the Wrong Lessons from Ukraine’s Drone-Saturated Battlefields Charles S. Oliviero and Phil Halton — MWI

Challenges prevailing narratives about drone warfare in Ukraine, arguing that misreading its lessons risks catastrophic tactical and doctrinal miscalculation.

🎙️ Interview: Ami Ayalon on Iran, Gaza, and the Israeli Navy Interviewers: Christopher Booth & Walker Mills; Interviewee: Ami Ayalon — IWI

A frank conversation with the former head of Shin Bet and Israeli Navy commander on the strategic logic of the Iran conflict and what it demands of leadership.

🛡️ The Value of Euro-SOF Ned Marsh — SWJ

Makes the strategic case for European Special Operations Forces as a distinct and undervalued asset in the transatlantic security architecture.

🎙️ Non-State Special Operations Darrell Driver and Craig Whiteside — War Room

Examines the rise of non-state actors capable of sophisticated special operations and what that means for doctrine, partnerships, and competition.

🇺🇦 Bailing Out Russia for Peace Is a Losing Proposition Emma Isabella Sage and Savannah Taylor — War on the Rocks

A sharp critique of the logic behind offering Russia economic relief as a peace incentive, arguing it rewards aggression without changing Russian strategic calculus.

🇲🇪 Drinking from the Bitter Chalice in the Middle East Again Steven Simon — War on the Rocks

A historically grounded assessment of U.S. strategic entanglement in the Middle East and the recurring costs of misread exits.

🇨🇳 How Does the Iran War Affect China’s Energy Security? Yun Sun — War on the Rocks

Links the Iran conflict to Chinese strategic calculations, tracing how energy dependency shapes Beijing’s posture and risk tolerance.

⚔️ Double-Edged Swords: How Military Purges Shape Authoritarian Appetite for War Jun Sudduth — War on the Rocks

Examines the counterintuitive relationship between leadership purges in autocratic militaries and the resulting shift in risk appetite toward conflict.

🌍 Reckoning: America’s Middle East Strategy Irina Tsukerman — SWJ

A broad strategic reckoning with U.S. policy in the Middle East and the compounding consequences of strategic drift.

📋 Fact-Checking the Commander in Chief Tom Ordeman Jr. — SWJ

A careful examination of executive claims about military operations and what civil-military accountability requires in response.

🔧 Delivering Ready Combat Power

🚛 Automated Vessel Selection and Combat Sustainment MAJ William Kirschenman, Dr. Brandon McConnell, and Dr. Russel King — Army Sustainment

Examines how automated vessel selection algorithms can improve distribution efficiency and reduce friction in theater sustainment operations.

🛡️ The Chokepoint We Missed: Sulfur, Hormuz, and the Threats to Military Readiness Morgan Bazilian, Macdonald Amoah, and Jahara Matisek — MWI

Draws attention to sulfur as an overlooked strategic vulnerability: disruption at Hormuz threatens the chemical supply chains that military readiness depends on.

🧠 Shared Understanding at Machine Speed: Preserving Coherence in AI-Enabled Joint Operations Richard L. Farnell — MWI

Addresses the command and control challenge of maintaining shared understanding across a joint force when AI systems are operating faster than human cognition.

🛡️ Field Artillery Strategy 2030 Field Artillery Journal

The Field Artillery branch’s strategic vision for 2030 — how fires must modernize to remain the decisive shaping and suppression force on the future battlefield.

⚗️ Commander’s Gamble CPT Kassi Gulliford — Army Chemical Review

Examines the calculated risks commanders must take when operating in CBRN-contested environments and how doctrine must adapt to keep pace with the threat.

🎙️ LogStat: JRTC Trends at the BDE & Below Host: CPT Garett Pyle; Guest: LTC Dan Cole

Draws out sustainment and logistics observations from JRTC rotations — actionable lessons for brigade-level leaders preparing for their own rotations.

🎙️ Mops & Moes: Fitness Philosophy, Part 2 Hosts: Alex Morrow & Drew Hammond; Guest: Michael Blevins

Continues the conversation on building a durable physical training philosophy — what separates Soldiers who sustain performance from those who plateau or break down.

🔄 Continuous Transformation

🧠 You Can’t Stockpile AI: Military Advantage in the Age of Algorithmic Diffusion Kyle Dotterrer — MWI

Challenges the assumption that AI creates durable military advantage, arguing that how the Army adapts its processes matters more than any single capability.

🌊 Retreat at the Bottom of the World: U.S. Polar Policy’s Arctic Surge and Antarctic Drawdown DeLaine Mayer — MWI

Examines the strategic tension in U.S. polar policy — surging in the Arctic while drawing down in Antarctica — and what it signals about prioritization and risk.

🇨🇳 The New Reserve Personnel ID Card: How the PLA Is Streamlining Mobilization Joshua Arostegui — SSI

A detailed look at PLA reserve mobilization reform and what the new personnel ID card system reveals about China’s intent to field a more responsive reserve force.

🔭 Narrative as a Weapon John Wirges — SWJ

Examines narrative as a distinct instrument of warfare and how adversaries are weaponizing story to shape perception, will, and behavior at scale.

🔭 Beyond the Menu of Options: A Taxonomy for Information Security Strategies Nazar Syvak — SWJ

Proposes a structured taxonomy for information security strategies that moves beyond ad hoc responses toward a coherent framework for protecting the information environment.

🧠 Insomnia, Trauma, and Substances Jonathan Kenigson — War Room

A clinically grounded examination of the interconnected challenges of sleep disorders, trauma, and substance use in the military population — and what leadership must understand about their intersection.

📜 Strengthening the Profession of Arms

📋 Team Cohesion Josh Bowen — 3x5 Leadership

A practical exploration of what builds genuine team cohesion and how leaders can cultivate it deliberately rather than hoping it emerges on its own.

🪖 The Drone Battlefield CSM Jermaine Baldwin — NCO Journal

An NCO leader’s perspective on what drone proliferation demands of small-unit leaders at the tactical edge.

🇧🇷 Brazilian Leadership Lessons SGM Mauricio da Silva Souza — NCO Journal

Leadership principles from a Brazilian Army perspective — a cross-cultural look at what makes NCOs effective across different military cultures and contexts.

💪 Resiliency CSM Richard C. Ryles Jr. — NCO Journal (Muddy Boots)

A hard-earned NCO perspective on building personal and organizational resilience — what it actually looks like at the ground level and how leaders model it under pressure.

📖 Resources & Calls

• CSA Recommended Articles – Army University Press – The Chief’s reading list.

• Call for Papers – Army Civilian Journal – Invitation to contribute.

• Professional Writing Playlist (YouTube) – Talks and discussions on military writing.

• Professional Military Writing – Military Review – Why writing matters.

• Army Foreign Area Officer Association Podcasts – FAO professional development listening.

🧰 TL;DR

Quick Read: You Can’t Stockpile AI: Military Advantage in the Age of Algorithmic Diffusion

Deep Dive: Who Owns the Drones? Why Modernization of Army Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Should Be a Maneuver Responsibility

Listen: Ep. 174 – The Courage to Start Something New (with Andy Yakulis)

🧭 About the Harding Project

The Harding Project is Chief of Staff of the Army General Randy George’s initiative to strengthen the profession through professional writing and public discourse.

The one-stop shop for all branch journal articles is the Line of Departure website – check it out to get your daily dose of Army professional development! If you have good ideas or lessons to share with the rest of the force, please pen them and send them our way at submissions@hardingproject.com.

We’re renewing professional writing across the force—one Friday at a time. Read. Reflect. Act. The profession doesn’t stand still, and neither should we.

In 1921, still grappling with lessons from World War I as it continued to settle into its new home at Camp Benning, Ga., the U.S. Army’s Infantry School launched a new educational initiative to continue forging a unified and professional corps of Infantry leaders. Simply known as the “Mailing List” after its method of distribution, the endeavor aimed to provide Infantry Soldiers around the Army with the latest in tactics, doctrine, and military thought from the Army’s premier infantry institution.

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In its first edition, “Tactical Problems,” Maj. R. H. Kelley, an instructor in the school’s Department of Military Art, explained the reasoning for the inaugural installment. During the Great War, he explained, the Army had to rapidly produce Soldiers who were highly proficient with individual weapons like machine guns or grenades but often “failed to appreciate the part each weapon or organization played in the great Infantry team.”

An emphasis on the study of tactics was seen as an essential remedy. “Infantry tactics employ certain basic principles designed to destroy the fighting strength of an enemy with the fewest casualties to the friendly forces…” Kelley stated. “The mission of an Infantry commander in action requires the highest degree of technical and tactical training, including a thorough appreciation of the powers, characteristics and limitations of all forces and weapons utilized.”

Based on instruction provided at the Infantry School, the 74-page pamphlet included 10 map problems or exercises – along with associated graphics, approved solutions and comments – for readers to explore. By distributing these materials, the school intended to extend its educational reach far beyond its classrooms in Georgia, ensuring that officers everywhere could build their professional training on a common and solid foundation while also fostering a unified understanding of the Infantry’s complex role on the battlefield.

Over the next few years, the school continued to regularly disseminate additional pamphlets consisting of these tactical problems along with lectures and other instructional material on topics ranging from assault and defense to the care of horses. While the intent was valid, the execution left subscribers wanting. In 1930, under then-Assistant Commandant Lt. Col. George C. Marshall, Maj. Edwin F. Harding (yes, as in the Harding Project) took on the task of revitalizing the publication. The foreword of the 1930-31 Mailing List succinctly notes, “The only reason for its existence is the dissemination of military instruction and the stimulation of thought on military subjects. If those who subscribe to it do not take the trouble to read it, it fails utterly in its sole purpose of being.”

Beginning with that issue, Harding and his staff chose timely, relevant content in a variety of formats to break up the monotony and keep readers more engaged. For example, a discussion on infantry reorganization was framed as a personal letter between two officers, and an article on groundbreaking defensive tactics was presented as a candid dialogue between a skeptical visiting colonel and a knowledgeable school instructor. This shift in presentation made the material more digestible, transforming what would have been very dry content into memorable lessons.

That edition also included its first offerings based on firsthand accounts: “Experiences in the First Days of War,” a lecture delivered by a German Army captain to Infantry School students, and “The Operations of Company ‘K’, 38^th Infantry, 3^rd Division in the Second Phase of the Meuse-Argonne,” a monograph written by the company’s commander at the time, CPT Robert G. Moss, who received the first of his two Silver Stars for his actions on that patrol. CPT Moss closed his account with a list of lessons learned, which included practical tips like the value of carrying wire cutters to cut barbed wire to more abstract recommendations involving morale and the psychology of combat.

The publication continued to offer tactical decision exercises, complete with maps and solutions; however, the foreword to this section emphasized their purpose: “The problems are not intended to lay down rules; they are meant to stimulate thought.” This underscored a fundamental shift in philosophy at the time – teaching officers how to think versus what to think.

These changes marked a significant step in the publication’s evolution from a purely instructional tool to more of a forum for professional discourse. Over the years, as the Infantry School grew, so did its journal. In addition to adding more thought-provoking – even controversial – material, the publication changed formatting and names several times, morphing from the Mailing List into the Infantry School Quarterly in 1947 before finally settling as Infantry in 1957 – a legacy we proudly continue today.

Michelle Rowan currently serves as the civilian editor of Infantry, the professional bulletin of the U.S. Army’s Infantry Branch.

Army civilians make up nearly 25% of the Total Force, providing the steady hand and deep expertise that keeps the mission moving. While the Chief of Staff has highlighted professional writing as the heartbeat of a healthy Army, our community has often been the “quiet professionals” in the background. We spend our careers solving the Army’s toughest puzzles—from complex logistics to advanced engineering—yet we rarely share those solutions beyond our own office walls. It’s time we strengthen our profession through open, honest dialogue.

With that goal in mind, the Army Civilian Professional Journal was created as a space built by the workforce, for the workforce. Drawing inspiration from the Army’s long tradition of branch journals—dating back to the 19th-century cavalry and artillery papers—this new forum is specifically designed for the unique challenges we face as civilians. It’s a modern platform where a GS-7’s fresh perspective is just as valuable as a SES’s strategic oversight. This isn’t just another task; it’s our chance to mentor one another at scale.

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We’re inviting you to pull up a chair and join the conversation. Read the journal to see what your peers across the globe are tackling; share it with your team to spark a better way of doing business; and, most importantly, write. Your “lesson learned” today could be the breakthrough a colleague needs tomorrow. Send your drafts, questions, or even a rough outline to usarmy.leavenworth.cac.mbx.armyu-amsc-civilian-journal@army.mil.

Allyson McNitt, PhD is an editor for the Army Civilian Professional Journal at Fort Leavenworth.

🪖 The Friday Formation

This week’s dispatch on Army writing, leadership, and learning

Friday, 13 (spooky) March 2026

🗓️ Editor’s Note

March presses forward with urgency on every front — tactical, institutional, and strategic.

This week’s Formation brings a heavy slate: drone warfare lessons from Ukraine, the strategic dimension of the Iran conflict, ATAP strategy for officers and their units, a new Parameters issue, and a Clausewitzian moment for the profession.

The profession doesn’t wait for you to catch up. Get after it.

Chris

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🏛️ Featured Leadership Essays

From Participation to Domination: How Units Can Win the Officer Army Talent Alignment Process (ATAP)

Edward Prueitt — From the Green Notebook

A practical playbook for units to move from passive ATAP participation to deliberate talent strategy — essential reading for any commander or leader with skin in the talent management game.

Budget Certainty Is Crucial to Maintaining Readiness

GEN Chris LaNeve — AUSA

The Army’s top officer makes the case for why fiscal predictability is a readiness issue, not just a budget issue.

⚔️ Warfighting

🤖 The Menace of Misunderstanding: Learning the Wrong Lessons from Ukraine’s Drone-Saturated Battlefields Charles S. Oliviero and Phil Halton — MWI

Challenges prevailing narratives about drone warfare, arguing that misreading Ukraine’s lessons risks catastrophic tactical and doctrinal miscalculation.

🎙️ MWI Podcast: The Weapons Defining the Iran Conflict Host: John Amble; Guest: Tom Karako — MWI

Breaks down the missiles, drones, and air defense systems shaping the current Iran conflict and their implications for the joint force.

🚢 Sea Denial Deep Inside Russia: The Role of Special Operations Forces in Countering Warships on Inland Waters Helge Adrians — MWI

Examines how SOF can conduct sea denial against Russian naval assets on inland waterways — a capability with significant implications for future operations.

🤖 Networked for War: Lessons from Ukraine’s Ground Robots Jorge Rivero — MWI

Draws operational lessons from Ukraine’s use of ground-based robotic systems and the network requirements that make them effective.

🎙️ MWI Podcast: The Iran Conflict’s Strategic Dimension Host: John Amble; Guests: Jonathan Panikoff, Sydney Laite, and Rory Miller — MWI

Situates the Iran conflict within the broader strategic competition and examines what outcomes are actually achievable.

🛡️ A Worst-Case Scenario for the War with Iran Kerry Boyd Anderson — War on the Rocks

A sober assessment of how the Iran conflict could spiral beyond current assumptions and planning horizons.

🎙️ The Spear: Ranger Missions in Iraq and Afghanistan Host: Charles Faint; Guest: Marty Skovlund — MWI

A ground-level account of Ranger operations across two decades of war and what those missions demand of leaders and Soldiers.

🇮🇷 Iran’s Proxy Network Strategy Dr. Joe Funderburke — IWI

Maps Iran’s proxy architecture and the strategic logic behind building and sustaining distributed armed networks.

🇵🇸 Human in the Loop Khyati Singh — SWJ

Interrogates the doctrine of human oversight in autonomous weapons and where it risks becoming a hollow safeguard.

🇬🇦 Gaza and the Logic of High-Intensity Urban Warfare Danny Orbach, Jonathan Boxman, Yagil Henkin, and Jonathan Braverman — War on the Rocks

Analyzes the operational logic and constraints of high-intensity urban combat through the lens of Gaza.

🔭 Schrodinger’s Security Partner: The Paradox of Measuring Security Force Assistance Jahara Matisek — SWJ

Exposes the fundamental measurement problem in Security Force Assistance and what it means for program design and assessment.

🛡️ To What End: When Technology and Media Seduce Politicians Matthew Ford — SWJ

Examines how technological spectacle and media dynamics distort political decision-making in conflict.

🌍 From Hormuz to Harvest: The Strategic Clock of Modern Agriculture Alicia Ellis — SWJ

Links food security, maritime chokepoints, and strategic competition in a framework that reframes agriculture as a national security issue.

🎙️ Intelligence, Innovation, and Integration Andrew Evans and Tom Spahr — War Room

Explores how intelligence functions must evolve to integrate with emerging technologies and support faster decision cycles.

🔧 Delivering Ready Combat Power

📊 Army Builds Agile, More Responsive HR Enterprise AUSA with BG Greg Johnson

Details the Army’s effort to modernize human resources into a faster, more data-driven enterprise capable of supporting a dynamic force.

📊 Warrant Officers Foster Army Transformation CW5 Matt McDougall — AUSA

Makes the case for the warrant officer corps as a distinct and indispensable engine of Army modernization and technical mastery.

🎙️ Forging Ahead: AUSA Podcast on Industry Partnerships Hosts: LTG (Ret.) Leslie Smith and SMA (Ret.) Dan Dailey; Guests: Elizabeth O’Brien and Josh Fugate

Examines how Army-industry partnerships are accelerating capability delivery and what it takes to make them work.

🚛 Precision Sustainment: The Wrong Approach for Tactical Units MAJ Brian Mathews — Army Sustainment

A contrarian take arguing that precision sustainment models optimized for efficiency can fail tactical units in the friction of combat.

⚡ Data-Informed Decisions Enable Operational Energy CW2 James A. Frye — Army Sustainment

Shows how data-informed energy management can extend operational reach and reduce logistical vulnerability.

💻 All According to Plan: Digital Planning Tools and Tomorrow’s Battlefield Michael ‘Reggie’ Hammond, Earl Dean, and Ryan Delts — Army AL&T

Examines how digital planning tools being fielded today are shaping readiness for future high-end conflict.

💻 A Digital Dive Rachel Berry — Army AL&T

Explores the Army’s digital modernization journey and the acquisition challenges that come with it.

🚁 Innovate or Die: Our Fight to Stay Relevant MAJ Zachary D. Daker and MAJ Patrick J. Shaver Jr. — Aviation Digest

A call to action for Army aviation to adapt or cede relevance on the modern battlefield.

🩺 Clinical and Strategic Lessons from Syria: Evolving the Role of the Battalion Aid Station MAJ Cheryl L. Miller, CPT Thomas W. Graham III, and 1LT Aimee M. Feary — Pulse of Army Medicine

Draws clinical and doctrinal lessons from Syria to rethink how Battalion Aid Stations must evolve for LSCO.

🩺 Subterranean Role: Medical Operations Underground 1LT Leoniel O. Rodriguez Rosas, CPT Ryan C. Brown, and 1SG Sakeena Lites — Pulse of Army Medicine

Addresses the unique medical challenges of subterranean operations and how medical units must adapt their TTPs.

🎙️ LogStat: NTC Trends at the BDE & Below Host: CPT Garett Pyle; Guest: LTC Eric Shockley

Breaks down sustainment and logistics observations from NTC rotations, with actionable lessons for brigade-level leaders.

🎙️ Mops & Moes: Fitness Philosophy, Part 1 Hosts: Alex Morrow & Drew Hammond; Guest: Michael Blevins

Lays the philosophical foundation for how Soldiers should approach physical training — purpose-driven, not just program-driven.

🏋️ Train Like You Park Leg Tuck Nation — Mops & Moes

A sharp, memorable framework for approaching physical training with the same discipline and intentionality applied to occupation of terrain.

🔄 Continuous Transformation

🧠 Intelligence Risk: Prediction Markets Peter Burns — IWI

Explores prediction markets as a tool to improve intelligence risk assessment and reduce the systemic biases of traditional analytic methods.

📊 Shall I Play a Game? Wargaming in PME Keith Burkepile — War Room

Argues for integrating wargaming more deliberately into professional military education to build adaptive, creative leaders.

🔭 Text Without Context Is Pretext Dawn Hersey and Wendy MacKenzie Pease — SWJ

Examines how information divorced from context becomes a tool of manipulation — and what leaders must do to counter it.

🇰🇷 Katchi Kapshida C.B. Duncan — SWJ

An on-the-ground account of advisory operations and the hard cultural and institutional realities of building partner capacity.

🤐 We Were Right About Havana Syndrome Marc Polymeropoulos — War on the Rocks

A firsthand account of the Havana Syndrome fight and what it reveals about how institutions treat their people when confronting inconvenient truths.

🇷🇺 Ukraine’s Not-So-Whole-of-Society at War: Force Generation in Modern Developed Societies Host: Stephanie Crider; Guests: Antulio J. Echevarria II and Jan Willem Honig — SSI Podcast

Challenges the whole-of-society narrative for Ukraine and examines the real mechanics of force generation in modern states.

🚢 Russian Arctic Land Forces and Defense Trends Redefined by NATO and Ukraine Host: Stephanie Crider; Guests: Lester W. Grau and Troy J. Bouffard — SSI Podcast

Examines how Russia’s Arctic land forces have evolved in response to NATO expansion and lessons absorbed from Ukraine.

🛡️ Successful Large-Scale Combat Operations Require Artificially Intelligent Breaching Munitions Michael P. Carvelli — Parameters

Makes the technical and doctrinal case for AI-enabled breaching munitions as a prerequisite for success in LSCO.

🇪🇺 Imitating US Doctrine Cost Europe Its Heavy Combat Power Bence Nemeth — Parameters

A sobering analysis of how European armies that adopted U.S. doctrinal models shed the heavy combat power they now urgently need.

🇹🇼 Risk Decision Making and Intertemporal Choice: Lessons from the Taiwan Strait Rachel Downing — Parameters

Applies behavioral economics and decision science to the Taiwan Strait scenario to illuminate how risk and time horizons shape strategic choice.

🖏 Spezialpropaganda: The East German Military’s Covert Information-Warfare Program Joe Cheravitch — Parameters

Uncovers the East German military’s covert influence operations and draws parallels to modern information warfare.

🎯 Strategic Rivalries: How Are They Won? Antulio J. Echevarria II — Parameters

A strategic theory examination of what it actually takes to prevail in great power competition.

📜 Strengthening the Profession of Arms

📋 Approaching the Military as a Profession Through the Clausewitzian Trinity Adam T. Biggs — Parameters

Uses Clausewitz’s trinity as a lens to examine what it truly means to treat military service as a profession and not merely an occupation.

📋 Strategic Theory and Clausewitz’s Trinitarian Test Lukas Milevski — Parameters

Tests strategic theory against the Clausewitzian trinity and examines where contemporary thinking holds up and where it falls short.

📋 Legacies Worth Considering: (Re)examining the Assumptions Behind Denial Strategies Samuel Zilincik — Parameters

Revisits foundational assumptions behind denial strategies in light of contemporary strategic realities.

🛡️ Where Vision Meets Velocity: Rules for Field-Grade Officers MAJ Kevin R. Brensinger — Field Artillery Journal

Practical leadership rules for field-grade officers operating at the intersection of institutional vision and tactical execution.

🛡️ Forging Lethality: Integrating Fires and Maneuver for Decisive Operations MAJ Jay Logan & SFC Stuart David — Field Artillery Journal

Key fires integration observations from JMRC rotations with direct applicability for brigade combat teams.

🛡️ I Found What You’re Looking For: Why Company Grade Officers Should Fight to Come Teach at the Field Artillery School MAJ Destry ‘Sam’ Balch — Field Artillery Journal

A persuasive case for why talent should flow toward the schoolhouse — and what officers gain from teaching that they can’t get anywhere else.

🤖 On Deep Convolutional Neural Networks and Building Latent Violence in the Indo-Pacific MAJ Joseph Schmid — Field Artillery Journal

An intellectually ambitious piece connecting AI-enabled targeting to the broader strategic competition in the Indo-Pacific.

🪖 The Drone Battlefield CSM Jermaine Baldwin — NCO Journal

An NCO leader’s perspective on drone warfare and what it demands of small-unit leaders at the tip of the spear.

🪖 Judgment Day MSG Raymond T. Fain — NCO Journal

Examines the weight of judgment calls that NCOs face and the professional grounding required to make them well.

📚 Eyes Up MAJ Christopher Zaczyk — Military Review

Elevating situational awareness as a deliberate leadership discipline, not a passive habit.

📖 Resources & Calls

• CSA Recommended Articles – Army University Press – The Chief’s reading list.

• Call for Papers – Army Civilian Journal - Invitation to contribute.

• Professional Writing Playlist (YouTube) – Talks and discussions on military writing.

• Professional Military Writing – Military Review – Why writing matters.

🧰 TL;DR

· Quick Read: From Participation to Domination: How Units Can Win ATAP

· Deep Dive: The Menace of Misunderstanding: Learning the Wrong Lessons from Ukraine’s Drone-Saturated Battlefields

· Listen: MWI Podcast: The Iran Conflict’s Strategic Dimension

🧭 About the Harding Project

The Harding Project is Chief of Staff of the Army General Randy George’s initiative to strengthen the profession through professional writing and public discourse.

The one-stop shop for all branch journal articles is the Line of Departure website – check it out to get your daily dose of Army professional development! If you have good ideas or lessons to share with the rest of the force, please pen them and send them our way at submissions@hardingproject.com.

We’re renewing professional writing across the force—one Friday at a time. Read. Reflect. Act. The profession doesn’t stand still, and neither should we.