The Friday Formation
29 May 2026
🪖 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
🏛️ 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.
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.
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.