The Friday Formation
12 June 2026
🪖 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
🏛️ 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.
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.
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.
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.