The Friday Formation
Friday, 17 July 2026
🗓️ Editor’s Note
The branch journals carried the week. Field Artillery pushed out six new pieces, Armor went deep on the cavalry fight, and Strength in Knowledge dropped a full slate.
The piece to pause on: “Restoring the Scholar-Warrior,” from Majors Nicholas Christensen and William Sack in the Army Communicator’s summer edition. Two Signal School officers arguing that professional military education should demand real academic rigor — and naming students, instructors, and institutions as all part of the fix. That is exactly the kind of institutional-level writing this project exists to encourage. And if you want an argument at Friday’s officer call, Amos Fox’s “Death Ride of the Armor Branch” in Small Wars Journal will start one.
Plenty here. Get after it.
Chris
🏛️ Featured Leadership Essays
📝 Restoring the Scholar-Warrior: A Shared Mandate
By Maj. Nicholas Christensen and Maj. William Sack – Army Communicator (Summer 2026)
Two Signal School officers argue PME must demand real academic rigor — adaptive curriculum, critical thinking, and accountability from students, instructors, and institutions alike — to produce scholar-warriors ready for multi-domain operations.
💥 Maneuvering to Obsolescence: The Death Ride of the Armor Branch
By Amos Fox – Small Wars Journal
Fox argues the Armor Branch is riding toward irrelevance — not because the tank is dead, but because the branch has failed to adapt its concepts, structure, and self-image to the future fight. Agree or not, it demands an answer.
🪞 The Internal AAR: What to Do After a Bad Evaluation (or a Great One)
By Steven Prater – From the Green Notebook
“You just did your job.” Prater turns a bruising evaluation into a disciplined framework for internal after-action reviews — neither rejecting hard feedback nor letting it become the whole story.
📚 Resources & Calls
● Recommended Articles of the Month – Harding Project recommended reading list.
● Professional Writing Playlist (YouTube) – Talks and discussions on military writing.
● Professional Military Writing – Military Review – Why writing matters.
🧰 TL;DR
● Quick Read: Protecting Patches of Weeds
● Deep Dive: A Return to Mass: Russian Force Expansion in the War with Ukraine
● Listen: MWI Podcast: NATO’s Ankara Summit
● For the Formation: Army Body Composition Policy
⚔️ Warfighting
🌍 The Age of Energy Warfare: Lessons from the Ukraine and Iran Wars
By Olga Khakova, Morgan Bazilian, Macdonald Amoah, and Jahara Matisek – Modern War Institute
Energy infrastructure has become both weapon and target. Drawing on the Ukraine and Iran wars, the authors argue energy warfare is now a defining feature of modern conflict — and the joint force needs to plan accordingly.
🎯 Outgunned, But Not Outplayed: Iran’s Theory of Victory
By Pnina Shuker and Andrew Milburn – War on the Rocks
Tehran lost the exchange but may not have lost the war it was actually fighting. Shuker and Milburn reconstruct Iran’s theory of victory and what it portends for the next round.
📈 A Return to Mass: Russian Force Expansion in the War with Ukraine
By Greg Whisler and Michael Kofman – War on the Rocks
A detailed accounting of how Russia rebuilt and expanded its force structure through nearly four years of war — essential reading on what regenerating mass actually looks like in large-scale combat.
📡 China’s Telecom Forward Base: How Military-Civil Fusion Weaponizes Global Networks
By Gerald Mako – Small Wars Journal
Beijing’s military-civil fusion turns commercial telecom infrastructure into a forward operating base for information and cyber operations. Mako maps the threat and its implications for the joint force.
🏳️ From Washington to Tehran: Rally-Around-the-Flag Effects in an Age of Regional Conflict
By Kristian Alexander – Small Wars Journal
How do publics respond when the missiles fly? Alexander examines rally-around-the-flag dynamics in Washington, Tehran, and the Gulf during the 2026 Iran conflict — and what they mean for deterrence and coercion.
🥷 Assessing Special Operations Forces (SOF) 2040 (Part 1): The Operator Is the Platform
By Dr. David Dorsey, David S. Maxwell, Michael Ingerick, and Mick Crnkovich – Small Wars Journal
First in a series assessing SOF 2040: in an era of hyper-enablement and human-machine teaming, the decisive platform is still the operator — and assessment, selection, and development must keep pace.
💥 Maneuvering to Obsolescence: The Death Ride of the Armor Branch
By Amos Fox – Small Wars Journal
Fox argues the Armor Branch is riding toward irrelevance — not because the tank is dead, but because the branch has failed to adapt its concepts, structure, and self-image to the future fight. Agree or not, it demands an answer.
🎙️ MWI Podcast: NATO’s Ankara Summit
Hosted by John Amble – Modern War Institute Podcast
As NATO’s thirty-two members gather in Ankara, this episode unpacks what the summit means for the alliance’s cohesion, defense spending, and the war in Ukraine.
🌑 Shaping the Deep Fight: MFRC Lessons Learned at Saber Junction 2025
By CPT Aviel Lee, CPT Andrew Carter, 1SG Ryan Anderson, 1LT Jonathan Hyun – Infantry
Lessons learned on shaping the deep fight from the Saber Junction 2025 rotation.
🏝️ Ready for the Pacific: Intelligence Lessons from the Falklands
By LTC George J. Fust – Infantry
What the Falklands campaign teaches about intelligence for a Pacific fight.
🧬 The Human Domain in an Autonomous Age
By MAJ Manuel Atiles – Special Warfare
On the enduring centrality of the human domain as autonomous systems spread across the battlefield.
🐎 How to Fight the Cavalry Squadron and Win
By LTC John Albert – Armor
A practical treatment of fighting the cavalry squadron — and winning.
🔭 The Cav Forever: Reconnaissance and Security for Emerging Formations
By CPT Christopher Jordan – Armor
Reconnaissance and security for the Army’s emerging formations.
🔧 Delivering Ready Combat Power
🚛 Trapped Combat Power: Excess Equipment and the Army’s Regeneration Problem
By Jonathan Buckland – Modern War Institute
Excess and displaced equipment is quietly locking up combat power the Army will need to regenerate forces in a protracted fight. Buckland lays out the scale of the problem and what to do about it.
🌊 Breaking America’s Promise to Pacific Island Veterans
By Daniel Mandell – War on the Rocks
Freely associated states’ citizens serve in the U.S. military at high rates, but the veterans’ benefits system fails them at home — a broken promise with real consequences for Pacific partnerships and recruiting.
🎙️ Army Body Composition Policy
MOPs & MOEs Podcast
A clear-eyed breakdown of the Army’s body composition program — where the policy came from, what the evidence says, and what right could look like. Directly relevant to every leader who tapes Soldiers.
📋 The 3P’s: Observations for BN S-3’s from the NTC
By MAJ Jeong Hong – Field Artillery
Observations for battalion S-3s out of the National Training Center.
🏫 Institutional Options for Teaching and Training R&S
By Francis Ambrogio – Infantry
Options for how the institutional Army teaches and trains reconnaissance and security.
🎓 U.S. Army Cavalry Leader’s Course
By Mastersergeant (Officer Candidate) Jobst Hinrich Sielaff, German Army – Armor
Inside the U.S. Army Cavalry Leader’s Course.
🏥 Closing the Clinical Readiness Gap
By CPT Katlyn Stinnett – Pulse of Army Medicine
On closing the clinical readiness gap in Army medicine.
🔄 Continuous Transformation
🤖 Before the Next Mythos Moment: The Case for an AI Threat Fusion Center
By Rebecca Hersman – War on the Rocks
Hersman argues the United States needs an AI threat fusion center to see the next frontier-model surprise coming — fusing intelligence, industry insight, and technical assessment before the next crisis, not after.
By Cara Wrigley and Murray Simons – Small Wars Journal
Design thinking, red teaming, and structured cognitive interventions can be deliberately trained — the authors show how militaries can build adaptive thinkers rather than hope for them.
🗣️ AI and the Limits of Natural Language for Command
By Jamie Freestone – Australian Army Research Centre – Occasional Paper
An Australian Army Research Centre occasional paper on artificial intelligence and the limits of natural language as a medium for command.
📜 Strengthening the Profession of Arms
📝 Restoring the Scholar-Warrior: A Shared Mandate
By Maj. Nicholas Christensen and Maj. William Sack – Army Communicator (Summer 2026)
Two Signal School officers argue PME must demand real academic rigor — adaptive curriculum, critical thinking, and accountability from students, instructors, and institutions alike — to produce scholar-warriors ready for multi-domain operations.
By Joe Byerly – From the Green Notebook
A czar, a sentry, and a rose bush that died a century ago: Byerly uses an old parable to ask which habits, beliefs, and processes we keep guarding long after the reason for them is gone.
🪞 The Internal AAR: What to Do After a Bad Evaluation (or a Great One)
By Steven Prater – From the Green Notebook
“You just did your job.” Prater turns a bruising evaluation into a disciplined framework for internal after-action reviews — neither rejecting hard feedback nor letting it become the whole story.
🤝 The Case for Starting Mentorship Young
By Micheil Pruni – Military Mentors
Roughly one in three young people grow up without a mentor. Pruni makes the case that mentorship is slow work best started early — with lessons for every leader who develops subordinates.
⭐ Five Questions for a General: Brigadier General Sean Crockett
By Charles Faint – Modern War Institute
The latest in MWI’s series putting five questions to a general officer — short, direct, and useful for leaders at every echelon.
📈 If Adaptability Is Our Competitive Advantage, Why Don’t We Invest in It?
By Jeff DeGraff – Modern War Institute
DeGraff names the “adaptability gap”: leaders call adaptive people our competitive advantage, but budgets, evaluations, and promotion systems don’t invest in producing them. Show me your budget, he argues, and I’ll show you what you actually believe.
⭐ The Flag on Our Kit: What the Flag Means in the Shadows
By Eva Gari – Military Review – Creative Kiosk
A creative reflection on what the flag means to those who serve in the shadows, from Military Review’s Creative Kiosk.
🧭 About the Harding Project Substack
The Harding Project Substack is the volunteer-run platform to support professional writing for the US Army.
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 our network, 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.
Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed in this Substack are the authors’ personal perspectives as private individuals. They do not represent the official views, policies, or positions of the U.S. Government, the U.S. Army, or any other government agency or military organization.
Any references to military topics, doctrine, history, or current events are for informational, educational, or discussion purposes only and should not be interpreted as official guidance, strategy, or representation of U.S. Army or Department of War positions.
Readers are encouraged to consult official sources for authoritative information.
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