The US military was beaten in a classified war game last year, exposing several troubling vulnerabilities, Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. John Earl Hyten revealed on Monday.
The war game involved several scenarios and simulations, including one modeling a battle for Taiwan, which US forces ended up losing.
One of the main problems discovered during the simulated engagement was a communications vulnerability. The blue team, playing the role of local forces, lost network access almost immediately, putting them at a severe disadvantage.
‘It Failed Miserably’
“Without overstating the issue, it failed miserably,” Gen. Hyten said earlier this week during a launch event for the National Defense Industrial Association’s Emerging Technologies Institute. “An aggressive red team that had been studying the United States for the last 20 years just ran rings around us. They knew exactly what we’re going to do before we did it.”
Hyten also remarked that with the United States’ known “information dominance” beginning with the first Gulf War and its worldwide reputation, the immediate loss of communication in a critical situation caused great concern.
“Well, what happens if right from the beginning that information is not available?” the general asked rhetorically. “And that’s the big problem that we faced.”
In response, the Joint Chiefs have formulated a new warfighting operations concept referred to as “Expanded Maneuver.” Hyten is looking for the US military to be educated, trained, and ready to operate according to the new strategy by 2030.