FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. (July 17, 2024) — Fort Leonard Wood and Maneuver Support Center of Excellence leaders are set to host the Protection and Maneuver Support Senior Leader Forum from July 23-25, 2024, at locations across the installation.

The multi-day event will provide opportunities for Army senior leaders to address students, cadre and staff at Fort Leonard Wood; discuss how MSCoE views operationalizing protection as well as synchronizing protection in a wet-gap crossing demonstration; and hold panels with corps, division and center of excellence commanders to better understand the array of equities and requirements that must be developed and integrated in support of the protection warfighting function.

“Through this effort we intend to show the Army that this is much more than the elements and the regiments of the Maneuver Support Center of Excellence. This is everybody’s business,” said Maj. Gen. Chris Beck, MSCoE and Fort Leonard Wood commanding general. “We will have representatives from every center of excellence here to discuss this.”

The forum will kick off with Army senior leader speakers who will set the strategic tone of where the Army is today and where the Army is going, followed by a wet-gap crossing scenario that will play out in and around training area 250 and panel discussions with Army senior leaders.

According to Maj. Tyler Skomp, one of the forum organizers and the U.S. Army Engineer School’s Engineer Personnel Development Office chief, the forum will also leverage protecting aspects of a wet-gap crossing operation as a backdrop to focus on the importance of operational protection and how it is needed to mitigate risk.

“One of the main protection tasks is operational risk management,” Skomp said. “What is the risk to the force? To the mission? Getting down to the lowest level, where protection is needed to mitigate these risks, is going to be essential.”

To better understand what is needed, from an Army modernization perspective, Skomp said division and corps-level maneuver commanders have been invited to participate in panels.

“The goal is for them to introduce their concerns and priorities for protection, in terms of the tactical and operational fight,” Skomp said. “The centers of excellence need to know how to better facilitate those priorities.”

The same goes for technology development among both the private and government sectors, Skomp said.

“Ever since World War II, private industry has played an essential role in developing the right assets necessary to support the warfighter mission,” Skomp said. “They do a pretty fantastic job keeping their ear to the ground, seeing what’s going on and providing solutions. This is a chance to feed that to senior leaders.”

According to Kyle Henry, Maneuver Support Battle Lab Experimentation Branch chief, Maneuver Support and Protection Integration Experiments, or MSPIX, 2024 capabilities are integrated into the regiment-focused wet gap crossing vignettes at the Senior Leader Forum to showcase the art of the possible in terms of how the Army can operate in the 2040 timeframe.

“MSPIX is one of five Army Focused Warfighter Experiments under Army Futures Command, subordinate to Project Convergence Capstone, and hosted by our gracious partner — MSCoE,” Henry said. “AFWE events are Soldier touchpoints that support Army modernization by taking prototype capabilities — prototypes ready to be demonstrated in an operationally relevant environment — from government labs and private industry and puts those in the hands of the end user, U.S. Army Soldiers, in order to receive feedback that scientists and engineers cannot obtain in a laboratory or a controlled field setting.”

The ideas and recommendations that come out of the forum, according to organizers, will then be available to Army leaders, with the goal of ultimately supporting a better understanding of the applicability of protection, from both the warfighter and support perspectives.

“We are very excited about the upcoming protection senior leader forum,” Beck said. “We are going to leverage this forum to ensure the Army understands what we mean as we work to operationalize protection. The protection warfighting function has been misunderstood for some time and is absolutely critical on the battlefields of today as we see through the operational environment globally.”

More information for those who are attending the forum is available via this link.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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About Fort Leonard Wood

Fort Leonard Wood is a thriving and prosperous installation that has evolved from a small basic training post more than 75 years ago to a premier Army Center of Excellence that trains more than 80,000 military and civilians each year.

Fort Leonard Wood is home to the U.S Army Maneuver Support Center of Excellence and three U.S. Army schools: the U.S. Army Engineer School; U.S. Army Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear School; and the U.S. Army Military Police School. In addition to training engineer, CBRN and military police specialties for the Army, Fort Leonard Wood also provides gender-integrated in-processing and Basic Combat Training for new Soldiers.

Fort Leonard Wood also hosts and trains with the largest Marine Corps Detachment and Air Force Squadron on any Army installation as well as a large Navy construction detachment.