DGD&D Branches
Within the Defence context, DGD&D is ‘the Army authority for force development, concepts and doctrine, acting as a driver for change in order to maximize fighting power, both now and in the future’. In meeting this mission, the Directorate’s main focus is to develop the ‘Army of tomorrow’ – looking ahead to identify trends and requirements across the lines of development that may affect the design of the Future Army. Two major ‘futures’ projects are currently underway: the Future Land Operational Concept (FLOC) and Army 2020.
In order to achieve all of its objectives the Directorate is divided into one functional area and 5 Branches. These are:
The Future Manouevre Develompent Cell (FMDC)
Force Development Branch (FD)
Concepts, Development and Experimentation Branch (CDE)
Doctrine Branch (Doc)
Interoperability Branch (Inter)
Defence Studies Army
The booklet
"Forging the Future Army"
gives more detail on the current workstrands within the Directorate and the role of each branch
Future Manoeuvre Development Cell
The appropriate level of analysis, simulation and experimentation must be conducted to evaluate and develop the Future Manoeuvre Sub Concept (FMSC), and thereby validate and inform Army force development. A Future Manoeuvre Development Cell (FMDC) has therefore been established to:
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Provide an authoritative focus for the conceptual development of the Emerging and Future Army.
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Provide a nucleus staff for the analysis and experimentation of future concepts.
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Act as an authoritative point of reference for the equipment capability (EC) area.
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Act as a counterpart to the US Unit of Action Manoeuvre Battle Laboratory (UAMBL) and the USMC Warfighting Laboratory.
A more detailed overview of the FMDC is available here.
Force Development Branch
Force Development Branch is responsible for developing a strategic view of the Army in the 2020 timeframe and beyond. This is being achieved by the Army 2020 project.
Aim
The aim of the Army 2020 project is to provide an authoritative, strategic view of the Army in 2020, deriving implications for the Lines of Development (LOD), in order to inform coherent longer-term force development.
Scope
The project is being conducted in 3 parts:
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Part I looked at the strategic context, the future operating environment and analysed trends across all the LOD. It then proposed 4 broad-order views of what the Army in 2020 could look like. Of these, ECAB selected View A as the interim step for 2020 with the aspiration to move to View B in the longer term.
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Part II will provide greater definition of View A, and has been deliberately brought forward and expanded to cover the period 2015-2025+.
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Part III will detail the migration path and LOD work to achieve the desired end-state, including signposts to the longer term.
Concepts, Development and Experimentation
CDE Branch is divided into two parts; Concepts and Experimentation and Analysis
Concepts
This part of the branch is responsible for developing a conceptual view of the Army in the 2006 - 2015 timeframe. This is mainly being achieved by developing the FLOC
Purpose of the FLOC
DGD&D is currently focused on generating operational concepts for the Balanced Force, the emerging Army. These concepts are also designed to form a coherent link to the longer-term Future Army, which is the subject of Army 2020 work. The FLOC provides the conceptual underpinning for the evolving FAS. The FLOC was initiated in 2002-2003 in support of FAS to ensure that the British Army of 2006 and beyond is structured and configured to achieve operational success on expeditionary operations.
Core Concepts
The FLOC examines the campaign effects required to meet the demands laid down in the Defence Strategic Guidance of 2003, considers the capabilities required to achieve those effects, illustrates how forces may be generated and proposes 4 ‘core’ concepts:
Sub-Concepts
In addition to the 4 core concepts, the FLOC also comprises a number of sub-concepts:
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Urban Operations.
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Future Manoeuvre.
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Command.
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Directed Logistics.
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Manoeuvre Support.
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Force Protection.
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Air Manoeuvre.
Experimentation and Analysis
In support of work on the future Army, DGD&D is also charged with:
Developing and directing a programme of experimentation and analysis to inform, test and evaluate Future Army concepts and development, providing authoritative input to Defence experimentation and analysis.
Most of the analysis will be done with the resources of DGD&D but the bulk of the subsequent experimentation will be conducted by LAND, supported by DGD&D. The Directorate is also the authority for the Army lessons learned process.
Historical Analysis
Historical Analysis and lessons learned material, as well as constructive simulation activities using the in-house MINERVA wargame, the WISE wargame at Fort Halstead and external contractor support, are all being used to support FLOC, FMDC and Army 2020 work. This also ensures effective fusion with the wider FAS initiative.
Operational Analysis
As the Army authority for Higher Level Operational Analysis (OA), DGD&D also participates in Joint and Central Staffs OA activities including Joint Campaign Development. This wide participation ensures coherence across the interface between Concept Development and Experimentation and Analysis.
Doctrine
DGD&D is the Army’s overall doctrinal authority, responsible for the philosophy and principles of how we fight and operate as an Army. Management of most tactical doctrine has now passed to the Land Warfare Centre at Warminster.
One of the most important areas of work in 2003 has been the writing of the new Army Doctrine Publication (ADP) Land Operations, which will replace British Military Doctrine, originally published in 1989, and the current ADP 1-4 series of Operations, Command, Logistics, Training and Soldiering, the first volume of which was published in 1994.
The publication of ADP Land Operations has been delayed to reflect analysis of the land operation in the recent Iraq War. This analysis was the single largest doctrine project of 2003, researching all relevant UK and US material, and drawing useful lessons for our future doctrine, concepts, and force development. From our analysis, we have drawn a wide range of deductions, including the nature of land conflict, air-land cooperation, working with coalition partners, and the process of gathering and analysing lessons.
A selection of doctrine publications can be viewed here.
Interoperability
While DASD sets policy objectives for the British Army’s international relations, it is DGD&D that primarily executes that policy on behalf of the General Staff. DGD&D also conducts a considerable amount of international liaison in support of its own Force Development, Conceptual and Doctrinal work. These international responsibilities involve conducting Army-to-Army Staff Talks with the armies of eight of our closest allies, providing liaison officers and exchange officers to countries where permanent links are deemed to be most productive, and being the focus for in-coming liaison officers from allied armies.
Moreover, DGD&D is the UK focus for participation in the American, British, Canadian and Australian Armies Standardization Programme (ABCA); concepts work within the 10-nation European Armies Group, FINABEL; and doctrinal work with NATO. All of this work is aimed at improving interoperability within a coalition or alliance context.
Defence Studies (Army)
Most of the ‘big ideas’ in military thinking in recent years (such as manoeuvre warfare, the revolution in military affairs, information age warfare and networked warfare) have originated from outside the military. It is the responsibility of Director Defence Studies (Army) to identify new ideas from a wide range of sources, at home and abroad, and to provide material for those developing concepts and doctrine. The Defence Studies Branch is collocated with the Defence Studies Branches of the RN and RAF at the JDCC in Shrivenham.
As part of this outward engagement the Branch arranges a number of military-academic conferences each year and acts as the link between the Directorate and academia. Its primary supporting organization is the Strategic and Combat Studies Institute (SCSI), which publishes the Occasional series of papers. The Branch also produces the British Army Review, the house journal of the British Army, three times each year. This journal acts as a forum for military and academic debate which supports the doctrine development process.
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