Debates are raging the about tanks and how well individual services, like the U.S. Marine Corps, are responding to the requirements of great power competition. Retired generals question the utility of lighter expeditionary forces reliant on missiles while younger officers and thinkers are more open to experimentation and debate based on insights from conflicts like Ukraine and contingencies beyond the Indo-Pacific. In the U.S. Army, the multi-domain task force ushers in a new era which will be increasingly dominated by long-range precision fires combined with electronic attack and cyber operations. Disagreements center on whether the U.S. Army should focus on converging effects at the tactical level (close combat) or at the operational level, penetrating and disintegrating layered enemy anti-access/area-denial systems. The U.S. Air Force envisions a future where the air component develops the doctrine, training, and technology necessary to accomplish operational maneuver — untethered from large, static basing.
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