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Stimulate Militaristic Competition: Elevate Your Military's Deadliness by Having Generals Engage in War Strategy Contests

In the dimly lit room, screens illuminate, displaying tactical maps. A group of dozen generals scrutinize the digital terrain, monitoring predicted adversary actions and AI-provided intelligence, all the while searching for potential targets for strategic bombings. Each commander is in silent...

Screens illuminate, officers huddled around virtual battle maps. Anticipating adversary actions...
Screens illuminate, officers huddled around virtual battle maps. Anticipating adversary actions from intel inputs, they scrutinize potential targets for airstrikes. Each commander is engaged in a strategic contest, with an AI aide and assistance only as their guides.

Stimulate Militaristic Competition: Elevate Your Military's Deadliness by Having Generals Engage in War Strategy Contests

The lights dim, and screens flicker to life. The room is filled with top generals, all focused on virtual battlefield maps. No more PowerPoint presentations, no more games too big to fail. It's a modern fight club, where generals have to prove they can actually fight against each other.

In this professional ring, the fighters pick their battles. Some try deception to pull the enemy out of position, while others go for high-risk, high-reward multidomain deep strikes against command and control nodes. There's no referee, just results, and a leaderboard ranked by combat effectiveness.

This isn't science fiction - it's a call to modernize military leadership, with simulations replacing endless seminars and lectures. The key question is simple: Are our senior leaders ready for fights in modern warfare? Marksmanship and top gun graduations may have been impressive years ago, but they won't prepare a commander to lead large formations in multiple domains.

Unfortunately, senior officers today spend too much time in policy meetings and not enough time practicing the art and science of war. A culture of competition, of trial by simulated fire, is needed to combat this trend. The military needs leaders who can outmaneuver adversaries, not just bureaucrats. Lethality is a habit formed through repeated pressure and loss in a safe-to-fail environment.

Defense Secretary Hegseth should sign a policy mandating general officers to fight each other in wargames tailored to modern scenarios. These games should capture objective data, improve decision-making skills, and provide crucial insights for implementation of AI and data infrastructure. However, implementing this change requires more than just a stroke of the policy pen - the Department of Defense needs to invest in the necessary AI and data infrastructure for this new fight club to truly revolutionize training and education.

The idea isn't new - voices across the profession of arms have championed it for years. Organizations like think tanks and Federally Funded Research Corporations have proposed new wargaming centers and publishing platforms advocating for the renewal of a culture of wargaming. Though, despite the promising beginnings, this movement never fully took hold, mainly due to a lack of requirement for leaders to fight.

In the end, change requires top-down, flag-officer support and changes to promotion pathways and expectations. The current culture in the military rewards bureaucratic fluency over battlefield fluency, and that needs to change. It's time for a modern fight club, where top government officials don't just talk about fighting - they fight and learn.

  1. The modern fight club, where generals face off, requires strategic thought, with some opting for deception in logistics or multidomain deep strikes in military education.
  2. Military training for senior leaders should evolve beyond policy meetings, focusing on the art and science of warfare, incorporating lethality as a habit formed through simulated combat.
  3. The Department of Defense needs to invest in cybersecurity, AI, and data infrastructure to support the implementation of a revamped military training program that mirrors the demands of modern warfare.
  4. The proposal for military leaders to engage in wargames, tailored to modern scenarios, can provide objective data, improve decision-making skills, and offer insights for military innovation.
  5. Organizations such as think tanks and Federally Funded Research Corporations have been advocating for the renewal of a culture of wargaming, which has yet to fully take hold due to insufficient requirement for leaders to fight.
  6. A top-down, flag-officer-driven shift is necessary to change the military's current culture that rewards bureaucratic fluency, and demands a focus on battlefield fluency instead.
  7. It's essential for top government officials to participate in this modern fight club, learning through direct experience rather than exclusive reliance on discussions about military defense and business strategies.

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