Army Chief In Aspen

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno will speak tonight at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado. According to an Aspen Institute announcement:

The Chief of Staff surveys the foreboding global scene and explains how the Army can rise to meet the threats facing us, despite fewer troops and less money.

To view the general's speech live on YouTube tonight, click here.

Odierno recently had a hand in establishing a new "Force 2025 and Beyond" directorate within the Army's Training and Doctrine Command, with the aim of guiding soldiers and industry through the service's future modernization strategy and mitigating risk as its forces draw down.

Maj. Gen William Hix, deputy director of the Army Capabilities Integration Center, told Inside the Army earlier this month that the ARCIC officially established the directorate June 30 at Ft. Eustis, VA, after receiving guidance from Odierno and Army Secretary John McHugh. As ITA reported last week:

"Effecting change in the Army over a 20 plus year time horizon -- we're not going to get a single point of guidance," Hix said in a July 8 interview. "That guidance I'm sure will evolve because our understanding of the future will continue to evolve. We're in the anticipation business, not the prediction business, so things are going to continue to change."

The directorate, which will be led by Col. Gary Brito, intends to address near-term challenges from now until 2020 as the force draws down; challenges in the decade of 2020 to 2030; and any issues that may arise after 2030, Hix said.

"The fact that we're going to work against three time horizons -- the near, mid and far term. . . the change that we need to make in each of those time frames is still something that's being addressed as we speak," he explained. "Final codification in terms of written directives is something that's still being worked as the chief and secretary refine their thinking on it."

Last month, ARCIC director Lt. Gen. Keith Walker told ITA that he and other Army leaders "generally talk to the chief of staff about once a month on the development of force 2025 and beyond," and are also working to finish the Army's new operating concept, which will focus on how the service will operate from 2020 to 2040. The concept is expected to be published in the next few weeks.