Joint Vision 2010 (JV 2010) describes the operational concepts envisioned to achieve new levels of effectiveness in joint warfighting. It identifies advanced operational concepts that will result in dominance across the entire range of military activities—full spectrum dominance. Army Vision 2010 (AV 2010) is the blueprint for the Army’s contributions to the quality forces and operational concepts identified in JV 2010. Army elements will execute their warfighting responsibilities through a deliberate set of Patterns of Operation. These patterns serve to focus the many tasks that armies have always performed in war and other military operations, and they align with the JV 2010 operational concept. The relationship between JV 2010 concepts and AV 2010 patterns of operations is illustrated in Figure I–1 (above).

The overarching reason to modernize is to maintain a greater combat capability than a potential enemy might have. The Army must modernize to ensure that it is capable of responding to the Nation’s needs, both today and in the future. The strategy determines which programs are necessary to modernize, to recapitalize (upgrade), or to defer until technology advances provide leap–ahead capability improvements. If the Army transforms too quickly, it risks acquiring capabilities that are "overkill" and not needed for the near–term strategic environment. Hasty transformation may also result in employing technologies that are not fully matured and may not be relevant over the long term. If the Army transforms too slowly, it risks losing its current position of combat overmatch capabilities.

Today, Army modernization investments account for just 14 percent of all DoD RDA. With these limited resources the Army must balance near–term readiness with far–term investment. The systems that were fielded in the 1980s continue to serve the Army well today. With some improvements and technology insertions, many of these systems can continue to serve us into the 21st century. However, many will have reached or exceeded their useful life expectancy.

Information dominance through digitization of the battlefield provides essential capabilities required by JV 2010 to support the NMS; therefore, it is the Army’s top priority. The Quadrennial Defense Review validated Army modernization objectives and increased funding for digitization and acceleration of the transformation of the U.S. Army Reserve and Army National Guard forces to fill critical capability shortfalls in combat support and combat service support forces. To realize AV 2010, the Army has decided upon a strategy that prioritizes investments over time. The strategy reflects the linkage to every required pattern of operation.

The strategy’s approach encompasses near–, mid–, and far–term requirements. In the near term (98–03), priority on achieving information dominance by 2010 will be the focus of Army efforts. The Army will continue to allocate the necessary funding to sustain combat capability overmatch. In addition, it will fund research and development to support AAN. The Army is inserting technology to extend the lives and capabilities of many existing systems and older systems that are expensive to maintain and that provide minimal operational return. In the mid term (04–10), emphasis on information dominance will continue while the Army recapitalizes through technology insertion and replacement of aging equipment. For the far term (11–20), the Army will prioritize and focus its science and technology resources to leverage technology advances that will help to maintain decisive battlefield dominance for AAN. Through the far term, emphasis on Horizontal Technological Integration (HTI) will provide the warfighter with common, efficient, and high–payoff enabling technologies across multiple systems.

The five major goals of Army modernization are:

Insights from the Army’s Force XXI warfighting experiments and digitization efforts have demonstrated that information technologies integrated into an information dominance capability lead to increased force effectiveness. The Army Modernization Strategy focuses on digitization of the force while maintaining combat overmatch capabilities by making required improvements to only those platforms necessary to regain or sustain these capabilities.

Lessons learned in Army Warfighting Experiments (AWEs) have also identified the opportunities and benefits of technology integration that can provide advanced warfighting capabilities. Reliance upon Science and Technology to provide the capabilities required for AAN is key to the modernization strategy. These capabilities provide a baseline for enhancements in information dominance, product improvements required for combat overmatch capabilities, and development of next–generation capabilities. By focusing S&T on leap–ahead technologies while sustaining essential research and development, the Army will be able to provide future capabilities for the AAN.

The Army Modernization Plan (AMP) describes how the budget supports the Army’s requirements for research, development, and acquisition (RDA). The AMP balances fiscal realities with the knowledge that today’s modernization is tomorrow’s readiness. It consists of an overview, 15 mission area annexes, and a comprehensive glossary. These annexes are listed in Table I–2. Each annex provides the linkage of that mission area to the AV 2010 patterns of operation and includes a section on Essential Research and Development and Leap–Ahead Technology programs that highlight significant efforts important to the respective mission area. These descriptions directly correlate to the sections of Chapter III in the ASTMP. Figure I–29 shows how the Army S&T supports the modernization strategy.