Breaking the Phalanx: A New Design for Landpower in the 21st Century [Paperback]

Douglas A. Macgregor (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 14, 1997 | ISBN-10: 0275957942 | ISBN-13: 978-0275957940

This work proposes the reorganization of America's ground forces on the strategic, operational and tactical levels. Central to the proposal is the simple thesis that the U.S. Army must take control of its future by exploiting the emerging revolution in military affairs. The analysis argues that a new Army warfighting organization will not only be more deployable and effective in Joint operations; reorganized information age ground forces will be significantly less expensive to operate, maintain, and modernize than the Army's current Cold War division-based organizations. And while ground forces must be equipped with the newest Institute weapons, new technology will not fulfill its promise of shaping the battlefield to American advantage if new devices are merely grafted on to old organizations that are not specifically designed to exploit them. It is not enough to rely on the infusion of new, expensive technology into the American defense establishment to preserve America's strategic dominance in the next century. The work makes it clear that planes, ships, and missiles cannot do the job of defending America's global security issues alone. The United States must opt for reform and reorganization of the nation's ground forces and avoid repeating Britain's historic mistake of always fielding an effective army just in time to avoid defeat, but too late to deter an aggressor.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Thank God someone is thinking about the dangerous future we are lurching toward, and how the United States military must change and adapt to deal with the untidy realities of the new century. The old ways and the old force, what's left of it, just won't cut it. Macgregor, in Breaking the Phalanx, offers us cutting-edge analysis of what's wrong, suggestions of how to fix it, and a great place to begin the debate."-Joseph L. Galloway, Senior Writer, U.S. News and World Report co-author of Triumph Without Victory

Book Description

Macgregor's study economically and convincingly makes the case for the inescapable importance of land forces in wars of the future and, no less important, in the deterrence of such wars.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 302 pages
• Publisher: Praeger (January 14, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0275957942
• ISBN-13: 978-0275957940
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #784,674 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Building a better army, January 11, 2001

By 

J. N. Mohlman (Barrington, RI USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Breaking the Phalanx: A New Design for Landpower in the 21st Century (Paperback)

This is an excellent work and ranks among the best military theory I have read. Macgregor systematically presents the history of American combineds arms, tears apart the current structure, and rebuilds it into lethal, 21st century fighting force.

Unlike many professional military men who take up the pen, Macgregor is an excellent writer, who justifies ever proposal he makes, but avoids bogging down the work in mountains of detail.

I do not agree wholesale with all of Macgregor's points, particularly in regards to naval expeditionary forces, but the overall rigor of the book more than compensates for that fact. Macgregor has clearly grasped the premise that elite institutions (such as the American military) can only improve through the most rigorous process of self criticism and innovation.

"Breaking the Phalanx" is an innovative, outstanding work, and if there is any justice the Army will give him a medal for his brilliant contribution to American arms.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A new Mold, an Old Mold, August 31, 2001

By 

"timdavin" (Las Vegas, NV United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Breaking the Phalanx: A New Design for Landpower in the 21st Century (Paperback)

Future historians of American military doctrine may well identify this book as the fulcrum point of American military thought and force structure at the turn of the 21st Century. This is not a collection of war stories or a diatribe against what is wrong with the "system" today. This book looks at the future, and offers a plan. It is easy to be a naysayer, but Colonel MacGregor, to his great credit, did not take the easy way. Readers should be warned that there is some effort required to read and digest this important work. I would guess that the price would come first. However, if the value of a book is measured by the time required to read and understand it, then I would suggest that this is well worth the price.

In a very few pages, MacGregor advocates a total redesign of American land-based forces. His vision is an Army without divisions, one with tailored "groups" such as an air assault group and a heavy combat group. These "groups" consist of several (5-7) battalions of the required type, and could deploy more rapidly than current U.S. divisions. MacGregor's vision of the future suggests as many as 18 of these groups, mostly based inside the United States. Based primarily upon this he has been labeled as a "Regimentalist," a term that he explicitly denies as applicable to his ideas. (Note: For those unfamiliar with the U.S. Army, there is a long raging debate regarding force structure. A U.S. "Regiment"would be 2-3 battalions, akin to the "traditional" American regimental structure. Not to be confused with the current British system and nomenclature. In opposition are those that favor the current U.S. Division/Brigade structure. Careers have been lost in the course of this fight.)

Beyond the redesign of the force, MacGregor does what nobody else has seriously attempted since the 1980s. He takes on the training structures and doctrine of the Army. Specifically, he addresses that most sacred of cows -- synchronization. In practice, the contemporary U.S. Army still treats warfare as an activity that can be carefully scripted. Because of the concerns with synchronization in operational and logistical planning, not enough attention is devoted in training to the missed or seized opportunities for battlefield success which may result from subordinate initiative and new fighting techniques and tactics. MacGregor takes this issue on. One should also remember that this book appeared before the current draft of FM 100-5 (the U.S. Army base doctrine, now called FM 3). It now forms a portion of the discourse upon the concepts embodied in the new doctrine.

This is a well written book that those interested in the topic will need to use and consult as they consider the uncertain future. It gives insight like few other books do on the current trends of theory and military force structure as they appear in the United States. If there are any shortcomings at all, I would say that it comes in the area of information and its applications in the future. In this area, MacGregor is both a little too positive and vague about how anything beyond tactical communications affects U.S. forces. He uses a hypothetical scenario to describe how a conflict might unfold once the Army adopts his force structure. Although he mentions CNN early in his scenario, that is the last significant point at which he notes the interaction and role of non-military communications/information upon the military. For a scenario involving western military forces this is inexcusable. Admittedly, this is a book about the U.S. Army and landpower, and so perhaps information is a little beyond the scope. But given the quality of treatment for the other topics he addressed, I personally would have liked to see more on this subject from him. In Macgregor's book, satellites are never shot down, CNN doesn't show up on the battlefield, the BBC doesn't broadcast from your assembly area.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Army rewards MacGregor with dead-end assignment, January 25, 2000

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[e-mail] (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Breaking the Phalanx: A New Design for Landpower in the 21st Century (Hardcover)

This book received a lot of attention in the Army when it was published, and for good reason; it attacked the Army's organization that had existed since the second world war. Interestingly, the Army's new chief of staff, General Eric Shinseki, has begun changing the Army in ways first outlined in this book over two years ago. Among the changes: the adoption of more rapidly-deployable forces, "medium weight" forces, Light Armored Vehicles, such as those used by the USMC, and a squadron/battalion sized reconaissance element for greater intelligence. The Army has also modified the Officer Personal Management System, a move MacGregor advocated. Sadly, MacGregor himself is a full-bird colonel right now assigned to the National Defense University. Essentially, Macgragor has been put out to academic pasture. He will not get to command a brigade, and consequently will probably not be promoted again.