Colonels and Navy captains competing for promotion to one-star rank will face a new assessment of their ability to make operational decisions under pressure as the Pentagon adds battlefield-focused testing to its senior officer selection process.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom.
The Pentagon is adding a new warfighting assessment to the process used to select future generals and admirals, requiring eligible colonels and Navy captains to demonstrate their ability to make military decisions under simulated battlefield pressure before promotion boards consider them for one-star rank.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced the Joint Warfighter Evaluation on Tuesday, describing it as an effort to place greater emphasis on operational ability and reduce reliance on the career credentials traditionally reviewed during senior military promotions. The evaluation will supplement rather than replace existing performance reports and career records considered by promotion boards.
Starting with the new process, eligible O-6 officers — colonels in most military branches and Navy captains — screening for their first star will undergo an assessment intended to measure how they fight, adapt and respond to complex military situations.
“While the backbone of our military is our NCOs and our petty officers, victory depends on the commanders who lead them,” Hegseth said. “America needs warfighters who can master a chaotic battle space.”
The Pentagon developed the evaluation as a separate measure of command capability rather than a substitute for an officer’s existing record. Stuart Scheller, deputy chief of staff to the under secretary of war for personnel and readiness, told Fox News Digital that performance reports and an officer’s career history will continue to play a major role in promotion decisions, with the Joint Warfighter Evaluation providing an additional measurement for promotion boards.
Hegseth said the concept draws from military history, pointing to Gen. George Marshall’s use of the Louisiana Maneuvers before the United States entered World War II. The large-scale exercises were designed to test forces and commanders under realistic conditions before they confronted wartime operations.
He cited commanders who emerged during that era, including Dwight Eisenhower, who planned and led the Allied invasion of Normandy and later the liberation of Western Europe; Adm. Chester Nimitz, who commanded Allied air, land and naval operations in the Pacific theater; and Army Gen. Omar Bradley, who later became the first chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and led U.S. military policymaking during the Korean War.
The new assessment is intended to apply that type of performance-based examination to warfare involving modern forces and multiple operational domains.
The Joint Warfighter Evaluation “brings that standard to the modern multi-domain fight,” Hegseth said. “This evaluation is an objective equalizer. The scenario only cares about operational decisions under pressure.”
Military branches have developed versions of the assessment suited to their respective forces. The evaluations can include simulated military problems and exercises designed to examine operational planning, decision-making and leadership rather than relying exclusively on an officer’s accumulated evaluations and professional history. Pentagon officials have said the assessment will become an additional consideration for promotion boards.
The initiative follows work Hegseth said began approximately a year ago, when he directed Scheller to challenge longstanding assumptions surrounding how senior officers are evaluated and promoted.
“Our troops deserve commanders chosen by proven competence, not paper credentials,” Hegseth said. “The Joint Warfighter Evaluation ensures our flag is carried by our most lethal and most adaptable leaders.”
The change is part of Hegseth’s broader effort to emphasize what he has called a “warrior ethos” throughout the military, including an increased focus on physical readiness, combat effectiveness and merit in personnel decisions.
Hegseth has also criticized the use of diversity, equity and inclusion considerations within military personnel policies, arguing that promotions should be based on performance rather than demographic characteristics.
“Real toxic leadership is endangering subordinates with low standards. Real toxic leadership is promoting people based on immutable characteristics or quotas instead of based on merit,” Hegseth told senior military leaders during an address in Quantico, Virginia, last year.
The Joint Warfighter Evaluation does not eliminate the military’s established promotion boards or the performance reviews accumulated over an officer’s career. Those materials will remain part of the selection process, while results from the new assessment will give officials another measure of an officer’s ability to handle operational problems.
Scheller said the traditional performance reports will remain central to promotion decisions, while the new process is intended to test an area that officials believe has not previously been measured through a stand-alone assessment: how prospective senior commanders respond to battlefield problems.
The precise weight the Joint Warfighter Evaluation will ultimately carry in promotion decisions has not yet been established. Pentagon officials plan to assess how the new system functions as it is incorporated into the promotion process.
The first officers affected will be those competing for promotion from O-6 to one-star rank, putting colonels and Navy captains at the center of the Pentagon’s initial effort to make simulated warfighting performance an explicit part of selecting the military’s next generation of generals and admirals.
Original article
Comments