ABSTRACT
Setting the Stage for TSM: Formation of TRADOC and M1 Abrams Tank In the early 1970s, the U.S. Army initiated the 1973 STEADFAST Reorganization plan and began modernizing the force, focusing on readiness and overall combat effectiveness. The Vietnam and 1973 Arab-Israeli wars illustrated the need for an overhaul, forcing a reassessment on combat effectiveness against our heavier armed and numerically superior Soviet counterparts. Although the Arab-Israeli conflict proved a smaller force, applying sound doctrine could repel and destroy a larger, Soviet-equipped army; the U.S. military community recognized the emergence of a technological threshold and more importantly that we were not at the forefront of this combat revolution. Due to the growing sophistication of Soviet weapons and the increased lethality of modern combat, combat development rose as the natural conduit for reorganization, mirroring the induction of other innovative weapons systems like the armored horse, the longbow or artillery. The creation of the Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) in 1973 proved one of the most
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important actions taken to ensure the continued ability of U.S. soldiers to secure battlefield dominance (Swain, 1985, 69). Under the command of General William E. DePuy, TRADOC assumed the training functions of the Continental Army Command (CONARC) and merged them with the combat development mission of the Combat Developments Command (CDC) (Cameron, 1999, 1).
