THE CONTESTED EDGE: Maneuver Warfighter Conference kicks off at Fort Benning, showcasing readiness, lethality
FORT BENNING, Ga. – Senior leaders from the U.S. Army gathered Tuesday to kick off the 2026 Maneuver Warfighter Conference here. The annual event, hosted by Maj. Gen. Colin P. Tuley, Maneuver Center of Excellence and Fort Benning commanding general, runs through Thursday.
The forum brought together top generals to junior enlisted Soldiers, civilian defense leaders, industry, and international partners to discuss the future of warfare. This year’s conference focused on “The Contested Edge: Readiness and lethality for the next fight.”
Tuley delivered opening remarks highlighting the conference’s core purpose to a standing-room-only audience in McGinnis-Wickam Hall, the post’s headquarters building.
It’s all about connection, he said, and preparation for the next fight.
“We’re connecting the operational force,” Tuley stated. “We’re connecting the institutional force. We’re connecting our industry partners.”
The first day of the conference boasted opportunities for the audience to hear from U.S. Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Christopher LaNeve and Sgt. Maj. of the Army Michael R. Weimer, Gen. Ronald P. Clark, commanding general of U.S. Army Pacific; Gen. Joseph Ryan, commanding general of U.S. Army Western Hemisphere Command; and Lt. Gen. Lawrence “Gil” Ferguson, commanding general of U.S. Army Special Operations Command. Many other leaders are scheduled to appear over the next two days.
While readiness and lethality anchored the overarching theme of the conference, opening day concentrated on strategy, specifically how driving continuous innovation, leveraging emerging technologies, and expanding global partnerships will deliver strategic overmatch on the modern battlefield and the battlefield of the future.
LaNeve, began by emphasizing the service's legacy of protecting American freedoms.
“For 251 years, every time this nation has had to make good on a promise, it’s been us — the United States Army — on the ground closing with and destroying the enemy, answering our Nation’s call,” he said. “And here’s how I see it, the United States Army is not one option among several. It is the deciding force.”
He further reinforced the urgency of maintaining ready and lethal formations.
“You are in the business of closing the last fifty yards to the objective, destroying the enemy in the most grueling and unforgiving conditions when asked,” LaNeve said. “Combined arms maneuver is a complex series of interactions that rely on the fundamental proficiency of every Soldier in a unit. Each of us has a moral obligation to our Nation and the Soldiers we serve to become the strongest, most lethal, and most ready versions of ourselves.”
This individual proficiency and readiness, however, cannot exist in a vacuum. The unforgiving conditions of the close fight demand not only highly trained Soldiers, as LaNeve stressed, but also the cutting-edge capabilities that give them a decisive advantage.
“To maintain land dominance, we must outpace our adversaries. Plain and simple, we are not turning our backs on modernization, we are sprinting towards it,” he said.
Pivoting to the Army’s overarching strategy, Clark built on LaNeve’s remarks by emphasizing the strategic necessity of delivering warfighting capabilities at the time and place of the Army’s choosing, expanding theater posture, and deepening regional alliances, all while remembering the core of the Army, its Soldiers.
“People are who we are as an Army,” said Clark. “We’re a people-centric service. It’s not about airplanes, ships, or kit. We put equipment on people; we don’t put people on equipment.”
Following Clark’s presentation, attendees gathered at York Field for a live demonstration showcasing the Army's latest unmanned ground systems (UGS) and unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). The exercise highlighted collaborative maneuver tactics with the latest unmanned technologies, designed to overcome obstacles and execute missions in high-threat environments, while limiting exposure and danger to Soldiers on the ground.
During the demonstration, a UAS platform scouted York Field and relayed real-time target data to waiting ground robotics. The UGS then advanced to clear physical obstacles across the simulated battlefield, and a second UAS confirmed the breach was clear. With route viability verified, an Infantry squad maneuvered forward under continuous aerial data feeds to breach the objective and destroy the target.
This operational demonstration underscored the core of modern maneuver warfare: human-machine teaming. By pushing robotic systems down to the squad level, commanders can identify threats, make decisions, and engage targets faster than the enemy, all while keeping Soldiers out of the immediate line of fire.
LaNeve emphasized that scaling these capabilities across the force starts at the very beginning of a Soldier’s career.
“Expertise on unmanned systems should be organic to every echelon,” LaNeve said. “That’s why every Soldier that’s going through basic and (advanced individual training) right now is getting hands-on training with UAS. And we will not stop.”
After the live demonstration, the conference transitioned into targeted breakout sessions designed to deepen attendees' understanding of key strategic topics. The small-group discussions covered specialized areas including Combat Training Center lessons learned, close combat execution, and Israeli ground maneuver operations.
Once the breakout sessions ended, Ferguson took the stage to open the afternoon portion of the conference, reinforcing earlier Army leader messaging regarding the strategic vitalness of total force and international partners.
“Our entire Army's, and our Nation's, way of war is coalition warfare. We don’t try to fight alone. We try to fight with coalition whenever we can,” he said.
Ferguson went on to say these partnerships build long-term strategic value, noting that international officers who completed U.S. Army training programs early in their military careers now hold top defense leadership roles worldwide.
Closing out the first day's keynote presentations, Ryan focused his address on the core imperative driving joint and multi-domain operations.
“The number one priority for every combatant commander across the globe, geographic or functional [area], is the same: Defend the homeland,” Ryan said. “We talk about fighting and winning our nation’s wars, and I would argue in this day and age, we cannot assume that our nation’s wars will not reach our homeland.”
Emphasizing the need for organizational agility to stay ahead of strategic adversaries, Ryan highlighted how evolving global threats demand a departure from legacy mindsets.
“Change in the world and change in the way our government perceives the Western Hemisphere drove the Army to change as well,” Ryan said. “That’s an important lesson: Remaining steady and staying with the status quo was not an option for the Army.”
Day two of the Maneuver Warfighter Conference will include keynote speeches from Lt. Gen. Jim P. Isenhower, commanding general of Army Combined Arms Command, Dr. Kristin Milchanowski, chief artificial intelligence and data officer for BMO Financial Group, NATO partners and members of the Army’s Holistic Health and Fitness team.
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