Photo By Staff Sgt. Rajheem Dixon | U.S. Army Pfc. Lars Carpenter from the 2nd Multi Domain Task Force prepares to launch...... read more read more
MAINZ-KASTEL, Germany — As the U.S. Army marks its 250th birthday this month, the 56th Artillery Command is helping define what the next 250 years could look like.
With ceremonies and commemorations underway around the world, the Army is not only reflecting on its past but also preparing for its future. Nowhere is that future more visible than in Germany, where the 56th Artillery Command and its subordinate unit, the 2nd Multi-Domain Task Force, are reshaping how the Army prepares to fight, and win, in an increasingly complex operating environment.
The 56th is expected to become the Army’s first permanent multi-domain command in Europe, the 56th Multi-Domain Command Europe, combining traditional long-range fires with capabilities in space, cyberspace, land, air, and maritime domains. The transformation maximizes lethality by optimizing warfighting capabilities for large scale combat.
Founded in 1775, the U.S. Army has won the revolutionary war, preserved the union and saved Europe. It has evolved and at every stage of change, the Army has maintained its two enduring priorities: winning the nation’s wars and taking care of its people. As new technologies and organizational models emerge, those priorities remain at the heart of its transformation.
Unveiled in May by Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll and Chief of Staff Gen. Randy A. George, the Army Transformation Initiative outlines a sweeping plan to modernize equipment, restructure formations, and accelerate the fielding of new capabilities. In a letter to the force published May 1, 2025, the two leaders wrote that the Army must move “with urgency and purpose” to deter conflict and, if necessary, defeat any adversary.
That sense of urgency is on display in Europe, where the 56th Artillery Command has become a focal point for multi-domain experimentation. Reactivated in 2021 and headquartered in Mainz-Kastel, the 56th serves as the theater fires command for U.S. Army Europe and Africa. Its subordinate unit, the 2nd Multi-Domain Task Force, includes more than 800 Soldiers with expertise in signals, intelligence, space operations, cyber defense and information warfare.
Recent exercises, including Arcane Thunder 25, tested the command’s ability to integrate unmanned systems, high-altitude sensing platforms, and information advantage teams alongside long-range precision fires. The capabilities demonstrated by the 2nd MDTF in these exercises have proven highly effective. By transforming into Multi-Domain Command Europe, the Army is not replacing the MDTF concept but elevating it. The transition reflects a deliberate step to optimize multi-domain operations in the European theater and scale the mission to a broader, more strategic level.
Maj. Gen. John Rafferty, commanding general of the 56th Artillery Command, called Arcane Thunder 25 a “premier training event” and praised the role Soldiers played in refining the systems and tactics being tested.
“Our Soldiers, our sergeants and our lieutenants are the ones who have their hands on this equipment, who are determining the best way to employ it, to get the effects and find the targets that we’re asking them to,” Rafferty said during a media roundtable. “And we are putting that feedback right back into the system to improve the capability and optimize not just the equipment that we have, but the way in which we’re employing it.”
The Army Transformation Initiative also includes broader structural changes, including command consolidations, reductions in outdated systems, and investments in artificial intelligence, long-range fires, and unmanned platforms. Much of that experimentation is already happening in real time in Europe.
As the Army honors its past, the work of the 56th offers a glimpse of what comes next. Fast, integrated and adaptable across every domain, but still grounded in the same purpose it was founded on in 1775: fight and win the nation’s wars and take care of the Soldiers who do it.
| Date Taken: | 06.04.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 06.11.2025 03:56 |
| Story ID: | 500287 |
| Location: | MAINZ KASTEL, HESSEN, DE |
| Web Views: | 127 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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