Geographic combatant commands (GCC) are the central actors in urgently driving necessary changes to the austere trauma life chain so that trauma survivability in peer combat can be maintained. Similar to how a kill chain consists of the discrete steps of find, fix, track, target, engage, and assess, the austere trauma life chain consists of the discrete steps of triage, rapid intervention, resuscitation, surgery, and evacuation. With the risk of peer war and large-scale combat operations growing swiftly, the pace of standard military change is wholly inadequate, and GCCs must transform mindsets by rapidly prioritizing and enacting life-chain improvements. They can do this by applying a paradigm of evaluating what opportunities are currently available, broadly applicable, cost conscious, and have demonstrated effectiveness (ABCD). This ABCD paradigm can assist in prioritizing potential changes, while promoting a bias toward innovation and action that can urgently improve today's peacetime life chain for tomorrow's peer combat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]