Expecting Less and Getting It: Bleak Future Battlefields Require New Ideas
Among the many revolutions facing the Army as it prepares for bleak and lethal battles of the future is that of logistics.
Among the many revolutions facing the Army as it prepares for bleak and lethal battles of the future is that of logistics.
The U.S. Army Futures Command is the service’s “scout into the future,” and what it does “will determine victory or defeat on future battlefields,” Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley said Aug. 24 as the new organization was activated in Austin, Texas.
Agility will be the key to meeting the logistical challenges of providing for the warfighter on a more dispersed battlefield, DoD’s chief logistician says.
Army Lt. Gen. Darrell K. Williams, director of the Defense Logistics Agency, said support for the U.S. military’s global mission has moved from that of a regional static supply chain to one that can respond more quickly through strong partnerships with all the services across the globe.
The Army needs to think big when preparing for future combat, a former DoD policy and force structure planner told a House committee.
“We need to field armed forces that possess depth and resilience, to be able to fight, accept damage and recover,” said Tom Mahnken of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, who worked on the 2006 and 2010 Quadrennial Defense Reviews and on the National Defense Strategy Commission. “Today our forces lack readiness and are in dire need of modernization.
New industry designs to enhance soldier protection are one of the key exhibit hall themes during this week’s Association of the United States Army Annual Meeting and Exposition.
Saab Defense and Security, for example, is displaying its new Barracuda Mobile Breakaway camouflage system. According to Brian Keller, president and general manager of Saab Barracuda, the new system is already being fielded to U.S Special Operations Command (USSOCOM).
The system combines some mobile camouflage elements with traditional static camouflage designs.
March 17, 2017
A former Army strategist and current defense consultant says the U.S. military needs to largely forget the past so it can prepare for the future.
One of the Army’s chief strategists warns of “urgent” need to upgrade Army ground combat platforms due to increased lethality of the modern battlefield.
It would bear no resemblance to the Olympics, but a new report suggests that the Army set up and host an annual “swarm games.”
The idea took root last fall when Undersecretary of Defense Frank Kendall asked the Defense Science Board to ruminate on the potential combat implications of “swarming” large numbers of simple, low-cost, “disposable” objects against small numbers of complex, high-cost, multifunctional objects.
Army researchers are hoping to figure out how stimulating arm and hand muscles with vibrations might help soldiers become steadier, more accurate marksmen.
The research is in its early phases and practical applications may be years away, but scientists say the effort could lead to devices that might someday be built into combat weapons to enhance trigger control and improve firing accuracy.
The battlefield of the not-too-distant future is likely to be crowded with “all manner of robots” that “greatly outnumber human fighters,” a new Army report predicts.
Flesh-and-blood troops remaining in the fight will be “super humans” who are “physically and mentally augmented with enhanced capabilities” to heighten their senses, improve situational awareness, and boost interaction with fellow soldiers, according to the U.S. Army Research Laboratory workshop report, “Visualizing the Tactical Ground Battlefield in the Year 2050.”