ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY

In its quest to help soldiers enhance their physical and mental performance, Army Futures Command brought together experts from the private sector to discuss new technologies and emerging trends.

Over a two-day symposium, the experts from academia and sports and technology companies weighed in on optimizing human performance by focusing on cognition among people with physically demanding jobs, using wearable technology or analog methods to encourage desired outcomes, making healthy choices, and examining the role of data in enabling better health, precision and resilience.

As the Army works to electrify its combat vehicles, it will not compromise combat effectiveness, a senior Army leader said.

In its bid to see, understand, decide and act first on the future battlefield, the Army tested more than 300 new and emerging technologies during its Project Convergence 2022 series of exercises.

Addressing climate change and its impact on military installations is critical to the Army’s readiness and warfighting abilities, a top Army climate leader said. 

“The battle starts here,” said Paul Farnan, the Army’s principal deputy assistant secretary for installations, energy and environment. “[Climate change] is going to impede our ability to get our forces to the battlefield, be it a natural disaster or a cyberattack that takes the grid down. Our installations still have to be able to operate.” 

As Russia’s war on Ukraine enters its ninth month, U.S. Army leaders are watching carefully and gleaning valuable lessons about the realities of the modern battlefield, the challenges of sustaining an extended conflict and the capabilities of the foe. 

During a panel Oct. 11 at the Association of the U.S. Army’s Annual Meeting and Exposition, service modernization officials described what they’ve learned so far about how to best support Ukraine in its fight for survival and how the Army can posture itself to be resilient in future conflicts.

The Army has water on the brain, facing climate-related problems of having too much water in some places and not enough in others. 

This mix results in the threat of storm-driven disasters in some areas, while some projections say that half of the world’s population will face severe water shortages by 2030, said Rachel Jacobson, the Army’s assistant secretary for installations, energy and environment.  

Future warfare requires the Army to gather vastly more information from an ever-widening array of sensors without overwhelming an end user with such a tidal wave of data that it becomes useless, a panel of Army experts said. 

“We have a lot of work to do,” said Lt. Gen. Laura Potter, the deputy Army chief of staff for intelligence, G-2, in an Oct. 10 discussion about the importance of gathering data and using ground, space and aerial sensing in battles in 2030 and beyond.