The Future of Land Wars: Intense, High-Tech, Urban, Coastal by David Axe, AOL Defense.
After the year 2020 ground wars will be more intense and concentrated in the world's crowded coastal cities. That's the consensus from a panel of experts including current and retired Army officers and professional analysts.
Over the past decade, the U.S. Army and Marine Corps have adapted to the low-intensity wars in Iraq and Afghanistan by abandoning traditional heavy weaponry for lighter, more mobile systems -- and by adding billions of dollars in aerial-surveillance equipment. While perhaps suited to occupation duty, this gear might not last long against a determined, high-tech foe on a coastal, urban battlefield.
The experts differ on how U.S. ground forces should change. But they all agree that big changes are necessary if American forces expect to win the next ground war. Five experts weigh in…
Comments
Each of those writers has some excellent points. All illustrate one thing: the rest of the world is catching up to our vaunted 'superiority' in most operational aspects and in equipment parameters.
The only truly viable counter to that fact on a worldwide and sustained basis is to improve the people that constitute our force qualitatively.
The Department of Defense and all the services should work with Congress to become more truly meritocratic (as opposed to being politically correctly 'meritocratic'...), smaller, much better trained and far more flexible. All that's required is acceptance of the facts that leadership takes intestinal fortitude, <u>mass is not the answer</u> -- and that warfare is chaotic and cannot be 'managed.'
As opposed to the current processes that stifle important traits, we must develop and encourage intuitive, innovative, self starting commanders and people. To do less is to invite disaster. As Gian Gentile noted in his contribution:<blockquote>"Much will have to change in order to transform the Army and Marines to ground formations of this type, but that transformation is critical."</blockquote>