To follow on Chris’s recent post about U.S. Army modernization:
- Jen Judson has two pieces at Defense News on Army air and ballistic missile defense upgrades: “Interim solution for US Army’s Short Range Air Defense to be chosen by end of year,” and “Army to get THAAD and Patriot systems to communicate within two years.”
- Two articles address forthcoming advances in Army hypersonic weapons, Brian Wang at Next Big Future, “US Army has a tentative goal of 2022 for operational hypersonic weapons” and Jen Judson (again) at Defense News, “US Army to demo precision strike, hypersonics, ramjet capabilities in just a few years.”
- Dan Goure has an article at The National Interest discussing the future of Army aviation, “The Army Is Betting on Aviation for the Future of War.”
On the subject of future combat:
- The U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine has issued a new report emphasizing the need for developing countermeasures against multiple small unmanned aerial aircraft systems (sUASs) — organized in coordinated groups, swarms, and collaborative groups — which could be used much sooner than the U.S. Army anticipates. [There is a summary here.]
- National Defense University’s Frank Hoffman has a very good piece in the current edition of Parameters, “Will War’s Nature Change in the Seventh Military Revolution?,” that explores the potential implications of the combinations of robotics, artificial intelligence, and deep learning systems on the character and nature of war.
- Major Hassan Kamara has an article in the current edition of Military Review contemplating changes in light infantry, “Rethinking the U.S. Army Infantry Rifle Squad”
On the topic of how the Army is addressing its current and future challenges with irregular warfare and wide area security:
- Meghann Myers has a story in Military Times about the U.S. Army’s desire to organize its new Security Force Assistance Brigades (SFABs) into divisional structures: “1-star: The Army is looking to stand up divisions for its new security force assistance brigades.”
- Small Wars Journal has published a piece by Nicholas A. Keipper arguing along the same lines, “A Permanent Stability Operations Division for the US Army”
Major Kamara’s article is interesting, though I am unconvinced of his reasoning. Why would cyber-warfare and drone specialists be best embedded at the squad level? That seems something better suited to company level.
It’s quite a teleological argument overall – the section on conscription seems very suspect, especially when considering his comments on virtual reality training. I doubt there is an real substitute for putting soldiers in real conditions (“hungry, cold, dirty and frightened”) than the safety of a computer sim.