![]() The ODA will employ a blend of advanced and active support operators. Instead, the ODA will operate in a dynamic, dispersed mode, concentrate only for action, and then disperse before the adversary can react. The purpose of every technology is to enhance the mission effectiveness of the individual Soldier on the ODA.Īdversary advanced surveillance and targeting technology will make an ODA which is physically, cognitively, or virtually static an easy target. Enhanced reality6 will provide the ability to share experiences as well as information. Quantum communications5 will enable secure communications with an extremely low signature. Some advanced technologies that will sustain the ODA include additive manufacturing (3D Printing) and advanced biomedical technology. This will include a full suite of land, water, and aerial RAS capable of reconnaissance, attack, or sustainment. Where possible and appropriate, the ODA will employ advanced technologies to maneuver in the physical, virtual, and cognitive realms. ![]() ![]() They will also require the capabilities to sabotage such systems. Beyond the skill sets currently required of ARSOF, the ODA will require the ability to train and employ RAS and computational devices driven by AI. Often operating in areas where access to technology is limited or non- existent, the ODA will be technology enhanced but not technology driven.The proposed ODA constitutes a pool of operators with the physical, cognitive, and virtual skills required to succeed. Unilateral operations will occur, but they will be the exception, not the rule. It will also continue to accomplish its missions primarily by working with and through the indigenous population or partner forces. The ODA will continue to derive its unique physical, cognitive, and virtual maneuver capabilities from the quality of their ARSOF Operators who will be a blend of Special Forces, Psychological Operations, and Civil Affairs personnel. Their operations will tend to pulse, where widely dispersed operators and units mass quickly, act, and then disperse before the adversary can counter them effectively. Future ARSOF units of action will tend to operate in an increasingly dispersed fashion, even more so than today. As lethality increases, so does the need for dispersion (Figure 2). That which can be targeted can be destroyed. Another factor brought about by increasingly capable reconnaissance and surveillance technologies will be an increase in the lethality of weaponry. It will enliven inert objects, much as electricity did more than a century past.”4 AI will enable the robotics and autonomous systems (RAS) that will be a significant part of future military operations and warfare. He forecasts, “You’ll simply plug into the grid and get AI as if it were electricity. In addition to being cheap and ubiquitous, it will also be diffuse, running many of the processes of society without even being noticed – until it doesn’t work. He uses electricity as an illustration to describe the future of AI in society. Kevin Kelly, another futurist of note predicts that soon, AI will be both cheap and ubiquitous. ![]() How will ODAs conduct special operations and maneuver in the physical, cognitive, and virtual realms during a period of exponential technological change characterized by increasing adversary reconnaissance, surveillance, and targeting capabilities in the hands of state and non-state actors in order to provide strategic value to the Nation in the 2035 – 2050 timeframe? What is the military problem? What does the Future Operating Environment (FOE) tell us? What will the Operational Detachment Alpha (ODA) look like in 2035 -2050? It concludes with an operational vignette. It shapes the discussion with the following questions. This paper briefly examines a single future ARSOF Unit of Action in the 2030 – 2050 timeframe. William Gibson, science fiction author who coined the word cyberspace in 1984. This material will form a compendium of thoughts and ideas that will support the exploration of future bio-convergence implications on the Army of 2050 at the Mad Scientist Conference 8-9 March 2018 at SRI International. The following is presented as part of the TRADOC G2's "Soldier 2050" Call for Ideas. ![]()
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