COOL TECHNOLOGY ALERT
Gregg Easterbrook has a fascinating piece about how information technology has made our forces incredibly more effective.
In 1997, the Army conducted an "Advanced Warfighting Experiment" at its full-scale war-games facility at Fort Irwin, California. The experiment assumed that cheap new data links could allow everybody, right down to the individual soldier, to know almost everything going on in a battle. The war game showed that having everybody know everything made units far more effective, reacting quickly to problems or acting quickly to exploit enemy weaknesses.
For instance, military units often travel close together--thus commanding less territory while making a more tempting target--in order to communicate. Members of close together units can see what other members are doing, use hand signals, officers can meet to confer, and so on. In the Advanced Warfighting Experiment, units were equipped with a tactical internet that dramatically improved communication and awareness of the position of nearby forces. Tacticians realized this meant units did not have to stay close together. Once widely spread, but still acting with knowledge of each other's moves, war-game forces became much more effective. Smaller units commanded more real estate.
Seeing the results of this war game, the Pentagon made a commitment to realizing data-linked tactics. The first fruits were displayed during the Afghan campaign, during which Army and Marine soldiers on the ground communicated in det
Gregg Easterbrook has a fascinating piece about how information technology has made our forces incredibly more effective.
In 1997, the Army conducted an "Advanced Warfighting Experiment" at its full-scale war-games facility at Fort Irwin, California. The experiment assumed that cheap new data links could allow everybody, right down to the individual soldier, to know almost everything going on in a battle. The war game showed that having everybody know everything made units far more effective, reacting quickly to problems or acting quickly to exploit enemy weaknesses.
For instance, military units often travel close together--thus commanding less territory while making a more tempting target--in order to communicate. Members of close together units can see what other members are doing, use hand signals, officers can meet to confer, and so on. In the Advanced Warfighting Experiment, units were equipped with a tactical internet that dramatically improved communication and awareness of the position of nearby forces. Tacticians realized this meant units did not have to stay close together. Once widely spread, but still acting with knowledge of each other's moves, war-game forces became much more effective. Smaller units commanded more real estate.
Seeing the results of this war game, the Pentagon made a commitment to realizing data-linked tactics. The first fruits were displayed during the Afghan campaign, during which Army and Marine soldiers on the ground communicated in det
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