Five key trends, and challenges, facing the U.S. military

“These are previews of future war on a larger scale.”

The introduction of the stirrup. Napoléon's “Nation in arms.” The shift to rifled barrels. Blitzkrieg. The rise of radio coordination. Machine guns.

These are the types of innovations that the Army Chief of Staff, General Mark A. Milley, has in mind when he says that we are approaching a fundamental shift in the character of war over the next 10–20 years.

He discussed the topic with Anne-Marie Slaughter at yesterday’s Future of War Conference — hosted by New America and Defense One, in cooperation with Arizona State University. The conference touched on a number of subjects, but if the event could be summed up in one sentence, I would go with…

The future of war is unconventional, cross-functional, and increasingly autonomous.

The video from the full event is available on YouTube for you to view, but I want to call out five key trends from the event that are most top of mind for me in this space.

1) The battlefields of the future will look more like Fallujah and Mosul

According to Gen. Milley, “we’re going to have to, as we move forward in the next 10 years, optimize the army for urban warfare.” Battles in open terrain will increasingly be a thing of the past, as vast…