Ay 97 Compendium Army After Next Project

These student papers are largely focused on present problems which must be solved before movement toward the future can make much progress. If they are not dramatically futuristic in approach, they are nevertheless set against a future backdrop which is still in the process of being defined. The broader Army After Next program, led by the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Comand, is an experiment, an examination of what could be. The Army War College seeks to play its part through this contribution and by educating those officers who will field, staff, and command our future Army.

This compendium of student papers is the first in an annual series generated by the U.S. Army War College Special Program, the Army After Next Seminar. This seminar is a continuing research effort involving students, staff, and faculty that attempts to wrestle with the nature of military power 30 years into the future. This is a difficult task with no known .Right. or .Wrong. markers. Michael Howard, in his seminal article, .Military Science in an Age of Peace,. tells us that the task of the professional soldier in time of peace is to try to figure out the future in such a fashion that, when it arrives, he won't be so far wrong as to be unable to take corrective action quickly. These student papers are largely focused on present problems which must be solved before movement toward the future can make much progress. If they are not dramatically futuristic in approach, they are nevertheless set against a future backdrop which is still in the process of being defined. The broader Army After Next program, led by the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, is an experiment, an examination of what could be. The Army War College seeks to play its part through this contribution and by educating those officers who will field, staff, and command our future Army.

The authors examine present problems with the nature of military power 30 years into the future, which must be solved before movement toward the future can make much progress. They try to find the questions, and, once having found them, to formulate a range of answers since no single answer is likely to be precisely on target. If the papers are not dramatically futuristic in approach, they are nevertheless set against a future backdrop which is still in the process of being defined. The authors have a difficult task; the task of the professional soldier in time of peace is to try to figure out the future in such a fashion that, when it arrives, he won't be so far wrong as to be unable to take corrective action quickly.

Examples of 5th dimensional practical applications derived from advanced weaponry which generates an invisible pain barrier and a video camera & infrared attachment which allows for crossing the human-sensing dimensional barrier and seeing into barricaded rooms.