By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization
Lighter, faster, expeditionary and lethal, networked, drone-controlling, potentially unmanned …yet survivable and capable of heavy mechanized combat .. are a few seemingly contradictory attributes sought after by the Army as it explores and develops tanks for the future.
Finding the optimal balance between survivability, speed and deployability is not an easy task, yet the Army has been making progress for years working on this complex equation. Generally speaking, the approach seems triple pronged in a way, as it seems to include a continuation of heavy armor with massive upgrades and lighter weight materials, much lighter weight, deployable new platforms such as Mobile Protected Firepower and networked unmanned systems.
Much of the Army’s work in recent years has involved the exploration of fast-deployable armored platforms likely to be lighter, faster and engineered for new kinds of networking, maneuver formations and manned-unmanned teaming. This third trajectory, it could be posited, involves the extensive use and development of unmanned platforms or “optionally” unmanned platforms uniquely able to perform high-speed, high-risk missions in a faster, lighter, more survivable yet extremely lethal way.
“We need lighter formations that are more lethal and survivable and heavy formations that are lighter …. all with a reduced logistical footprint,” William Nelson, Deputy Commander, Army Futures Command, told Warrior in an interview.
One clear way to think about it is the Army appears to be exploring the possibility of a mix of manned and unmanned platforms designed to achieve deployability, lethality and survivability across a networked, highly maneuverable force. Essentially, there will likely be future tactical combat circumstances which indeed require all three of the attributes described by Nelson to achieve optimal lethality, using manned-unmanned integration, speed and deployability and also heavy armor in certain scenarios. The most cutting edge applications of manned-unmanned teaming are already being built into upgraded and new platforms increasingly able to launch and operate a range of aerial and ground unmanned systems.
Tanks & Drones Attack Together
With the ability to operate unmanned systems, leverage high-speed, AI-enabled networking and a new generation of sensors and weapons, future armored formations are expected to be much different than those kinds of linear mechanized formations which have characterized armored warfare for decades.
With this in mind, senior Army weapons developers tell Warrior the service is both very focused on innovation and the integration of new technologies, while also deeply immersed in the necessary development of new requirements and formations. This kind of thinking, which continues to help the Army craft new concepts of Combined Arms Maneuver, has been underway with senior Army developers for years.
For example, the exact design of the Army’s now emerging Optionally Manned Tank is still evolving with Army weapons developers, and the service continues to build paradigm-changing enhancements into new variants of its Abrams tank. As Nelson mentioned, even future heavy platforms can be lighter and faster, yet still equally if not more lethal and survivable.
“What is sometimes not as flashy, but equally or maybe more important, is our need to transform formations that are more lethal and survivable… and all that with a reduced logistical footprint. I think that defines the future,” Nelson said. “We get enamored with the material part of this, but let’s not forget it takes the whole doctrine, training and operations and soldiers at the end of the day to operate, man and use that equipment.”
Nelson explained that the maturation of new maneuver formations and their integration with new technologies requires diligent study and evaluation.
“That’s not something you turn on a dime. It takes a vast amount of analysis that takes an understanding of how the new technology may be used. This can require new requirements and what it is we need to buy,” Nelson said.
Much of the process, Nelson explains, requires ongoing work with software and data management expected to massively enable new kinds of highly-networked, high-speed targeting and data processing. This also, Nelson explained, requires a blend of technological and conceptual or tactical thinking. These ongoing efforts, Nelson explained, requires close collaboration between Army Futures Command and the service’s acquisition community and research laboratories. (Army Research Lab & Assistant Secretary of the Army, Acquisition, Logistics and Technology).
“I’m also working a lot with our software factory, in Austin, Texas. They are doing amazing work with soldiers coming from the field, training them on how to integrate data and use data differently. This can include taking existing data and developing that into a user interface and presenting data to commanders and warfighters in new ways that we have never thought of.
Sure enough, AI-enabled information processing and multi-domain networks are already driving paradigm, changing concepts and maneuver formations as new technology has reduced the famously called “sensor-to-shooter” time from minutes, down to seconds.
Kris Osborn is the President of Warrior Maven – Center for Military Modernization. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a Highly Qualified Expert with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Master’s Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University.
