ISSUES FOR THE FUTURE

The New Battlefield Balance

          Technological advances have made warfare swifter and more deadly. The long - sought multiplier effect of high technology has allowed individual platforms to perform tasks that took larger numbers of platforms in the past. These platforms are approaching the effectiveness of one-target, one - round accuracy. These advances have exposed and exacerbated a support deficit, particularly in trucks, tankers and dissemination of tactical information. How this imbalance is addressed in an era of declining resources will determine whether the nation is able to realize the full return on its enormous investment in high - tech weapon systems.

Mix of Forces

          Quickly deploying soldiers of the 82nd Airborne Division and Marines from the 1st Marine Division arrived in Saudi Arabia soon after the invasion of Kuwait to deter an attack by Saddam Hussein's forces. Some of the individuals involved in this early deployment referred to themselves as " speed bumps ", meaning they would do little more than slow Saddam's armored forces if those forces chose to press the attack. The postwar challenge is deciding the proper role of light ground forces in contingency planning and operations that the United States is likely to face in the future.

Communications that work

          Soldiers just outside shouting range of each other were often unable to communicate by radio. Pilots aloft, not of different nations but merely of different U.S. services, were also often unable to speak to each other on safely encoded radio circuits. The challenge for the future is to ensure that U.S. forces are equipped with the means to communicate with one another.

Tacticale Missiles Defenses ( TMD )

          Independent of the debate over the degree of success that the Patriot missiles had in their TMD role against Iraqi Scuds, the political and military utility of mobile theater defenses was demonstrated unequivocally during Operation Desert Storm. Although some critics contend that the lessons learned from the employment of the Patriot missile in a TMD role are negligible due to the low-tech nature of 20 year - old Scud technology, it should not be forgotten that the Patriot is, itself, based on 20 year-old technology.

          The global proliferation of ballistic missile technology and weapons of mass destruction has become one of the most immediate and dangerous threats to U.S. national security in the post Cold War era. Over time, this threat will most likely evolve from today's shorter - range, inaccurate missiles in the direction of more sophisticated, longer - range and increasingly accurate systems. Therefore, the question of how the U.S. can modernize its TMD capabilities to best ensure that its forward deployed and power projection forces possess effective defenses against future tactical ballistic missile threats is paramount.

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