They got it right—thirty years ago the authors of TRADOC Pamphlet 525-5: Force XXI Operations: A Concept for the Evolution of Full-Dimension Operations for the Strategic Army of the Early Twenty-First Century visualized the operational environment of the first quarter of the century, at least the effect of technology. Even with the information age in its infancy, there was a premonition that something big was on the horizon. Technological innovations, they said, “are harbingers of change in warfare” and “will revolutionize—and indeed have begun to revolutionize—how nations, organizations and people interact.”
The 1994 Force XXI concept defined the Army characteristics (attributes) that drove force and capability design through the first quarter of the twenty-first century. Leaning into the next quarter century, the Army should re-visualize the operational environment and craft a new set of army characteristics for 2040. The Force XXI concept envisioned an adaptable and responsive Army defined by five core characteristics. It emphasized doctrinal flexibility and strategic mobility, ensuring the right forces were available when and where needed.
Prioritising seamless joint, multinational, and interagency collaboration. Finally, Force XXI stressed versatility, requiring forces prepared for both conventional warfare and military operations other than war (MOOTW) (a term which has transitioned to irregular warfare today). The Force XXI concept rightly identified key characteristics for a future Army—adaptability, responsiveness, and a focus on maneuver warfare—but its vision vastly underestimated the transformative power of the impending digital revolution.
Given that the authors of the Force XXI concept envisioned a thousand-fold advance in information technology over the ensuing two decades (and may have actually been off by a magnitude of a thousand), their five army characteristics seem remarkably absent of any consideration of information technology. While anticipating significant advances, the concept failed to fully integrate it into its core characteristics, focusing instead on adjustments to traditional army concepts. Thirty years later, the Army finds itself in a strikingly similar situation. Emerging technologies once again redefine how we think about war.
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