Christopher Jordan
America is “competing with determined adversaries during a period of unprecedented technological change. To guarantee our security, we must recognize change and adapt faster than any army in the world.” In order to fight and win the next war, the Army began a comprehensive plan to modernize and transform the force.
Simultaneous to ongoing, long-term developments, the Army is focused on what it calls “Transformation in Contact” or TIC: rapid developments and changes to existing formations in the near term. Transformation in contact is a new term for an old idea: rapid military innovation. Like previous attempts at innovation, TIC’s success or failure will depend on how the Army integrates key aspects of military innovation and how it understands the effects of the current international system.
There are many components that influence military innovation, but three key aspects drive effective innovation. These elements are technological advancements, new doctrinal applications of technology, and an adaptable organization that accepts the changes provided by the former two aspects. These elements converge and “cluster together to produce a major change in the way people live – or, in the case of the military, the way they die.” Whether the U.S. is at war or peace as well as the international balance of power further shape innovation. Peace and the balance of power alter the dynamics of innovation, shifting both the drivers of innovation, the focus of a nation’s efforts, and the nation’s cost-benefit analysis.
Keys Aspects to Military Innovation
The first key element of military innovation is the most obvious: technology. Technology acts as a catalyst, creating the opportunity for novel solutions to the challenges of a battlefield. As we develop new technologies, existing constraints no longer apply. For example, the development of the steam engine and advancements such as the telegraph enabled effective power projection, invalidating previous planning assumptions based on wind and extended delays in information dissemination. The new technology enabled new possibilities.
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