Thinking about the Future Battlespace: A Glimpse at 2035

摘要

It is dawn and the sky is turning from black to gray. The ground is wet from yesterday's rain. The commander of a mechanised infantry battalion steps out of his command vehicle. He takes a moment to reflect on the hurried events of the past week. With tensions rising and the imminent danger of Russian attacks, he has received orders to move his battalion from the training range to a designated defensive sector in the contested region. He slowly scans his battalion's assembly area. The air is quiet as he looks over the outlines of his vehicles and trucks, some covered with camouflage nets. The vehicles are widely dispersed in relatively open terrain, but positioned safely and far out of the direct fire range of the enemy. Suddenly, he hears the buzz of a small drone flying overhead. Instantly he understands, but before he can sound the alarm, the air is sundered with the crash of a hundred explosions. The sky and ground erupt in fire. He dives for cover as tremendous blasts rip the air and reverberate through the ground. After five horrific minutes, it is over. Men are screaming, vehicles are burning and secondary explosions boom across the assembly area. Before the battalion could even roll into fighting positions, it has been annihilated.