The Army After Next: Exploring New Concepts and Technologies for the Light Battle Force

Publication Date: January 1999

Publisher: RAND Corporation

Author(s): Thomas J. Herbert; Randall Steeb; John Matsumura; Scot Eisenhard

Research Area: Military and defense

Type: Brief

Abstract:

This document summarizes the initial year's work on the project "Assessing Advanced Concepts and Technologies for the Army After Next (AAN)." At the request of TRADOC, Deputy Chief of Staff for Doctrine (DCSDOC), RAND Arroyo Center initiated this project about halfway into FY97. The overall intent of the effort was to provide force-on-force simulation-based analytic support to the AAN initiative and support the series of wargames. The effort involves the use of high-resolution constructive simulation to explore both operational concepts and technology options for the light battle force concept associated with the AAN initiative. One of the key capabilities required of the light battle force is an ability to hide and wait for the right opportunity and then create a "virtual ambush," resulting in a shock or disintegration of the enemy. This kind of defeat, to some extent, is in contrast to more traditional attrition in that it greatly compresses the time in which lethality occurs. Essentially, the concept envisions allowing an advancing threat to penetrate, after which the battle force unleashes massive simultaneous fires from afar and closer in. To accomplish this, unprecedented amounts of survivability (possibly in the form of stealth) and lethality (in the form of precsion guided weapons) would be required. Thus, as a starting point, the project examined those two critical aspects of the light battle force concept via our simulation and modeling.