Foreword
Welcome to Soldier Modernisation
Integration, Configuration and of course Recession have all ganged-up to push Technology off the soldier modernisation throne. When this took place is up for debate and it certainly differs from country to country but what is clear is that no military is immune from its effects.
There are strong arguments for integration and configuration not least because their implementation emphasises the need to think around a problem rather than funding your way through it. In many ways they are the right way to cope with a financial drought however success in this arena may obscure the need for technology or investment, not in the eyes of project and programme teams who know this only too well, but in minds of politicians. Just as many political leaders saw the Kosovo bombing campaign as demonstrating that airpower or technology was a substitute for sufficient numbers of boots on the ground, the success of better integration and configuration management may obscure the need for a well funded infantry budget as a means to win wars and save lives.
No-one has the easy answer to this, least of all me, but General Maj. Gen. Robert H. Scales, puts many, many things, very well. Discussing the need for small unit dominance in the US military but equally valid to all militaries he wrote, “These challenges can be met only by demanding that our national-level policy and planning staffs look at war from the ground up rather than the top down... The Army and Marine leadership have done just about all they can within the narrow confines of their budgeting and weapons-buying authorities. It’s time for the country to pay attention and act. Our close-combat soldiers and leaders deserve nothing less.”
Adam Baddeley
Editor |