30. The Future of Ground Warfare with COL Scott Shaw

COL Scott Shaw commands the Asymmetric Warfare Group (AWG), whose mission is to provide global operational advisory support to U.S. Army forces to rapidly transfer current threat based observations and solutions to tactical and operational commanders in order to defeat emerging asymmetric threats and enhance multi-domain effectiveness.

In today’s podcast, COL Shaw discusses the future of ground warfare and the realities of combat for tomorrow’s Soldiers. The following bullet points highlight key insights from our interview with him:

• AWG was developed to promote U.S. Army understanding of asymmetric threats. Today, this effort is focused in three research areas: the operations and information environment, electronic warfare, and countering unmanned systems.
• The United States needs to balance focus, spending, and training among threats from China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and violent extremist organizations (VEOs). Strategists need to remember that “the enemy gets a vote,” and thus efforts will need to remain adaptable.
  
  
• While the United States excels at fighting at a Brigade Combat Team-level, future success will stem from excellence in space and cyber operations, electronic warfare, air defense, information operations, and lean logistical planning. These areas are challenging and will require extensive organization and advanced exercise design.
  
  
• The use of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) for reconnaissance and targeting will increase. As these systems proliferate, they will lower the ‘entry fee’ into combined arms operations, granting even non-state actors a localized air force and creating a general environment of fear.
  
  
• Development of sensing technologies has made it increasingly challenging to hide. When combined with developments in artificial intelligence (AI) that will increase the tempo of warfare, it is likely that survivability moves will be required near-constantly.
  
  
• Information operations, including the use of misleading videos and ubiquitous attack surfaces, will create a chaotic operational environment. Leaders will be required to quickly discern the truth in order to make decisions, while simultaneously attempting to interfere with the decision cycles of adversaries.
  
  
• U.S. Soldiers and Leaders are the United States’ greatest asymmetric advantage. In the future, training will need to be adapted to ensure forces are comfortable operating dispersed and with less constant communication.

Stay tuned to the Mad Scientist Laboratory for our next episode of “The Convergence,” featuring an interview with Cathy Hackl — Futurist and Founder of Futures Intelligence Group, one of LinkedIn’s Top Tech Voices, and the host of the Future Insiders podcast — discussing forecasting, the future of augmented and virtual reality, and women in tech on 18 March 2021!