From the age of ironclads to the battleship navies to carriers and beyond, adapting to change comes at the expense of the latest crop of young men and the antiquated tactics and materiel from the last war.
Future war will have elwments in it that could be best described as science fiction, but it ever has been that way, and it won't start that way, if history is any guide.
What would have William the Conqueror have thought of canned rations?
What would Napoleon have thought of Steam engines and railroads?
Or Lord Admiral Nelson have thought of the Ironclad?
Robert E. Lee of the tank?
Or Jellicoe of the aircraft carrier?
Or Alfred Nobel of nuclear weapons, ICBMs, "Rods from God"?
What's next?
If our command staff can't envision it, they won't have tactics to fight it, much less fight with it.
(WWI should have taught that lesson, written in rivers of blood shed by Maxims.)
AI aerial and ground drones giving mechanized infantry in power suits close air support?
Caseless, autoranging, man portable, miniartillery using rail gun principles to fire mini-artillery or kinetic rounds directly at enemy combatants?
Flanking unmanned surface, aerial, and submarine attack/defense drone screens for amphibious assault vessels?
Think ahead. Everything we have is so last war...
But remember, even Caesar knew an army marches on its belly, so logistics and resupply, spares, mechanics (self-repairing?), will remain critical.
Every aspect must be though through.
For want of a nail, the shoe was lost,
For want of a shoe, the horse was lost,
For want of a horse, the battle was lost...
Ever applies. It's the little sh*t that gets you.
