Tomorrow’s Hyper-Enabled Special Operator Will Be Less Iron Man, More 007
But first, SOCOM must reverse a trend of “falling behind, not just linearly but exponentially.”
PATRICK TUCKER | MAY 9, 2023
SPECIAL OPERATIONS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE SHOW NEWS
TAMPA—A couple of years after Navy SEALs raided Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Adm. William McRaven announced a bold new vision for special operations. Troops in Iron Man-like exoskeletons would burst through walls, facing down a pelting rain of bullets before dispatching terrorist cells in seconds. That vision never came to be, but ten years later, U.S. Special Operations Command is pursuing a new list of superpowers, topped not by bulletproof suits but by something like omniscience.
There are practical reasons for the shift in focus, not least the difficulties of recreating comic-book physics in real life. But they also reflect SOCOM’s changing expectations about where its operators will be and what roles they will play.
Speaking at Global SOF’s SOF Week conference here, Col. Jarret Mathews laid out the command’s effort to create hyper-enabled operators.
https://www.defenseone.com/technology/2023/05/tomorrows-hyper-enabled-special-operator-will-be-less-iron-man-more-007/386162/
