The Arms of the Future: Technology and Close Combat in the Twenty-First Century
(Hardback)
Available Formats
Publishing Details
The Arms of the Future: Technology and Close Combat in the Twenty-First Century
By (Author) Jack Watling
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Bloomsbury Academic
30th November 2023
United Kingdom
Classifications
Professional and Scholarly
Non Fiction
Land forces and warfare
Modern warfare
Weapons and equipment
355.42
Physical Properties
Hardback
264
Width 156mm, Height 234mm
Description
From sensor-fuzed munitions and autonomous weapons, to ground moving target indication radar, laser vibrometers and artificial intelligence, the weapons of warfare are undergoing a rapid transformation, with modern technologies reshaping how armies intend to fight in the twenty-first century. The Arms of the Future analyses how the emergence of novel weapons systems is shaping the risks and opportunities on the battlefield. Drawing on extensive practical observation and experimentation, the book unpacks the operational challenges new weapons pose on the battlefield and how armies might be structured to overcome them. At a time when defence spending across NATO is on the rise, and conflict with Russia raises new questions of what it means to fight a truly 'modern' war, Watling examines not just the arms to be employed but how they can be fielded and wielded to survive and prevail in future wars.
Reviews
You can put down your future war novels and read instead the actual study of the deployment of modern weapons and systems from someone who has seen many of them in action, often as a frequent visitor to the battlefields of Ukraine. Jack Watling examines critically and thoughtfully how forces will fight in the mid-decades of the century, exploding the hyperbolae, war-scares, and myths with some very hard truths. For each technology, working from the tactical to the strategic, he focusses on its functional logic and its dependencies. If you want to know how to find, fix, and finish in the battlespace, and you want to know how the technology works in practice, you have just found the book you need. -- Dr Rob Johnson, Director of the Office of Net Assessment and Challenge, Ministry of Defence, UK
Author Bio
Jack Watling is Senior Research Fellow for Land Warfare at the Royal United Services Institute in London where he works extensively with the British and allied militaries on force development and operational analysis. Jack has also worked in Ukraine during Russias invasion, in Iraq during the campaign to defeat Daesh, in Mali, Rwanda and further afield. He is co-author, alongside Nick Reynolds, of War by Others Means: Delivering Effective Partner Force Capacity Building (2021).
