BALANCING TECHNOLOGY AND RISK IN THE FUTURE COMBAT SYSTEMS

How the Army achieves its transformational goal of rapid deployment depends on its perspective on weight. That is, transformation plans differ if the objective is weight reduction as opposed to weight redistribution. Weight reduction is primarily platform-centric and relies on technological advances in materials and network technology to deliver a single lightweight platform capable of surviving heavy combat. Weight redistribution considers parameters other than platform weight and the ability to distribute information in networks to meet the Army's goals; forces are re-structured into small, modular units, pre-positioned across the globe, and deployed in a time-sequential manner.