From the Editor-in-Chief
“Te future cannot be predicted, but futures can be invented.” —Dennis Gabor, Nobel Prize-winning physicist
I
n the not-too-distant future, a Soldier at the U.S. Arctic outpost Tunder waits outside in the frigid night—the barren, featureless terrain provides no shelter from the whipping winds. Seven-year Army veteran Sgt. Jonah Cross
and his robotic K-9, Zeus, eagerly await the monthly resupply drone. Tey are in dire need of supplies, not having seen a resup- ply drone in weeks. Cross bounds up to the pod of food and materials the drone just delivered.
“All right, Zeus, let’s see what headquarters thinks I need this time,” Cross says to the unblinking video cameras that are Zeus’ eyes, and then waves a glove over the locked box to release the latch. “Just what I needed,” he says, pleasantly surprised as he rummages through the crate. “Nanogalvanic aluminum-alloy fuel cells for the new plasma rifles. Awesome. Te hovercraft parts catalog drive and filament cartridges for the 3D printer— pretty soon we’ll be airborne, buddy,” Cross says hopefully. “Hey, Zeus, there’s a sensor upgrade for your quantum processor so you can see through buildings—that will be helpful on patrol; and some nanotech frostbite repair kits, just in case we have another polar vortex on the border recon. Not that you have to worry about that.” He gets to the bottom without finding what he really wanted. “I knew it, I just knew it. No fresh food, just replicate Z rations. Just once, I wish they’d actually send fresh fruit,” Cross laments. “Is that too much to ask in the Arctic? Well, time to stow this gear and get ready for patrol. Come on, Zeus.”
Te journey that Sgt. Cross and Zeus are undertaking from this isolated outpost is an excursion into the unknown with the latest equipment and technology available. However, they’re not alone. Behind them is a legion of acquisition workforce profes- sionals who, years before, envisioned what the future might be and designed the equipment required to not only survive, but win, on any battlefield wherever and whenever it might be.
In fact, the yet-to-be-born Cross and Zeus are beneficiaries of what the Army Acquisition Workforce is working on today, every day—the future. Whether it’s a robotic patrol dog, a plasma pulse rifle or Z rations, the future is what we make it in many ways.
So, in line with the theme for this issue, Army acqui- sition is always “supporting the future force,” because we are literally making it.
If you want to know how the future is made, and what it takes to make it, read Army Acquisition Executive Dr. Bruce D. Jette’s article, “Modernization Through Unity of Effort,” on Page 4. It lays out how a vision of the future comes into focus by explaining how U.S. Army Futures Command, the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology and U.S. Army Materiel Command work together to modernize and support multidomain operations.
@
Email Nelson McCouch III
ArmyALT@gmail.com
And if Lt. Gen. L. Neil Turgood and his team at the Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office have their way, the future may be sooner than you think. Learn how the Army is pushing to have hypersonic and microwave weapon and high- energy laser prototypes move from the laboratory to the field quickly in the article “Hypersonics by 2023,” Page 112. Finally, since China has about 90 percent of rare-earth materials locked up (such as gadolinium, samarium and promethium, which are used in everything from magnets to nuclear batteries), see what we and our allies are working on to source new materials that can deliver the same or better results for the future in “An Elemen- tal Issue,” Page 92.
But wait, there’s more! Te journey to the future is never over … it continues online. See expanded coverage of these and other topics with our online magazine and digital platforms at
asc.army.mil. Comments, ideas or concerns? Drop us a note at ArmyAL&T@
gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you.
Nelson McCouch III Editor-in-Chief
https://asc.ar my.mil
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