Gen. Mattis and Defense Tech

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The warfighting philosophy of Marine Gen. James Mattis, nominated to replace Gen. David Petraeus as the next commander of U.S. Central Command, is to break down units into very small groups that have lots of autonomy that allows them to act very quickly. Greg Grant, who covered Defense issues for Government Executive and now works for Defense Technology, writes that under such a "decentralized battlefield . . . quality becomes much more important than quantity."

Smaller independent units will rely more on social, or what in the past has been referred to (sometimes condescendingly) as soft, skills. From Grant's piece:

As the large footprint counterinsurgency approach is fast falling out of favor, eliminating scattered insurgent networks will require small, discrete units. "It's going to be more important what individuals bring to the battlefield than their numbers," Mattis said.

The "advise and assist" capability of ground forces will be key, requiring that regular forces achieve a "seamless" integration with special operations forces. Those small teams, he said, must partner with foreign militaries, live and work among the local people, and operate with a minimal logistics footprint.

"These wars will be fought among the people... we're going to have to deal on human levels with human beings and not think that technology or tactics by targetry will solve war," he said.

What does this mean for technology? It's hard to say. You can see the references to technology with the words "networks," "seamless," and "partner," which typically means information sharing. But Mattis also is dismissive about technology solving all the military's battlefield challeneges: We should "not think that technology or tactics by targetry will solve war," he says.

But these smaller units, ostensibly, will need good communications, imagery, and lots of intelligence that only high-powered networks can deliver to small handhelds.