Future of Land Warfare

A Global Perspective

Abstract

War is always a messy business. It brings in its wake, a tremendous amount of death, destruction, and devastation. In an idealistic world, one would banish war for good. However, we live in an imperfect world wherein human egos, greed, power, religion, revenge, etc. have a major role to play in shaping the environment. This usher in the inevitability of war as the final arbiter in deciding which way the world should move at a particular point of time in history. We are also aware, of course, that history has a way of repeating itself, thus, underlining the frailty of the human mind in repeatedly falling prey to the same mistakes and not learning much from the past. Warfare is perpetually evolving. From ancient times, when foot soldiers held sway with swords, spears, bows, and arrows, and used forts and obstacles for effective defence, it moved to the use of elephants and horses to provide enhanced mobility and raised platforms for dominating the foot soldier. The introduction of dynamite brought about a revolutionary change in the concept, methodology, conduct, and execution of warfare. A similar effect was created when the tank, followed by the aircraft, entered the battlefield. A study of the two World Wars fought in the 20th century clearly brings out how rapid changes in mobility, lethality, battlefield transparency, and precision affected the very methodology of the conduct of warfare from one to the other, thus, dictating the outcomes. Of course, the use of nuclear weapons at Hiroshima and Nagasaki added a dimension, the consequences of which have threatened the very existence of mankind.