Past Revolutions, Future Transformations: What Can the History of Military Revolutions in Military Affairs Tell Us About Transforming the U.S. Military? - Softcover

Hundley, Richard O.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0833027093 ISBN 13: 9780833027092

Publisher: RAND Corporation, 1999

Synopsis

This report examines the hisotry of RMA's, to see what can be learned from them regarding the challenge confronting the DoD today.

About this title

From the Publisher

The history of the 20th century has shown that advances intechnology can bring about dramatic changes in military operations,often termed "revolutions in military affairs" or RMAs. Technology-drivenRMAs have been occurring since the dawn of history, they willcontinue to occur in the future, and they will continue to bestow amilitary advantage on the first nation to develop and use them. Accordingly,it is important to the vitality and robustness of the U.S.defense posture for the Department of Defense (DoD) research anddevelopment (R&D) community to be aware of technology developmentsthat could revolutionize military operations, and for the U.S.military services to be on the lookout for revolutionary ways in whichto employ those technologies in warfare.This leads to three interrelated questions: Regarding past revolutions in military affairs (RMAs),- What lessons can we learn from the historical record? Regarding being prepared for future RMAs carried out by others,- What does it take to be prepared? Regarding transforming U.S. military forces by carrying out ourown RMAs,- What does it take to be successful?This report addresses these questions, which are particularly relevanttoday when the DoD has set out on a concerted effort to bring abouta technology-driven transformation of the U.S. military to achieve the operational goals outlined in Joint Vision 2010 (Shalikashvili, 1996).This research was sponsored by the Director's Office of the DefenseAdvanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and conducted by theAcquisition and Technology Policy Center of RAND's National DefenseResearch Institute (NDRI). NDRI is a federally funded researchand development center sponsored by the Office of the Secretary ofDefense, the Joint Staff, the defense agencies, and the unified commands.

About the Author

RICHARD O. HUNDLEY (Ph.D., Physics, California Institute of Technology) is a Senior Physical Scientist, Technology and Applied Sciences Group, and Senior Research Leader, NSRD Acquisition and Technology Policy Center, at RAND, Santa Monica, California.

Edition details

• Publisher: RAND Corporation
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0833027093
• ISBN 13: 9780833027092
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 124