SPACE WARAces-High Frontier: Space War in 2053
There are good reasons why the best science and speculative fiction ranks high on the reading lists of many military scholars and leaders. Done well, speculative military fiction projects thoughtfully beyond the here and now, and renders real operational and strategic concepts in terms of plausible future technologies.
There are good reasons why the best science and speculative fiction ranks high on the reading lists of many military scholars and leaders. Done well, speculative military fiction projects thoughtfully beyond the here and now, and renders real operational and strategic concepts in terms of plausible future technologies. This encourages us to think outside the box about our doctrine and our operational assumptions.
The Strategist is publishing two pieces by Jeffrey Becker, leading futurist for the U.S. military, as prime examples of this kind of fiction. The first piece, “Aces-high frontier,” was first published in January 2019 in The Strategy Bridge. The Strategist republishing it today with kind permission because many of its speculations have been vindicated by real events in Ukraine and elsewhere, showing the foresight that such fiction can achieve. Set in 2053, it discusses ideas such as a ‘kill mesh’, anticipating the lessons learned by Russian forces about combined arms and the role of the private sector, with even a nod to Elon Musk, to give just a couple of examples.
The second piece, to be published in coming days, is new. It examines the importance of rocket forces, advanced space capabilities and, most importantly, adaptation and innovation of people to win the fight on earth. When we look back at these piece of fiction in a few years’ time, how much will be reality, or on its way to becoming reality?
Kill Mesh
You expect an electric crackle, the deep whine of machinery, a bolt of red across a planetary foreground, the roar of rocket engines. Wrong. When the US Space Force is in action, it really couldn’t be less cinematic. Anti-visual even.
Yes, the earth is still an astonishing sight from our perch at the earth–moon L4 Lagrange point, but battle itself is rather anticlimactic. No explosions. No starfighters careening this way and that.
The fight I manage (and ‘manage’ in this case is a term I use loosely) unfolds at inhuman speeds. Warfare in 2053 stretches over most of the planet. Thrusts, counters, feints all flash by in the millions over milliseconds. Remorseless AIs maneuver electrons, photons, code and data to blind, spoof, confuse, glitch and burn up microchips, radars and anything tied to a computer chip, radar or sensor.
