Armed forces in 2080 Options

[Chrysalis]

Greets,

We often talk about the armed forces and its possible roles in 2072. What about the next generation? What is your image of corporate and government armed forces in 2072 and what would be the natural developments in responding to the realities of 2080?

-Chrysalis

[Ancient History]

"Okay squad, your objective is to infiltrate Hive City Chicago and liberate the codes to Lake Erie. Seal yourselfs in your radsuits, make contact with your biodrone riggers, and mount up them sabertooths!"

[SincereAgape]

Armed forces in 2080 will be like a game of RISK. A lot of it would be about the balance of power. The moment one nation or corporation has an edge in technology or armed forces, the other power entities will either ally for a temporary truce (Later to backstab one another) or use all of their resources to sink the faction which is gaining the power.

I personally hope the armed forces in 6th world never get to the point of having cyberzombies, cyborgs, as foot soldiers and hoping for more of a stronger focus covert ops type forces develop over open warfare.

[easl]

Chicago hive? I say we take off and nuke the city from orbit.

Its the only way to be sure.

[Red_Cap]

All UCAS personnel who enlist under the "indefinite" option (meaning "until you retire") will receive a specific set of cyberware, including cybereyes with smartlink, flare comp, and image magnification. Special Forces personnel are given an option to receive cybernetic replacement arms and legs, bone plating, cyberears, control rigs, and other 'ware at extremely low rates.

[BlueMax]

All UCAS personnel who enlist under the "indefinite" option (meaning "until you retire") will receive a specific set of cyberware, including cybereyes with smartlink, flare comp, and image magnification. Special Forces personnel are given an option to receive cybernetic replacement arms and legs, bone plating, cyberears, control rigs, and other 'ware at extremely low rates.

Even the mages?

[Red_Cap]

Oh, no. The Army Corps of Magicians is provided with free spell and weapon foci and given access to classified spell formulae (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[OneTrikPony]

Even the mages?

ESPECIALLY the mages! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

ON topic tho; I don't think that there can be alot of advancement in 8 years. the current timeline is 2072 IIRC. You might begin to see more prevelence of Jarheads in specwar forces of smaller nations by then.

I'm sure that the tooth to tail ratio has been largely fixed by drones allready.

[G.NOME]

ON topic tho; I don't think that there can be alot of advancement in 8 years. the current timeline is 2072 IIRC. You might begin to see more prevelence of Jarheads in specwar forces of smaller nations by then.

Agreed. Look at the modern military. Until the F-22 became active, the US had been using the F-15 since the 1970s. The Army has been using the M-16 since Vietnam. You don't get a complete revolution in military affairs overnight, especially when the country is 1/5 as large/powerful/economically potent as it is (relatively speaking) in the present day.

[Rusted Scrap Met...]

Agreed. Look at the modern military. Until the F-22 became active, the US had been using the F-15 since the 1970s. The Army has been using the M-16 since Vietnam. You don't get a complete revolution in military affairs overnight, especially when the country is 1/5 as large/powerful/economically potent as it is (relatively speaking) in the present day.

And the F-22 has still not performed a SINGLE combat mission during the War on Terror according to the evaluation on whether or not to purchase more of them for the Air Force.

And yeah, the Army used the M-16 since Vietnam, but it did go through several incarnations.

XM-15 has some recoil issues and some handgrip issues. Additionally, the rear sight adjustment post could get jammed. They fixed that later.

The M-16 often had problems with the bolt assembly (specifically the small extractor lever), that often required unit level adjustment (A file to widen the gap in the extractor part) to fix.

The M-16A1 had modified handgrips, the pistol grip slightly modified, the rear sight changed slightly (less tension on the spring in the adjustment psot) and the forward sight post sometimes stripped out. Once again, mostly unit level repairs.

The M-16A2 added 3 round burst to replace full auto. It also changed the handgrips, the rear sight switched from post adjustment to rotating dial, and modified bolt system, including a new recoil spring.

Then there were more modifications to the M-16A2, from different stocks to different handgrips to different barrels, until finally, we saw the M-4 come out in 2000.

Saying that the XM-15 underwent no changes between Vietnam and the War on Terror is seriously mistaken.

Sorry, bad tangent.

Personally, I wish I knew more about 4E, but we do the SRII thing, are are currently in 2052.

[OneTrikPony]

True; but conceptually there have been no changes. For instance you don't see the us army seriously looking at a bullpup configuration even tho we're doing, and will do, alot of house to house work.

However there have been major changes and advances in how intel is distributed, and tactical deployment, it's an electronic battlefield now.

[BlueMax]

Greets,

We often talk about the armed forces and its possible roles in 2072. What about the next generation? What is your image of corporate and government armed forces in 2072 and what would be the natural developments in responding to the realities of 2080?

-Chrysalis

My serious answer to this is as follows:
Cold War 1980's paranoia between different Corps.
Desert Wars
Mercenary Corporations


Why? Because its Shadowrun. Its a product of the late 1980's. Make it Farce, make it fun and for Rod's sake: Use the big toys people make by never use in real life.
Absurdity is a Strength.

BlueMax

[Rusted Scrap Met...]

True; but conceptually there have been no changes. For instance you don't see the us army seriously looking at a bullpup configuration even tho we're doing, and will do, alot of house to house work.

However there have been major changes and advances in how intel is distributed, and tactical deployment, it's an electronic battlefield now.

Very true. Back in the day, battlefield intel consisted of doing a SALUTE, maybe over a radio, maybe when you got back.

Nowadays it's amazing. I mean, the Battletac system in Fields of Fire are basically a reality from what I understand (I'm only from an outsiders PoV nowadays).

Even though I have to admit that I don't know that much about the 2080 world of SR, I have to admit that even an infantryman would probably have some of the Shadowtech SPU equipment, military grade cryptography software and commlink software (From what I understand, the standard tactical radio system is pretty much force wide nowadays), along with the ability to send data from cybereyes through a commo link back to the rear.

Military Intelligence would be the #1 funded area of all the branches of every military. Where a 2 degree ambient temperature change could have massive possiblities on the battlefield (is it a stealthed/magicked vehicle? A group of invisible SF troops who sat in one place too long? Is it a heat vent for an underground facility that just "puffed"?).

I think that the 2080 military would have massive amounts of training involved in battlefield intelligence. You'd have oversight on a micromange level (Oh God, the thought of that incompetent screwball of a BCO I had being able to access and look through my eyes to watch what I'm doing makes me sick to my stomach with the though I'd then here him bitching at me through my com-link) to the point where if the situation was a big enough deal, the Secretary of Defense could see what SEAL Team Six is looking at in real time.

Talk about micromanagement.

[MKX]

I personally hope the armed forces in 6th world never get to the point of having cyberzombies, cyborgs, as foot soldiers and hoping for more of a stronger focus covert ops type forces develop over open warfare.

I'd discount it based on cost and upkeep.
So you can make a dozen uber hard cyberzombies that are fairly functionally nasty and vicious bastards without question, but you need some super powerful mages, a crap-ton of technology and industrial applications ...and people don't much like having them around or admit to it.
Or
You could have 3 platoons of combat troops in mil-spec armour, trained, armed, probably with dedicated air, medical and armoured support for the same price that isn't entirely dependant on individual units that sometimes wake up and just want to play with the rabbits. If they wake up.

[OneTrikPony]

Talk about micromanagement.

Which is why the SK Cyberlogician suit, (arsenal pp. 48) might be the most prescient piece of ware ever writen for shadowrun. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Rusted Scrap Met...]

Which is why the SK Cyberlogician suit, (arsenal pp. 48) might be the most prescient piece of ware ever writen for shadowrun. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

I thought he was in Cybertechnology? (My book seems to be missing)

When SR came out back in the late 80's, we actually sat down and figured out with the Street Sam catalogue what would be your basic stuff.

First thing first, training would be divided up into an additional third and fourth component.

Basic Training: Military life, weapons training, etc.

We added "Chrome Phase" to the end of Basic Training. Once you prove you can hack it, you get the basics and the training to use it. Basics would be, since every single soldier is an infantryman if all else fails (and the modern battlefield has no clearly defined lines, only vague "zones" that rapidly shift).

Cybereyes with thermo and flare comp.
Datajack
Datalink
Smartgun
Chipjack.

Some militaries might put in skillwires, but the military always looks at the "worse case" scenario, and no military will ever forget that a soldier is the more than the sum total of his equipment and training. He's a fusion of the two, and ultimately, the soldier needs to be able to fight even if his equipment fails. And skillwires require more invasive surgery, and who knows if the enemy will develop a weapon that victimizes skillwires or renders them null and void.

Then you have AIT (Advanced Individual Training) where you learn your Military Occupational Speciality. Now, this is where you would learn your job and could do it even if you had to make due with what you had on hand.

Then the last phase of AIT, where you get the implants you need, and training on how to do your job with that equipment.

Now, officers would have to have SPU systems to help them deal with the massive inflow of operational data.

Special Forces aren't what people think, so the REAL dangerous guys would be SEAL equivalents or Ranger equivalents. (Wildcats, guys like that)

Special Forces guys would be trained for different things, and their augs would reflect that.

Now, one thing you would want is the ability to allow a soldier to have a reasonably normal life once he got out. Yes, cybertech can fix a lot, but how much are we looking at? Think about what happens to badly wounded and crippled vets now (I could tell you stories) as far as the government cares, now lets look at the massively uncaring government of the 2050's.

You don't want to leave behind a cripple stripped of cyberware who could see a street doc and hit the streets full of operational skills and blood in his eye. So you have to make sure he can exit the service.

There's a lot of other factors, but the biggest one is the simplest one...

Bioware would be more prevalent that cyberwear for a simple reason: Bioware heals. Bioware is less subject to field damage and any stray EM emissions. Synaptic Accellerators and a superadrenal gland makes you pretty badass, and wouldn't be that tough to remove.

Guys tweaked up to the max, Cyberzombies, would be rare, and very specific. What are you going to do with him between missions? How are you going to return him to duty? Is this a "use until destruction" troop?

And yeah, that Cyberzombie might be bad to the bone, but a single shot from a 2050+ era sniper rifle packing an APDSFSDU round will smash open his head and splatter the gooey stuff all over the place, and that is exactly the type of target they'll be looking for.

Oh, and because he's convinced he's the top of the line, and Billy Badass, he's going to suffer from egotism that will make him stupid. He's the baddest thing in the world, he's high tech, he's badass...

He's just taken a center-mass hit from a .50 GPHMG packing API rounds because some $50,000 Private has an itchy trigger finger and has been screamed at repeatedly for shooting at puffs of dust, rabbits, birds, shadows, and had a 10 minute firefight with a cardboard box last night.

You have to think long term, combined arms, post-service life, etc.

On the streets, against runners, soldiers are going to be toast.

On the battlefield, against soldier, runners are going to be toast.

[OneTrikPony]

Now, one thing you would want is the ability to allow a soldier to have a reasonably normal life once he got out. Yes, cybertech can fix a lot, but how much are we looking at? Think about what happens to badly wounded and crippled vets now (I could tell you stories) as far as the government cares, now lets look at the massively uncaring government of the 2050's.

You don't want to leave behind a cripple stripped of cyberware who could see a street doc and hit the streets full of operational skills and blood in his eye. So you have to make sure he can exit the service.

I would agree with this but for one thing. In SR most of the fighting done post 2036 is done by Mercs and extrateritorial forces vs insurgeant forces. MET2000, Tsunami, Crimson Dagger are the primary mercs.

The only major international conflicts have been NAN vs. Tsimshian in the early 60s, Aztlan (with Aztechnology) vs. Yucutan in the late 50's early 60's, Japanese imperial forces in the philipines, and Russian forces vs. Yakut. Everything else is corp mercs vs. the downtroden.

An Aztechnology infantry trooper is a corp citizen and will be if he manages to retire. He makes his wages on the ware that he can bring to the unit. Same with MET2k and the independent merc corps. A combat infantry tour for a national soldier is just the first step into the private sector. It's like an acountant going to college. You know that they'll pack themselves with all the ware they can afford and it will be licensed by the employer. Add to that the fact that cyber is sooo much cheaper than bio and you're ending up with some serious veterans issues.

(except they're not really veterans. And that's one of the things that worries me about private paramilitary today. Ya, the VA sucks and it's really inefficient but it's better than the jack shit that Contractors are going to have when black watter downsizes them.)

[Rusted Scrap Met...]

All very true. Except he was asking about standing armies. PMC's and Corp armies are going to be radically different. Just reading Fields of Fire show that much with the PMC's. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Now, yeah, bioware is more expensive, but honestly, let us take a look at it from a nations Department of Defense.

Cybertech takes tons of cost after the layout. You have constant checks, time in a cyber-diagnostic rig to make sure all the systems are interfacing correctly, and as all of us who have done time in a Green Machine know, you give a soldier a piece of equipment, he'll figure out how to break it. You give troops a cybernetic arm, he's going to do all kinds of crazy stuff with it. And think about boring garrison time. Think of all the dumb things soldiers do nowadays during garrison, now add cybertech to the mix...

"Hey, here's a fun game! Lets..." next thing you know you have a squad full of trashed cyberlimbs, and three destroyed vehicles because they decided to play "Kill the vehicle!" while drunk.

Wired reflexes are just that, reflexes.

My reflexes are a decade old. A decade. I'm unwired. There's been instances of my reflexes kicking in and causing things to happen.

Now imagine having a platoon of guys with wired reflexes. These reflexes are specifically designed, then honed and trained to the edge.

You're asking for an accident to happen.

Not to mention that each of those guys need time in a diagnostic and calibration unit at least every week or every other week. Think of the cost, the downtime, all of that.

Grade 2 synaptic accelerators are (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) 200,000 and will have biological symptoms, and they would be easier to keep track of.

Honestly, if I was on the military procurement, doctrine, and such boards, I would quickly prefer my troops to be on the bioware bandwagon rather than the cyberware express.

[Cthulhudreams]

Why the hell would you give people cyberlimbs when powered combat armour exists and is pretty cheap?

Anyway, yeah, not much would change in 8 years in the military. War fighting capability in 2001 is better - we have better everything - but it hasn't really changed.

[TBRMInsanity]

Powered combat armour would be used by main line combat troops (ie the ones in warzones) because yes it is cheep and easy to deploy. For civil use though cyberware may give your National Guard that extra bit of strength needed to do their day to day jobs. Why would a grunt need combat armour to fill sand bags. That is like using a bazooka to kill a fly, its overkill and a waste of resources.

Also cyberware would be used to put injured soldiers back on the front lines. Where war amputees were useless and effectively a drain on the military and government (I apologizes to any war amputees out there, I mean no offence), with cyberware they become fully functional soldiers again.

[Rusted Scrap Met...]

Powered combat armour would be used by main line combat troops (ie the ones in warzones) because yes it is cheep and easy to deploy. For civil use though cyberware may give your National Guard that extra bit of strength needed to do their day to day jobs. Why would a grunt need combat armour to fill sand bags. That is like using a bazooka to kill a fly, its overkill and a waste of resources.

Also cyberware would be used to put injured soldiers back on the front lines. Where war amputees were useless and effectively a drain on the military and government (I apologizes to any war amputees out there, I mean no offence), with cyberware they become fully functional soldiers again.

I'd have killed anyone I had to in order to get my shoulder and arm replaced with cyberwear instead of just walking around with severely damaged meat for the rest of my life.

Well, the odd thing is, combat armor would be used to sling sandbags, carry heavy pallets of food, stuff like that. The problem with power armor is a simple one: Power. how long does the powerpack run? Under full combat conditions, how long can it run? How about non-combat standby?

We could do the pros and cons for everything: Cyber VS Bio, Augmentation VS Armor, and know what we'd be arguing like?

The military procurement boards and their lobbyists.

[Warlordtheft]

And relax-your equipment was provided by the lowest bidder or the guy who gave the biggest bribe to the procurement officer (lowest price or not).

[Rusted Scrap Met...]

And relax-your equipment was provided by the lowest bidder or the guy who gave the biggest bribe to the procurement officer (lowest price or not).

Which is why the modern firearms you got (finally) are all missing the bolts and recoil springs. (True story. Our unit upgraded from XM-15's to M-16's, and half the weapons didn't have bolts, and all of them were missing recoil springs)

You know, that would be an interesting shadowrun.

The PC's are contacted by some Major out of the Fort Lewis, who has the simple request:

"There was a supply 'glitch' a few weeks ago. It appears that the new rifles that were shipped to us were damaged. Here's a list of the serial numbers off the weapons we did receive, and here's the serial numbers of the weapons we were supposed to receive. Here's the tracking numbers on the cargo containers. Find out what happened to our weapons, and see if you can get a hold of the weapons and return them to us, or make sure they are destroyed."

--What's in it for us?

"How about time in the Madigan cyber diagnostic rig? I can even lay some APDS on you."

Hmmm... having a UCAS Major as a limited use contact could be worth doing the job right there.

[Meatbag]

Oh, no. The Army Corps of Magicians is provided with free spell and weapon foci and given access to classified spell formulae (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

I'd rather take the 'Ware. Assuming the UCAS military can supply me with Beta/Deltaware, I can jam a LOT of goodies into that lost Essence point.

Military Hermetics with Cerebral Boosters 3. Cybereyes 4 and a Pain Editor are worth the lost Magic point.

That's an interesting point we don't seem to have covered much so far - what about mages? They rather change the way wars are fought and won.

Firstly, take all our current methodologies and add "astral" to them. Astral security, astral patrols, astral recon, astral espionage, astral sabotage.. This is an entirely new angle that commanders have to consider.

Secondly, mages help smooth over those pesky non-killing parts. Manabolt snipers are fun, but most soldiers and commanders would kill for uniforms that always fit (Fashion) water that never goes bad (Clean Water) and Manna in the mess hall (Nutrition), not to mention magical healing.

[Kerenshara]

I'd have killed anyone I had to in order to get my shoulder and arm replaced with cyberwear instead of just walking around with severely damaged meat for the rest of my life.

Well, the odd thing is, combat armor would be used to sling sandbags, carry heavy pallets of food, stuff like that. The problem with power armor is a simple one: Power. how long does the powerpack run? Under full combat conditions, how long can it run? How about non-combat standby?

We could do the pros and cons for everything: Cyber VS Bio, Augmentation VS Armor, and know what we'd be arguing like?

The military procurement boards and their lobbyists.

You and I need to sit down one of these days and have a chat. You hit most of the points I wanted to touch on very succinctly. Especially as it pertains to the pros and cons of cyberware vs bioware and the non-combat advantages of PCA (Powered Combat Armor). Power seems to be a lot less of a concern in 2070 than we have now: remember those laser power packs? Seriously: enough power to fire ten weapon-grade laser pulses would run powered armor for a decent amount of time, especially if the combat sensors and weapon systems were dismounted entirely. Then again, those same sensors could be of tremendous benefit in disaster releif and Search And Rescue.

You did leave out a couple pertinent points it's worth mentioning: culturing on bioware. I know you're 2nd ed. trapped, but ShadowTech went into a lot of detail about what the diferences between standard (even Betaware) bioware and the lowest level of cultured 'ware was. Essentially, cultured bioware is created from the host's own cell line, and then implanted. The "grades" of cultured bioware essentially indicate how much the "stock" modifications are tailored to the person's genome. What that means though for "mustering out" is that there is no POINT financially speaking in removing cultured bioware systems because they can not in any meaningful way be recycled. Outside the original host, they're useless. Wired reflexes CAN be re-used, but then we're dealing with 2nd hand cyberware rules, and I do NOT see the standing first world militaries putting up with THAT. And what's the LEGAL market for 2nd hand Level 3 'Wires anyhow?

The point I read about Skillwires is well stated, but perhaps not strongly enough. The rules say you can have an active skill up to rating 4 - long service veteran. The problem is that you don't get the experience and intuition that goes with that long service. You're still a raw recruit. And you can never integrate the skills off the chip into your own knowhow - you still pay full karma and have to train normally. So while it could be useful, it's not a war winner especially with the costs and recovery times of implantation.

Another advantage of PCA is that you can get the "helmet cam" view cybereyes would have offered without the trouble of implantation. Remember that by this time, if you wanted to, you could get every single cyber enhancement in a pair of very nice and extremely expensive aviator sunglasses, at a fraction of the cost of implanted cybereyes. It would all have to do with how much the TRAINING cost the military. A meat fighter jock these days (last I heard a number) cust upwards of $2.6 million US, so with that kind of investment, beta grade cybereyes with all the goodies (especially image magnification, flare compensation and image enhancement to the max) would make sense, along with bio initiative boosts. Synthecardium to help with high G resistance.

Now one thing that the military could afford to spring for that would be an instant Return On Investment would be an implanted comlink and datajack. Add a sim module and harden the thing against EMP to the max. Now, it's nice to have a soldier with a built-in radio, but you're leaving out the other benefits:
Linguasofts - high rating Linguasofts makes operations around the globe simple, especially combined with apropriate cultural Knowsofts. The sim module means that operational training can be handled in full VR even while en route to a target. That benefit alone would be worth it's weight in platinum. And the final benefit, if combined with either an image link or a SimRig (TRUE after action evaluation, including emotion, with "what did I know then?") means you can record things, but more important you can feed the input to KnowSofts for recognition of faces, buildings, vehicle and weapon types, insignia, uniforms... you get the idea. A couple KnowSofts could turn every trooper into a de-facto intelligence operative. The sim module also allows a seamless HUD interface to be laid over reality, providing all kinds of useful information. If you were to add a nano biomonitor and you have a health report. Is this starting to sound like a certain series of first-person-shooter games? Add in Smartguns, Smartpacks, and intelligent armor materials that can report their condition and you have everything you need to keep the soldier situationally aware. And all of it can be manipulated with just a thought.

Now, this is where the networking comes in. Take a squad of these guys with SimRigs and the other goodies, and network them together with high end battle tac software (in SR4 it's just another program on any comlink with enough horsepower) and you get a BlueForce display on "radar" in the HUD with projections of know targets. Throw in the Orientation system, and you can lay in objectives, way points, and points of reference and interest. Now it IS a video game, and you can make every man's Mark One Optical Sensor into a part of the network.

Gotta have a sleep regulator. For the price... this is the military folks. Sleep is a luxury, and if the Army wanted you to have sleep, they would have issued it to you. Gastric Neurostimulator makes you immune to nausea, useful in harrowing rides NoE at night, or attacked by nausea causing incapacitants... or surrounded by putrefying flesh. Audio dampers mean hearing loss from repeated exposure to high decibel sound sources (i.e.: gunfire) is a thing of the past. Marines tasked with amphibious operations might have bio OR cyber air supplies installed: a lot of boys drown under the weight of their gear.

A lot of these are low essence, minimally invasive, and relatively cheap for the ROI they provide.

Now your special forces guys would also probably pick up things like enhanced articulation (which in the old fluff took care of bad knees destroyed by too many jumps and falls and twists), muscle toner and enhancement, and synthecardium (again). Higher end additions might include trauma dampers and platelet factories, reducing the severity of combat injuries. Orthoskin with insulative properties would help with extreme climates.

So without turning into RoboCop with limbs and other stuff, you now have unbelievably flexible and capable troopers. Add in PCA for high intensity conflict with the advanced hard armors available in 2080, and better high end weapons...

I heard an argument for the glacial pace of military procurement. This was extremely true in the Cold War, and the F/A-22A Raptor is the final ecample of this process: a long awaited, extremely capable and frighteningly expensive piece of hardware. But that trend is changing, and has not always been the case in the past. During WWII, the P-51 Mustang was conceived of, designed, tested and built within a couple years and turned out to be a war-winning weapon that didn't break the bank. But the recent F/A-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter is an example of how things are changing back in the other direction. They are nearly as stealthy as the Raptor, not quite as fast, but even more network-enabled, and reportedly something like a third the cost. It was also conveived of designed and test flown in less time than the Advanced Tactical Fighter (the original name of the Raptor) took to have the design specs finalized. In the Navy, the SSN-21 Seawolf class of submarines was stopped after just three boats were comissioned. The design was begun in the 1980s as a response to the growing quality and exploding quantity of the Soviet nuclear submarine fleet. Seawolf's contract was awarded in 1989, and launched in 1995. She commissioned in 1997. The follow-on Virginia class was designed and built in under three years to meet a Congressional mandate, and they include all the latest upgrades. The class is already at five boats, with a sixth building and more ordered.

Another important point regarding procurement was that the information-centric battlefield we now know from the nightly news was a product of the 1980s arms buildup and development programs. Nearly every system in service now has roots in that decade. But the reason for the very long delays was that they were having to develop the ideas that lead to the tools to make the technology as they went along. Now that threshold has been reached, and new systems are appearing rapidly. The advent of Computer Aided Design and Manufacturing have revolutionized the development of every kind of weapon. That is the main reason the JSF and Virginia class boats were developed so quickly: CAD CAM had come of age as a fully mature and completely realized technology that was in it's very infancy for the development of the B-2A Spirit Stealth Bomber. The number of conflicts of the 6th world would also have pushed the envelope of technological and doctrinal change much faster than peacetime or even Cold War procurement could have even contemplated. The fact that the current consumer electronics industry has for the first time ever completely overtaken and sprinted ahead of the military procurement and development system has recently promted military planners to reach out to civilian industry, and many off-the-shelf civilian parts are being drafted into military front line service. A wonderful example would be that in Iraq, many soldiers were using civilian FRS radios because they were lighter and the batteries lasted longer with comparable signal performance to their military equivalents.

The bottom line is that between 2072 and 2080, there is no reason that if the missile went up the megacorporations and remaining national government standing armies could not launch a crash rearmament program bringing forth an entirely new military paradigm in the process. Here is what I forsee:

A large focus on cyber warfare and unmanned weapon systems for all roles.
High intensity conflict being handled by heavily armored powered combat armor vice tanks. Modern anti-armor weapons are just too far ahead of defensive technology, so going smaller and more maneuverable is the only answer for survivability, and most of those powerful weapons can be maneuvered and employed by a PCA.
"Special Forces" seeing an increasingly high level of usage and expansion for everything less than main line combat operations. I laid out what I thought would be a comprehensive and highly effective package of 'ware that would be least invasive for the capability and the least debilitating once the soldier returned to civilian life (software's easy to unload). Regular soldiers could use non-implanted gear and 'trodes to get the same benefits, but SF troopers need to have their gear ready at all times, not subject to the need fo so-called (and unachievable) soldierproofing. The high level of training and adaptability of these soldiers means their usefulness to their patrons is across a very broad spectrum providing the highest possible ROI.
An increased emphasis on small numbers of highly mobile, extremely flexible units, be they meat or machine, to cover large fluid areas of responsibility instead of the large semi-fixed formations of the late 20th century.
Increasing dominance of information warfare - not necessarily the same as cyber warfare - both for intelligence and counterintelligence, but also for psychological purposes on both sides. Information is going to be the ultimate force multiplier on the 2080 battlefield, and she who possesses the most, best organized, most timely and most accurate intelligence will most likely prevail even in the face of a significant force imbalance if she can deny the same to her enemy.
A surge in counter-satellite technology, as more and more of the world comes to be dependent on constellations of orbiting eyes, ears, production centers, navigation bouys and weapons systems.

Sorry that went so long, but there was an awful lot of good stuff in the above posts I wanted to address.