Arms of the Present

A quick hit book review

I recently finished reading Arms of the Future by Jack Watling after initially passing on it when it was first released. I read every report Watling writes for RUSI- they’re that good- and I figured his book wouldn’t offer anything much beyond a summation of those reports.

This was a mistake. Arms of the Future is a goldmine of insights based on Watling’s research for RUSI (along with a lot of other sources) but structured and presented in such a way that makes it more than the sum of its parts. If I hadn’t read it on Kindle, I probably would have needed a half a dozen highlighters to get through it.

I titled this post “arms of the present” because the primary value of the book is a snapshot of how emergent and traditional technologies and capabilities are interacting on the battlefield and in advanced experimentation done by professional militaries. Watling has done both research trips to battlefields and was also given access to a lot of the behind-the-scenes analysis done by services. That access, combined with Watling’s analytical and writing skills, produced what may become an authoritative book on land warfare in the near future. Anyone interested in getting a real unbiased look at what is working and what isn’t in land warfare right now should read this book.

There’s also a refreshing lack of hyperbole in this book. And I mean there is none at all. Watling argues against both the “technology changes nothing” crowd and the “technology changes everything” crowd. He comes down in the middle with a definition of 21st century combined arms that I can’t argue with and a prioritized force design to exploit it. It’s a force design for a land force that any land-focused military should take some interest in. Fair warning: if you’re one of those hoping that external analysis would invalidate the ongoing Marine Corps force design effort and its internal analysis, there’s nothing but bad news for you in this book even though amphibious warfare is only mentioned in passing.

Watling’s description of the new combined arms largely aligns with what I’ve described as reconnaissance-strike tactics. It features the same elevation of multi-spectral reconnaissance (and therefore counter-reconnaissance) that fuels a wider range of arms with which to create combined arms dilemmas, a mature precision-strike complex, and the need for these two things to create windows of opportunity for positional maneuver. Where we differ is at the edges where there are structural differences between his land force focused analysis and my amphibious warfare focus, which is to be expected given the different requirements for a one domain force and the inherently cross-domain nature of amphibious warfare.

As mentioned, this book is strictly about land warfare and Watling ably keeps the target on that subject. However, he adds just the right amount of analysis of other domains to connect insights across domains. He examines the other domains in a chapter that lays out how changes in other domains is changing how they interact with landpower and vice versa. It’s an inclusion that really elevates an already strong product.

Watling’s analysis reaffirms my belief that civilian analysts are critical in strategic studies. Those of us with military backgrounds have indoctrinated biases that can’t truly be shed. We can only be aware of them and mitigate them as much as possible. But a talented civilian analyst can take a clear-eyed look at data and establish a strong foundation for ground truth. Watling definitely delivers in Arms of the Future.