Evolution of Warfare: How will the Revolution in Military Affairs Make a Difference?

The secure strategic anchors of the cold war have been wrenched free, presenting defence planners with new challenges, new opportunities and some new, but mostly old, constraints. On the one hand, an increasingly fluid strategic environment combined with an exponential growth in technology multiplies the range of options that planners must consider. On the other hand, shrinking defence budgets and the growing costs of supporting legacy systems limits their scope for real choice. To add further complexity, technology-push is competing with developing doctrines, declining budgets and the diversification of means of conducting conflict. In the midst of this vortex of change, challenge and uncertainty, a concept is now dominating Western military debate: namely that through the fusion of information technology, precision targeting and smart delivery systems, a Revolution in Military Affairs is taking place.1 All indications confirm that a civil/military technological revolution is under way, led, at a significant distance, by the armed forces of the US. Whether this military technological revolution translates into a revolution in military affairs remains to be seen2. The RMA would certainly have transformed the battlefield of the Cold War era; whether it can be proved that an RMA will transform the battlespace 3 in the post-cold war strategic environment will determine whether it eventually becomes just another footnote in the history of military operational concepts.