A Guided Tour of the Digitized Battlefield

"You are tomorrow's soldier. You will play your part in the next major war America will wage." From these opening lines of Tomorrow's Soldier, David Alexander's excellent book on 21st century warfare, the author builds on this theme in a series of eight carefully researched and well-written chapters on combat in the combined arms battlespace of near-future conflicts.

Sometimes in clear and concise descriptions of complex weapons systems such as stealth aircraft, main battle tanks and nuclear submarines, at other times in fast-paced narrative that reads like the best fiction, Alexander shows how the warfighters of tomorrow will interact with the weaponry, battlefield communications, and other combatants on the killing grounds of the new century.

"Probably it will be a regional war, one involving an aggressor state challenging the strategic interests of America and her global allies," the author writes. "Also probable is that it will be another coalition war, similar to Desert Storm. Similar ... but in many ways very different." Alexander predicts, for example, that unlike the Gulf War, tomorrow's war might involve sizable numbers of friendly casualties and the disappearance of the "home front." "The front lines of tomorrow's war could expand to include the continental U.S.," Alexander writes, "and everyone could become a combatant" to some extent. By this he explains that while the next war might be regional in theater, it could be global in scope, because rogue states now have access to nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and have demonstrated a willingness to use terrorism to carry the fight far from the immediate war zone.

The book's eight chapters offer a description of high-technology as applied to the combined arms battlefield written in plain language that is easily understandable by any reader, and glossaries of military terms and acronyms have been included to familiarize those unacquainted with the finer points of that Washington Beltway language called "Pentagonese."

Chapter one, War: Past, Present and Future, is a concise description of the history of modern warfare. Chapter two, Flashpoints to Future War, goes into likely places where war may break out (note: since the book's appearance, Alexander's predictions concerning fighting in the Balkans and in the Caucasus have become reality). Chapter three, Warzones and Weaponry 2010, offers an overview of major combat systems from the "digitized G.I." to robotic reconnaissance aircraft. Chapter four, Synthetic Battlespace, deals with virtual reality in combat. Chapter five, Land Warfighting 2010, discusses future land battle, including some excellent writing on hypertanks and mechanized systems. Chapter six, Tacair 2010, is a comprehensive look at high-tech combat aviation systems, including the Joint Strike Fighter, the F117A Nighthawk and the B-2 Spirit bomber. Chapter seven, From the Sea, is an informative chapter on surface and undersea naval warfare. The final chapter, War Beyond Tomorrow, which deals with such esoteric subjects as weapons of mass destruction, information warfare, robotic assault systems and war in space, concludes the book.

As everyone who follows current events knows, a revolution in military technology has taken place. This exceptional book takes you into the secret world of military warplanners, counter-terrorist specialists and high-technology weapons labs to make clear exactly what the "digital" in digital warfare really means, and what tomorrow's war could mean to you.