The following piece first appeared on Warrior Maven, a Military Content Group member website.

There will be an urgent and pressing need to “hide in plain sight” on a “transparent” future battlefield due to ubiquitous, multi-domain sensors, according to Army intel researchers, who clearly explain that … in a future combat environment … “if it can be seen … it can be killed.”

Deception, jamming, spoofing, camouflage, and “hiding” heat, electromagnetic, and light signatures will be the key to survival and prosperity in a future war, explains an interesting new research study by the US Army’s Training and Doctrine Command G2 called “The Operational Environment 2024-2034 Large-Scale Combat Operations.”

The essay, which involved research and analysis of current and expected future warfare dynamics, tactics, and concepts of operation, sought to anticipate future warfare and best position the Army to fight and win in a hyperconnected, multi-domain, high-tech combat sphere.

Increased Combat Networking

“The modern battlefield is growing progressively more transparent because of the proliferation of advanced technologies—smart devices, sensors, emitters, etc.—as well as the emergence of hyper-connected global communications and social media,” the essay states.

Low and Medium-Earth Orbit satellites are emerging by the hundreds, bringing additional surveillance, imagery, throughput, and networking to future combat; drones are multiplying exponentially in swarms with the specific aim of blanketing areas with surveillance, overwhelming enemy air defenses, and launching “suicide” strikes acting like munitions themselves.

Long-range sensors from surveillance planes and medium and high-altitude drones are now equipped with much higher levels of resolution and image fidelity, able to zoom in closely and gather precise data from unprecedented distances. Thousands of unmanned ground, air, and surface platforms, robots, sensors, and vehicles are likely to span across a multi-domain warzone, leaving nowhere for forces to hide themselves from view.

High-tech, advanced heat sensors will detect thermal signatures through heavy vegetation and weather obscurants, and secure networking of surveillance data and image collection will enable a high-speed transfer of data from inside buildings, behind ridges, across mountains, or positioned in many otherwise undetectable locations.