(NationalInterest.org) The leadership of the U.S. Army is taken with the idea of transforming how and with what the Army fights. Technology enthusiasts, including many in the Army’s new Futures Command, talk about the potential for hover tanks that shoot laser beams and are autonomously guided by artificial intelligence housed in quantum computers.
Brigadier Gen. Ross Coffman, the leader of the Next Generation Combat Vehicle Cross Functional Team (CFT) responsible for the Bradley replacement and a future tank, is determined to think outside the box regarding what a future tank might look like and the capabilities it might incorporate. According to General Coffman, it might not be a tank. The CFT has been thinking about “everything from a ray gun to a Star Wars-like four-legged creature that shoots lasers. But the reality is that everything is on the table. We have to get away from these paradigms that we created that decisive lethality must come from a tank.”