megacities

This article is the latest addition to the U.S. Army TRADOC G2 Mad Scientist Initiative’s Future of Warfare 2030-2050 project at Small Wars Journal. Autonomous systems in a complex city environment would present both opportunities and challenges for U.S. Army units operating in such environments. Over the next decades, technologies will also transform these operating environments.

TRADOC Mad Scientist Project: Megacities - or more generally Dense Urban Areas - will emerge at the epicenter of future events necessitating military intervention.

General Milley is right. We need to take on the megacity combat challenge. If the enemy know we can fight there and win, he is much less likely to fight there at all.

Despite the growing emphasis on megacity contingencies, many question the premise of U.S. participation in megacity conflict.

In 2008 over half of the world's population lived in urban areas - at that point more of earth’s residents lived in built-up areas than there were people in the world forty years before.