In the secretive labs of the Pentagon, top military minds are working on a new fighting style. Their novel vision for warfare isn’t about making bigger, faster, or even higher-tech kit. It is about getting numerous smaller, cheaper, perhaps lower-tech systems and deploying them in a radically new way. The official term is Mosaic Warfare, but some strategists liken it to Lego. “Like Lego blocks that nearly universally fit together, Mosaic forces can be composed together in a way to create packages that can effectively target an adversary’s system with just-enough overmatch to succeed,” says a Mitchell Institute study (pdf), released in September. Mosaic warfare is the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)’s solution to China’s growing military prowess. China’s generals have honed their military to cripple the U.S. military’s brain and nervous system—a strategy known as Systems Destruction warfare. They have also invested heavily in long-range missile systems and anti-aircraft systems that threaten U.S. carriers and jets. In war-gaming carried out by U.S. analysts, China often defeats the United States in some scenarios of Pacific warfare. With its aircraft carriers, jets, and command systems no longer able to guarantee dominance, the U.S. military is revamping across the board. America’s most potent weapons systems pack multiple capabilities. The F-35, for example, is a missile launcher, radar sensor, stealth reconnaissance, targeting system and much more rolled into one. With Mosaic warfare, instead of a limited number of the latest high-tech toys, military commanders would have the strategic equivalent of countless building blocks. Some would be unmanned. In the secretive labs of the Pentagon, top military minds are working on a new fighting style. Their novel vision for warfare isn’t about making bigger, faster, or even higher-tech kit. It is about getting numerous smaller, cheaper, perhaps lower-tech systems and deploying them in a radically new way. The official term is Mosaic Warfare, but some strategists liken it to Lego
