What will the Fifth Generation Mission Space bring?

The evolution of warfare has been mapped from the Neo Classical Warfare with massed armies organised in lines and columns on the battlefield of first generation warfare through technological advances and stagnation of tactics of second generation warfare and to the manoeuvrist approach of the third generation warfare landscape. The last evolution was seen with the adaptation of 3rd generation warfare to meet the modern asymmetric threats and the realisation that civilians are often the ‘centre of gravity’. Other terms that are synonymous with 4th generation warfare are COIN, the 3 Block war and ‘war amongst the people’.

The ‘Fifth Generation’ strapline was borrowed from this history by marketing chiefs looking to describe the capabilities of fast jets in the western military. In the air domain, the name comes from the fact that since the invention of the military jet aircraft there have been four evolutions to date, with the F35 heralding in the Fifth Generation. Because of this recent association, fifth gen warfare is often considered as hardware and software: it is in ‘things’ not concepts, this is evident now; many academics and military commentators talk of the Fifth Generation Air Force as one that has Sensor grids, Command grids, Information grids and Effects grids, all overlaid and integrated to create a system of systems that will enable a fifth generation capability.

We at 360iSR consider Fifth Generation Warfare as something more than a technology revolution; we look further afield and consider how the changing mission space will affect the required tools and skills. Therefore, in this first section, we will define the 5GW mission space. After all, it is only from “knowing thy enemy” can one “know oneself”.

In short, 5GW is so much more than a 5G aircraft. It is the generation of a cognitive mission space which will include actors and audiences that have not been previously considered. 5GW will demand of us that we use the cognitive mission space to enable rapid, accurate decision making, the affects of which can be measured throughout the complexity of the environment. Finally 5GW will force us to consider the critical importance of the narrative and force us to accept the interdepenancy of physical action.