Within about two decades, roughly 60 percent of the world's population will live in cities, particularly megacities of more than 10 million, according to a recent National Intelligence Council projection.
Some of those inhabitants will be bent on terror and destruction of the regional and global community and the Army must be prepared to deal with that threat, according to Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, director of the Army Capabilities Integration Center, speaking at a media roundtable today.
The roundtable was part of Exercise Unified Quest, which was conducted Aug. 17-22, which included a megacity disaster scenario set in what McMaster termed the "deep future," 2030 to 2040. Constructive simulation, using computers, was used to create a fictitious environment, weapons, and red, blue and green players, meaning enemy, friendly and host-nation military, he said.
Academia, members of the other military services, coalition partners, and experts on future global events participated in the exercise.
The scenario was plausible, but extreme in nature, in order to stress the capabilities of the Army, which operated against an adaptive insurgency, criminal element, failed government and humanitarian crises. The emergency was caused by a dam bursting with an ensuing flood and a disease outbreak.
There were some key takeaways from the exercise.
"You can't just pour brigade after brigade into a megacity. They'll just get swallowed up," said Col. Kevin Felix, chief of the Future Warfare Division, who also participated in the media roundtable.
By being swallowed up, he meant operating in a dense urban landscape where command and control becomes problematic and where the enemy hides itself and its weaponry among the civilian populace. Some of that weaponry in the scenario turned out to be biological and chemical.
The red players, or enemy, "surprised us as well. They did less fighting than expected," Felix said. "They focused on
