One of the highlights of this year’s SOFIC conference was the S&T Operating Environment and Futures Foundry presentatios. Colonel McGuire delivered what I felt was a truly enlightening briefing highlighting that in order to succeed, USSOCOM needs to approach the mission with a 5 to 7 year forward looking perspective.

We’ve all known that the battlefield is evolving, but what’s often overlooked is the rate of that change. In today’s environment, SOCOM finds itself confronting adversarial actors with converging capabilities. Technology that was once only available to nation states is now available, often at a lower cost, to proxy militaries or radical elements. Often, and particularly true for proxy militaries, nation states supply the technology; therefore, SOCOM’s goal is not just to keep up with the Jones’ but to get well ahead of the game. The objective is to deny the advantages of emerging technologies to our adversaries. To successfully achieve that objective, the needs are many. But, as Col. McGuire stated, SOCOM is not looking for a rifle that shoots farther or a different camouflage pattern and bringing the needed capabilities to fruition falls on the shoulders of SOCOM’s Science and Technology Group and the new Futures Foundry is the incubator.