Chapter I Strategy and Overview
Army Science and Technology Master Plan (ASTMP 1997)

2. Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) Future Warfighting Capabilities Requirements

Military needs must determine what aspects of S&T the DoD pursues, and with what priority. It is the warfighter who enunciates those needs in this post-Cold War environment of widespread local warfare, potential for major regional conflicts, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and peacemaking operations. The JCS have identified 10 Future Joint Warfighting Capabilities most needed by the U.S. Combatant Commands. These needs, coupled with technological opportunity, guide S&T.

• Information Superiority, combining the capabilities of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) along with command, control, communications, computers and intelligence (C4I)

• Precision Force, including the capability to destroy selected targets, both mobile and fixed, over wide areas and corresponding long ranges, with precision while limiting collateral damage.

• Combat Identification, with the capability to differentiate potential targets, mobile and fixed, over large areas with corresponding long distances, as friend, foe, or neutral.

• Joint Theater Missile Defense, using the assets of multiple Services and Agencies to detect, track, acquire and destroy enemy theater ballistic and cruise missiles.

• Military Operations in Urban Terrain with the capability to operate and conduct military operations in built-up areas and to achieve military objectives with minimum casualties and collateral damage.

• Joint Readiness and Logistics with the capability to enhance readiness and logistics for joint and combined operations.

• Joint Countermine, for assured, rapid surveillance, reconnaissance, detection, and neutralization of mines.

• Electronic Combat.

• Chemical/Biological Warfare Defense and Protection.

• Counter Weapons of Mass Destruction.