Maritime Futures Project

 

Entering service this year!
Entering service this year!

The 2013 Maritime Futures Project is designed to illustrate possible developments in naval affairs and maritime security in the near-, medium-, and long-term tomorrows.  As such, our brave contributors are making predictions about the future challenges, opportunities, and technologies for maritime professionals – as well as things we’d like to see come to pass.  They are also hazarding recommendations, based on those predictions, for the tough choices faced by many of our sea services.  Each post will focus on the responses to one of the questions posed below.  At the conclusion of these posts, there will be an additional series of articles inspired by the questions, but taking them in a slightly different direction. 

Undoubtedly, many of our predictions will not come to pass.  We hope you nonetheless find the results of the project stimulating.  If you’d like to learn more about the contributors, or see a contributor’s responses compiled in one location (available at the end of publication), please click the embedded link above (goes live Jan. 9th).  We thank them for their willingness to share with us these purely non-scientific guesses as to what lies ahead.

 

Day 1. If your Navy/Coast Guard (please specify) is facing fiscal hard times, what areas of the budget should be targeted first? What should be targeted last? Why?

Day 2. What should your Navy/Coast Guard invest in more that it is not investing enough in today?

Day 3. If you are a current Sailor or member of the Coast Guard, what are some of the biggest impediments to getting your job done? What promised development or technology would most aid you in the accomplishment of your assignment?

Day 4. What emerging technology is going to most profoundly change the way naval warfare is conducted, and why?

Day 5. How would you design the next naval vessel for your fleet?

Day 6. What will your Navy/Coast Guard look like in 5/10/25/50 years, and how is it different from today?

Day 7. What maritime dispute is most likely to lead to armed conflict in the next 5/10/20 years?

Day 8. What advice would you give to a smaller nation on the maritime investments it should pursue, and why?

Day 9. Any final predictions?

Follow-on Series Inspired by the MFP:

The Future of Piracy

Fostering the Discussion on Securing the Seas.