Kinetic vs. Non-kinetic War
The nature of war has changed. Traditional kinetic warfare is still operational yet evolving from massive air carriers and big tanks with large ground forces to smaller special forces relying on near real-time intelligence to achieve specific goals within macro strategy.
Non-kinetic war is a different beast yet just as deadly and perhaps more damaging considering stealth and psychological operations (psyops) targeted towards civilian populations. Included is cyber warfare targeting civilians and political systems via psyops, civilian high value assets (business, intellectual property, technology, finance, power and communications) and military assets.
Space and air superiority is a critical component for non-kinetic warfare considering satellite communications, intelligence, directing offensive cyber and kinetic capabilities and defensive shields. The ability to collect high value intelligence in near real-time and correctly interpret provides massive competitive advantage.
Modern warfare - both kinetic and non-kinetic - will increasingly rely on data science. Artificial intelligence, quantum computing, cyber war, high value special forces, data collection and interpretation, near real-time actionable intelligence, unmanned kinetic drones, smart nano drones and swarm strategy will be critical to winning the future.
Simply put, data is the lifeblood of future warfare.
Professional data scientists will be in high demand in the future of both kinetic and non-kinetic war.