Army After Next, Airland Battle 2000, Futuristic Concepts or Jules Verne?

The Army conducts concept studies, such as Army After Next, to craft a vision of future requirements. The combat systems and operational concepts described in those studies are not fiscally constrained stress present day technologies and challenge future technologies. To the uninformed, these concept studies often read like science fiction novels Airland Battle 2000 was a concept study conducted in 1981 to guide future organizational alignments, doctrine, training, and materiel requirements for the Army of the 21st century. This paper examines 1 Airland Battles futuristic concepts and its requirements for the Air Defense Artillery branch 2 evaluates the Air Defense Artillery branchs progress towards meeting those requirements and 3 assesses whether or not long range, futuristic concept studies are a valid approach for determining future developments, or simply government sanctioned science fiction.