TABLE OF CONTENTS

The initial study was comprised of 24 Air War College students and 30 Air
Command and Staff College students. These students devoted hundreds of hours of class
time, individual research, TDYs and field studies to four major areas of technological
change: cyber technology, directed energy, nanotechnology, and biotechnology. Since
space is such a critical area for the Air Force in 2025, a group at ACSC was created to
assess the implications of these technologies for space applications. Seven mid-year
students conducted assessments of the previous AF 2025 study to capture lessons and
provide advice and guidance for the new study. This year’s graduates focused on the
new initiative – to conduct an environmental scan and produce a strategic estimate of
emerging technologies between now and 2025.
There were no preconceived notions about the findings save that they be the
product of serious academic inquiry. Students were purposefully NOT told what to
research in order to let the students, as operators, pursue what interested them most.
Having supervised student research many times in the past, the project directors believed
this approach would produce two beneficial effects. First, students selected topics in
which they were interested, and believed to be important. This served as a litmus test
from the operator perspective of what technologies were important. Second, bringing
together what students wanted to do with what they had to do brought the group as close
to "research Utopia” as one is likely to get. Students work harder and longer, doing more
and doing it better than they otherwise would. This approach has generally proven to be
very fruitful, and student feedback suggested that this was the case during Horizon 21.
In conducting their research, students completed a 45-hour elective course on
science and technology and a variety of future projections about the possibilities and
probabilities of progress over the next 20 years. They then narrowed their focus to a
particular technology area, created and defended a thesis question, and spent the next five
months writing a research paper. During this period a number of speakers from
government laboratories and organizations such as AFRL and DARPA, universities to
include Stanford and University of Cincinnati, and representatives from Lockheed Martin
and Boeing, all gave presentations.
A great bulk of their study and research occurred outside the class room – often
away from Air University and even outside the country. In doing their research, students
went on numerous site visits to locations such as MIT, Genentech, Boeing, the NRO,
Rice University, Lockheed Martin, DARPA, a number of AFRL Directorates (Kirtland
AFB, NM; Rome, NY; and Wright-Patterson AFB, OH), the Air Staff and the Joint Staff.
They interviewed a wide array of scientists, technologists, program officers, and
academics who were experts in a variety of areas. Additionally, where possible, students
on the Air War College Regional and Cultural Studies trips made visits abroad. They
visited places such as Infosys in India, Singapore’s One North Research Center