\u201cThe world you are being commissioned into has the potential for significant international conflict between great powers. And that potential is increasing, not decreasing,\u201d Milley told the cadets. \u201cWhatever overmatch we, the United States, enjoyed militarily for the last 70 years is closing quickly, and the United States will be, in fact, we already are challenged in every domain of warfare, space, cyber, maritime, air, and of course land.\u201d<\/p>\n America, he said, is no longer the unchallenged global power. Instead, it is being tested in Europe by\u00a0Russian aggression<\/a>, in Asia by China\u2019s dramatic economic and\u00a0military growth<\/a>\u00a0as well as North Korea\u2019s\u00a0nuclear and missile threats<\/a>, and in the\u00a0Middle East<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Africa<\/a>\u00a0by instability from terrorists.<\/p>\n Drawing a parallel with what military officials are seeing in Russia\u2019s war on Ukraine, Milley said future warfare will be highly complex, with elusive enemies and urban warfare that requires long-range precision weapons, and new advanced technologies.<\/p>\n The U.S. has already been rushing new, high-tech drones and other weapons to the Ukrainian military \u2014 in some cases equipment that was just in the early prototype phases. Weapons such as the shoulder-launched kamikaze Switchblade drones are being used against the Russians, even as they are still evolving.<\/p>\n And as the war in Ukraine has shifted \u2014 from Russia\u2019s unsuccessful battle to take Kyiv to a gritty urban battle for towns in the eastern Donbas region \u2014 so has the need for different types of weapons. Early weeks focused on long-range precision weapons such as Stinger and Javelin missiles, but now the emphasis is on artillery, and increased shipments of howitzers.<\/p>\n And over the next 25 to 30 years, the fundamental character of war and its weapons will continue to change.<\/p>\n The U.S. military, Milley said, can\u2019t cling to concepts and weapons of old, but must urgently modernize and develop the force and equipment that can deter or, if needed, win in a global conflict. And the graduating officers, he said, will have to change the way U.S. forces think, train and fight.<\/p>\n As the Army\u2019s leaders of tomorrow, Milley said, the newly minted 2nd lieutenants will be fighting with robotic tanks, ships and airplanes, and relying on artificial intelligence, synthetic fuels, 3-D manufacturing and human engineering.<\/p>\n \u201cIt will be your generation that will carry the burden and shoulder the responsibility to maintain the peace, to contain and to prevent the outbreak of great power war,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n In stark terms, Milley described what failing to prevent wars between great powers looks like.<\/p>\n \u201cConsider for a moment that 26,000 \u2014 26,000 \u2014 soldiers and Marines were killed in only six weeks from October to November of 1918 in the Battle of the Meuse-Argonne in World War I,\u201d Milley said. \u201cConsider also that 26,000 U.S. troops were killed in the eight weeks in the summer of 1944 from the beaches of Normandy to the liberation of Paris.\u201d<\/p>\n Recalling the 58,000 Americans killed in just the summer of 1944 as World War II raged, he added, \u201cThat is the human cost of great-power war. The butcher\u2019s bill.\u201d<\/p>\n Thinking back to his own graduation, Milley paraphrased a popular Bob Dylan song from the time: \u201cwe can feel the light breeze in the air. And right now as we sit here on the plain at West Point, we can see the storm flags fluttering in the wind. We can hear in the distance the loud clap of thunder. The hard rain is about to fall.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.fie.undef.edu.ar\/ceptm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/FPAEH7EH5BGCLG7SC5UYS5V6AY.jpg\")