Abstract
With the defense agreement 2024-2033, a broad political majority has decided to invest massively in the Defense to develop Denmark's military capabilities (Ministry of Defense 2023, 3). Based on a question of how design theory can be used to understand Denmark's opportunities and challenges with military force development for the future battlefield, the project sheds light on the structured development processes of the Danish Armed Forces. The Danish Armed Forces already have experience with force development based on rational assumptions but seen in the light of a changed security policy context, it is relevant to examine whether the force development is designed to handle new challenges and opportunities. The project's problem is how the Danish Armed Forces can use design theory to innovate Denmark's military capabilities. A human-centered method is used to examine military design with a focus on human empathy, the subjective and the context to explore more complex innovation problems to recognize whether it is possible to create new military design adapted to humans. The project concludes that the Danish Armed Forces can use human-centered design to understand the complex context of the future battlefield so that the right underlying problems are identified, and an organizational understanding of how design can solve complex problems. The Danish Armed Forces must use competences across the Ministry of Defense and defense cooperation to integrate the right knowledge to create military innovation with design, as well as use operational experience from military users to integrate empathy and subjectivity in the development processes to create the right military capabilities in synergy
between people and technology