Editor's corner.

It used to be that warfare could be classified as conventional or unconventional. That distinction now is not so clear-cut. Depending on how these terms are defined, Desert Storm possibly could have been the last conventional war. In subsequent years, a series of military operations in Somalia, Haiti, Panama and the Balkans, among others, challenged U.S. commanders to go into battle against unconventional enemies, in environments that never would have been predicted during the Cold War.

Even in today's information age, nobody really knows exactly what the next war will be like. But U.S. military leaders always have been told to be prepared for anything.

For commanders, combat-ready forces equate to forces that are superbly well trained.

That is the recurring theme in this month's issue of National Defense: What can be done to improve the training of U.S. forces?

Army Brig. Gen. Stephen M. Seay, head of the Simulation, Training and Instrumentation Command, eloquently summed up the current challenge facing commanders: "You never know where you are going to be called. ... You don't know what you don't know."

From a trainer's perspective, things are getting complicated. The United States is expected to encounter new threats for which its forces may or may not be prepared. That calls for possible changes in training techniques and priorities.

Further, the flexibility for U.S. forces to train in live ranges is becoming curtailed by environmental restrictions. For that reason, said Seay, the military services more than ever will rely...