2030 Sci-Fi Military of the Future

Enhanced soldiers have been a common part of science fiction. However, while the idea can be rather fun and interesting in fiction, I find the thought of surgically enhancing members of the military to be a very disturbing idea in reality.

In an article published on NavyTimes.com [link], Andrew Tilghman writes:

Once a far-flung date considered solely by science-fiction writers, the year 2030 is now a potential retirement date for many of the Navy’s youngest sailors. So the Navy’s changes between now and then will affect sailors’ jobs, missions and careers.

What will the Navy look like in 20 years?

What new technologies will emerge?

Who will be the primary enemy?

And how will tomorrow’s sailors — and Navy culture — change?

Currently the sailor's senses are augmented by technology that is outside their body, but as the author points out, pilots have been undergoing LASIK surgery to correct vision problems. So how far a step is it until, as Tilghman puts it, "special warfare troops may get surgery that improves their night vision."

The thought of surgically enhanced special warfare troops troubles, because it begs the question of what do you do when you're done with them, or you no longer have need for their specialization? Do you send them back to the operating room to be modified for the next contingency?

How about when they retire. Does the military pay to have the more specialized augmentations removed? This was a question posed in the manga/anime Ghost in the Shell where the only thing left of the main characters was their ghosts (souls) since their bodies had been replaced with cybernetics to do their job, and therefore owned by the government.

Once we go down the road of surgical augmentation of troops, how long until genetic augmentation?

How long until we breed our soldiers, clone them, grow them, or build them?