The US Army is embracing a massive digital transformation across systems and technologies, but that doesn’t mean soldiers are ready to give up their physical, analog backups any time soon.

At a recent experimentation exercise at Fort Irwin in California, soldiers tested new digital maps and communications systems that Army leaders described as a major jump forward in streamlining decision-making. But troops said they still wanted physical counterparts for redundancy, ensuring they had fallback plans if network connections were lost.

The exercise, called Project Convergence Capstone, tested nearly 100 new technologies, including aerial and…