World War I (the first industrial conflict on a global scale in history) began 100 years ago. At that time, the participating countries were unwilling to lag behind, and used the rapidly developing science to develop various new weapons such as poison gas, artillery shells, air-dropped bombs, fighter planes and tanks. With the help of these weapons, World War I finally claimed 37 million lives.
What new weapons will be used in future wars?
What new weapons will be used in future wars?
From 19 14, the form of war may not have changed much, but since the 20th century, technology has changed faster than ever before, and weapons will become more advanced and sophisticated.
Alfred nobel, a Swedish scientist, invented explosives and detonators several decades before the First World War, which made him famous and rich. But later, this kind of explosives became terrible in the Holocaust, so he donated part of his wealth and founded the Nobel Peace Prize in his own name.
In a recent report, the US News and World Report website pointed out that now, let's take a look at some means that may be used in future wars, and keep in mind Nobel's concern about the abuse of science for destructive purposes.
Computer punk
Attacks on computer systems will be a major part of the war, but this concept-including the word "cyber warfare"-has been over-hyped. Peter Warren-Singh, an American political scientist and author of "Cyber Security and Cyber War: What We All Need to Know", said: "The word cyber war is widely abused to describe some non-war things, including interference attacks, such as the hijacking of Twitter accounts by Syrian electronic forces."
According to media reports, on April 23, 20 13, the Syrian Electronic Army used the Associated Press to post a message on Twitter, saying that the White House was attacked by two explosions and President Obama was injured. False news once led to a rapid diving in the US stock market. The Dow fell more than 65,438+040 points in two minutes, and then quickly rebounded to recover lost ground. The Associated Press subsequently denied the news, saying that its Twitter account was stolen. 20 13 On August 27th, Syrian electronic forces attacked The New York Times and Twitter; On 20 1 410 June1day, it invaded several social platform accounts of Skype, a network communication software owned by Microsoft in the United States, and released a message satirizing Microsoft's assistance to the US government in monitoring people's communication privacy.
Many of the above actions have nothing to do with war. The most frequently mentioned example of military hacking is that it is reported that the United States used the earthquake network virus to destroy Iran's facilities that may be used to manufacture nuclear materials. According to media reports, Stuxnet virus, also known as Stuxnet virus, is a virus that has swept the global industry. It was discovered on 20 10. By 20 1 1, the virus had infected more than 45,000 networks around the world, and Iran was the most severely attacked, with 60% of personal computers infected with the virus. March 20 13, the media reported that the United States attacked Iran's uranium enrichment equipment by using the seismic network worm.
Long-range bombing and aerial bombing were used for the first time in World War I, which made civilians face greater danger in the war. Hackers pose a similar subversive danger. Singh said that attacks on critical infrastructure, including intrusion into the power grid, may be a prelude to aggression; However, the exaggerated propaganda that gifted teenagers can shut down the internet is purely fiction and imagination, and its purpose is to promote the sales of network security services.
Final boundary
Similar to the Internet, as the battlefield expands to new locations, space will redefine the concept ahead. The high seas are international territory. Therefore, Germany used unrestricted submarine weapons (torpedoes) in World War I, which led to the sinking of the British ocean-going freighter Lusitania, and 159 American citizens were killed. This was the "last straw" that forced the United States to enter the war in 1, 9 17. Singh said that in future wars, all countries will face the same problem of setting war restrictions in space.
Singh is also a strategic expert at the New America Foundation. He said: "A large number of military and communication controls pass through satellite networks in space, and all parties either agree to ignore it; Either block or destroy the communication node, the latter is more likely. So far, the United States has been enjoying space without restraint and has not been interfered by real national opponents, but this situation will not last. "
Unmanned vehicle
The movie Robocop (20 14) tells the story of the United States conquering Iran by relying on a robot army, but Sam Brown, a former policy analyst of the Ministry of National Defense, said that it "seems a bit out of reach" to use drones to replace officers and men at any time in the foreseeable future.
Although airplanes were used in World War I, their lethality became even greater only in the German Blitzkrieg during World War II, when they cooperated with soldiers and tanks. Brown predicted that as the development cost of drones continues to decrease, countries may design unmanned warships, underwater ships and ground vehicles. Brown said: "Because technology is getting easier and easier, in war, drones may bloom everywhere in the air."
The advantages of drones include: first strike can be carried out by remote control without endangering human pilots, and if the drone is shot down, the trouble of search and rescue can be saved. Brown said that this also makes drone attacks less politically complicated than suicide bombings, which can be seen from the Obama administration's expansion of unmanned attacks.
Singh said that before World War II, military leaders of some countries, including Britain, refused to replace their armored forces with newly designed tanks; Some military leaders in the United States also refused to expand drone weapons. But Singh said: "In view of the current situation and the development of technology, we need to set up an unmanned system department in the Ministry of National Defense to study the use of this technology in war."
Drugs and chemical reagents
Yes, future officers and men may really want to fight drugs. Some American officers and men have already done so. Many veterans used their federal health care benefits to buy antidepressants to treat post-traumatic stress disorder, and a record number of active officers and soldiers took drugs in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Military doctors in war zones prescribe antidepressants such as Prozac, anti-anxiety drugs such as clonazepam or sleeping pills such as ambien for soldiers who are tired of war. Some of these officers and men, because they fought two wars for ten years at the same time, the US military front was stretched too long, and they completed many rotations and suffered tremendous psychological pressure.
Paul Keckley, director of the wickham Center for Health Research and Policy Analysis, a consulting firm, said that during the Vietnam War, American doctors sometimes prescribed amphetamines and painkillers to officers and soldiers. At that time, they said they had neurological problems. During World War II, the Nazis prescribed methamphetamine (also known as "ice"), a more volatile stimulant, to make them more alert when attacking.
Keckley said that it is more convenient for the military to supply drugs in Iraq and Afghanistan than to wait for consultants in short supply, and prescribing drugs as the default solution is also a problem in daily life. Keckley said: "When we prescribe drugs, we take a one-size-fits-all approach to dosage. Although taking a small amount of drugs will not cause harm to people, consultation is more important than drugs. "
Keckley said that the growing pharmaceutical industry may lead soldiers to design more sedatives, stimulants and performance-enhancing drugs, but the United States should be cautious about this. Prescribing drugs to soldiers may lead to legal proceedings or opposition from Congress.
Keckley said: "We should step on the red line of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). After all, they are very cautious. " Keckley predicts that with the explosive development of mobile technology, medical equipment, including implanted devices that can read visual signals, will become more advanced. Gene roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek, predicted that soldiers under drug control would play a leading role in future wars.
Mobile devices and Silicon Valley
Many convenient devices in the digital age can be used to make weapons in wartime. For example, the most primitive mobile phone was originally used by the army. Now Silicon Valley is developing a series of wearable electronic products to detect the environment around the wearer. If slightly modified, this kind of products will become a good helper for soldiers.
Patrick Tucker, a former spokesperson for the World Future Society, said that a helmet similar to Google Glass can connect soldiers with remote sensing cameras on drones, but the challenge in the war zone is to have enough wireless signals to maintain this connection. He said: "If there is a WiFi signal in the forward combat base (in Afghanistan), it is easy to be exposed and attacked."
Tucker said that tracking information on Twitter has become a large-scale intelligence gathering tool for the government to monitor conflict areas such as Ukraine. Therefore, monitoring communication content is likely to continue to be used as a military strategy. Google is forced to cooperate with the monitoring agency of the National Security Agency of the United States, but an immoral world war will really test its motto of "Don't be evil".
With the rapid development of mobile devices, many companies in Silicon Valley are investing in the idea that it may become the next big event in the field of technology. Tucker said that alternative energy technology may be very useful to the US military, which is currently the largest consumer of limited oil resources in the world. In addition, many Silicon Valley companies, including Google and Apple, are also increasing their investment in robot projects. According to media reports, in the two months at the beginning of this year, eight of the 12 companies acquired by search giant Google made robots.
Silicon Valley, which has a large number of defense contracts, may become an arsenal-unless engineers are as opposed to war as Einstein in Germany. After World War II, Einstein opposed the use of nuclear weapons based on his own physical research results, because he was worried that these nuclear weapons might cause greater damage in future wars. Einstein said, "I don't know what weapons will be used in World War III, but I know that World War IV will use sticks and stones."