Weapons: The Future of War BY NICHOLAS NG HON 301 PROFESSORS EDUARDO MENDIETA AND FREDERICK WALTER

Old Methods of War  Hand to hand combat  Bladed weapons such as swords, spears, pikes  Projectile weapons mostly used in siege warfare  Very messy!

The Current State of Arms  Discovery of gunpowder- explosives fueled projectiles  Small arms changed from blades to guns  Today, almost universally fueled by gunpowder or explosive chemicals

Tactical Evolution  Siege warfare – essentially nonexistent; too costly in manpower terms  Guerilla-style tactics – much more prevalent on the ground  Heavier emphasis placed on taking actual humans out of harm’s way while fighting

General Characteristics of New Weapons  Designed for efficiency  Some used to incapacitate or otherwise disable enemy combatants instead of killing them  Either hindering the actual personnel or their vehicles  Emphasis on lethality to enemies with minimal risk to allies

Acoustic weapons – The “Sound Cannon”  Used to incapacitate humans without killing them using sound waves  Can be used to broadcast vocal commands or used to direct a sound beam at a distance  Problems: Can cause permanent damage to humans despite being non-lethal

Electromagnetic weapons – railguns  US Navy recently mounted and test- fired a railgun on one of their warships; the project was begun in 2005  Launches solid projectiles using electromagnetism instead of gunpowder or chemicals with a much faster speed(4500 MPH) and range  Problems: Electricity generation and storage, heat management, material lifespan

Light-based weapons – weaponizing lasers  US Navy tested a laser weapon on board a warship; mostly used in defense against aerial threats  Variant developed by Lockheed Martin able to disable a truck’s engine  Problems: Heat efficiency, line of sight, environmental issues, requires a lot of energy

Development of a new area of war – Cyber Warfare  The growing importance of the Internet and online servers for storing information has led to the development of tools to wage a bloodless war online  DDoS Attacks – Can be used on anyone, is relatively easy to run an attack with; some of the most common attacks  Hacking into infrastructure such as power grids or information storage

More on Cyber Warfare  Obviously not directly harmful to humans  Governments are building their own “digital armies” to both protect themselves and strike back against cyber attackers  Does not have to be targeted towards the government or its infrastructure- Cyberterrorism  Hacking of Sony Pictures Entertainment  Attack on governmental social media accounts

Where can we go from here?  Enhancement of already-existing weapons  Further development of unmanned weapons  Lethality of weapons in development  Railguns can already be lethal; lasers tested for disabling vehicles but can be used in antipersonnel role  Tactical evolution: Likely to continue on its current path  Move more towards fighting online than in person  What happens when we send only robots to do our fighting?

New Weapons?  Recent rise in guerilla warfare- weapons designed more for this type of battle such as traps  Focus on removing human soldiers from potential harm  Autonomous ground battle robots  Further development of drones  Potential problems: Differentiating between friend, foe, and noncombatant; possibility of nations more willing to fight if soldiers are not in danger

References       s-navy/ s-navy/  eports/6-%20Railguns-%20Al-Khaldi.pdf eports/6-%20Railguns-%20Al-Khaldi.pdf  athena-laser.html athena-laser.html  onal_Implications_of_La.pdf onal_Implications_of_La.pdf   Sheets/35/Electromagnetic%20Railgun_Dec%2029% ashx Sheets/35/Electromagnetic%20Railgun_Dec%2029% ashx