AI and Defense Hypersonic weapons, swarming drones, and other war weapons
The Russian invasion of Ukraine is reminding everyone how dangerous and chaotic the world is. How war and conflicts are a part of the human condition. How state-of-the-art military technologies can mean the difference between existence and subjugation. Artificial intelligence’s effect on logistics systems, hypersonic strike systems, autonomous robots, lasers, and space technology are all contemporary military technologies currently receiving publicity. Each of them have different policy implications that need to be considered by legislators.
The Russian military is experiencing massive amounts of attrition due to their poorly managed logistics and supply chains. The Russian language never naturally created a word for logistics; it was forced to in the early modern area. We can see why in the contemporary Russo – Ukraine conflict, where the Russian military is encountering supply issues. The United States, and NATO allies, are looking into revamping the exiting supply chain and logistics system in the wake of current Russian failures. Potential solutions to this problem is utilizing blockchain and artificial intelligence. By combining them, a military will be able to keep better tabs equipment and help prevent their forces from attrition.
Superior supply chains and logistics only helps a nation fight conventional conflicts. It doesn’t matter in the face of extremely destructive weaponry, such as nuclear weapons. This is why hypersonic weapons have been all over the news recently, as Russia possesses hypersonic missiles. Hypersonic weapons are projectiles capable of traveling at Mach 5 and higher, are highly maneuverable, and are able to change course midflight. The scariest part about them; they cannot be intercepted with modern technology. And they can have nuclear warheads on them. Hypothetically, this means a hostile nation, such as Russia, can fire hypersonic nuclear warheads at the United States, and we would not have the reaction time to do anything about it. It’s a potential breakdown of mutually assured destruction, the theory stating that if complete annihilation is guaranteed for both sides, nothing will dare start a war.
Hypersonic missiles are better than conventional cruise missiles in every way imaginable. Not only are they a magnitude faster, but they are also just as accurate, capable of hitting their target with margins of error of only 34 feet. This is actually very good for a projectile traveling this fast, and since the blast radius will cover the margin of error, they make deadly killing machines.
Another important technological innovation for warfare is the increased use in autonomous weapon systems. Land combat robots, such as those created by Boston Dynamics, will eventually replace humans on the battlefield. Saving countless numbers of casualties, while causing new challenges to arise. Air combat robots have seen much more action in modern history, autonomous military drones can fly themselves to a specific location, pick targets, and kill without the assistance of a human. As with hypersonic missiles, the human decision-making process is largely removed when robots enter conflict. The psychology is different – even if these robots are still controlled remotely by humans, the pulling of the trigger is easier when it’s not face to face.
This of these new technologies take the human element out of warfare. As individuals are less involved physically in military conflicts, and long range and autonomous weapons take over, it is important to remember new policy issues that arise. In my opinion, there are two real policy questions that need to be asked. When do we need to use these new technologies and are these new technologies serious enough for there to be international efforts to reduce their use? When is it appropriate to use a hypersonic missile? There is no way for another country to determine whether or not the hypersonic you just launched ahs a nuclear warhead or not. How should they react? A possible solution to this could be a new START initiative between the hypersonic country, and possible other treaties similar to START but for other new technologies. This will give governments a better understanding of the proper use cases for these new weapons and how they can be acceptably used.
