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www.READMETRO.com February 2017
Future weapons could be like in Star Wars According to experts, in the future there will be robots and cyborgs with artificial intelligence, that are able to be invisible. Metro investigates what technological developments could soon become a part of arsenal in different countries.
weapons of the future
daniel casillas
Metro World Latam
The arms industry continues to be one of the world’s biggest money makers. According to a study released by the U.S. Congress in December last year, the value of all the weapon transfer agreements worldwide in 2015 was around $79.9b. The United States ranked first in global weapons sales during that year, signing deals for around $40b. Global military spendings keep being on top of the list, according to data published by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. They grew by 1 per cent ($1676b) during 2015 for the first time since 2011. The total registered amount represents 2.3 percent of the world’s GDP. An important part of these investments is devoted to research and development of new weapons. Last year, former U.S. Secretary of Defence Ash Carter proposed an increase of the spending amount to create the latest technology to fight high-tech wars. He asked for department’s budget to reach a total amount of $583b for this fiscal year. $71b of it will be directed to designing futuristic weapons. “As you can imagine,
Countries like the U.S., Russia, China and the United Kingdom have projects to develop laser weapons. |Juan Martín García Forn
important investments are being made in new technologies. We have to do this to stay ahead of future threats in a changing world. As other nations try to catch on the advantages that we have enjoyed for decades, in areas like precision-guided munitions, stealth, cyber and space,” Carter told at the last year’s Economic Club of Washington. But not only the U.S. is investing in the industry. For example, British government has recently announced that it will spend around $100m in development of the so-called Directed Energy Laser, artillery that shoots rays at a specific target. It actually looks like guns we saw
in Star Wars movies. According to declassified information and experts opinions specialists, many of the weapons on which the world’s most military advanced countries are currently working on will look that way. And will include laser guns, robots, artificial intelligence and even space weapons. Several reports made by specialised military technology agencies point out that countries like the U.S., Russia, China and the United Kingdom have projects to develop such weapons. Experts confirm that budget for developing them is guaranteed. “Laser weapons do not
make sense for every niche in the battle space, but they are viable nevertheless. It might be the science fiction loving minds of researchers or our love for Star Wars which continues to guarantee the funding for such things,” Lance Winslow, author of ‘Future Weapons Tech’ eBooks series, told Metro. In addition to the guns and laser rifles from Star Wars, in the wars of the future we could also see robot soldiers, similar to separatist droids of the same saga. That is a great possibility that will happen, because many countries are working on projects to avoid human losses in combat.
Swarmbots
Hypersonic Missile
That is the future of autonomous swarming capabilities. The U.S. army is working on flying swarms of tiny drones that can attack enemies with the help of Artificial Intelligence. According to a research made by Harvard University, the technical advantages promised by such robotics will disrupt the way humans engage in combat by introducing new concepts of operation.
Hypersonic and Ballistic Missile Assets are also being developed in several nations. They are very hard to take down. Only a couple of nations have the capability of defending against them. For example, China claims to have the so-called “Carrier Killer” ballistic missile and although it is not tested against an evasive unwilling moving target.
Robots
Space weapons
Specialists believe that one of the most popular weapons in the wars of the future could be robots. They are supposed to replace humans on battlefields. In 2005 the New York Times reported Pentagon’s plans to do that and save human lives.
Weapons used in space warfare include arms that can attack space systems on orbit, attack targets on Earth or disable missiles traveling through space. Countries exploring this technology include the U.S., Russia and China. Their development could lead to converting space into the next battleground, despite international pressure against it.
| Wikipedia Commons
Apart from military many countries around the globe are also working on artificial intelligence. For example, the U.S. is developing the weapon that is able to identify targets and make decisions to shoot by itself. The race between countries with huge military potential to develop the best futuristic weapons continues and more and more money
is invested to achieve the goals. Experts believe that in ten years we will see the functional versions of laser weapons or military robots, as well as other arms that are currently under development. And it will definitely change the modern wars. It is yet to be discovered whether these new weapons could reduce human loss or lead to more deaths.
Q&A
Lance Winslow
Author of Future Weapons Tech Series eBooks
What kind of new weapons will we see in the future? – I see several new weapon systems on the horizon both near term and beyond-line-of-sight. In 3-5 years,
10-years at most, which actually is a long time when it comes to research and development to actual battle space usage to full production, we will see quite a few advances in weapons technologies. We will see lots of robotics, autonomous solutions, cyber, stealth, and artificial intelligence, which means that new iterations or production blocks of current technologies will have much greater capability, perhaps to the point that although these defence systems may look old -- same basic airframe, ammunition size, or outer structure -- they will appear in performance to be game-changers. Let’s
take steerable munitions, bullets, or MAV (micro-air-vehicle) flying, hovering, loitering hand-grenades for instance. Do you think we will soon see laser weapons? – Yes and in the U.S. we are already there, now onto the challenge of miniaturisation. Perhaps building a small laser system the size of a small refrigerator to fit into the bomb bay. I have no doubt that will happen within 5-10 years, great for our allies who buy our stealthy F-35, but bad for any and all adversaries.
Could you give an example of what the U.S. is working on now? – We are working on a smaller system mounted on truck and Humvee, we’ve proven concept. In the U.S. we also have ship mounted laser weapons devices for defence too. In the near future perhaps even a hand-held device, no not like a Star Trek Phaser, but more like a larger version of an assault rifle. There are still challenges with these types of weapons such as air-density and the type of laser in airborne applications. The problem is the time required on target for a good kill when using lasers to defend against
swarm attack. Will we see the use of alternative energies in the military industry? – Yes, of course. The push for Climate Change is sending lots of research dollars into alternative energy, and the militaries of the world need energy, it takes a lot of energy to run a Navy, Army, or Air Force. Hint: Nuclear Powered Aircraft Carriers and Submarines. As these alternative energy innovations come into fruition and can compete with fossil fuels on cost, we will see much more of them.
How do you think wars will change in the future? – One challenge we will see in the future is robotic systems going out and killing entire human armies, then we will see a global agreement to ban it because human populations will demand that. Then we might see robots fighting robots, with the loser giving in to the argument that started the political impasse. Also, we could see nations agreeing to arbitrate by way of virtual war gaming, multi-player VR video games. No one actually dies, but best players of the game are rewarded by their civilisations with accolades.