Future Warfare

[AnimeFan188]

A Hazardous Form of Peace:

"Of the five conflicts he examines -- North Korea's "frozen" stalemate, Beijing's
expansion in the South China Sea, Russia's "hybrid" invasion of Ukraine, the proxy and
tribal battles in Yemen and the anarchy in the Congo -- none resemble the stereotype of
conventional war.

The greatest trick modern despots ever pulled was to convince the world that war has
ceased to exist by disguising it as other things. In 1999, nine years after Bay's anecdote
and 7 years after Francis Fukuyama's book The End of History and the Last Man
appeared, two Chinese air force colonels wrote a paper to contrive just that. It laid out
how China could defeat America without a conventional confrontation. Their book,
Unrestricted Warfare, proposed an ancient yet largely forgotten strategy to achieve this:
by spreading out offensive activity over so many domains no one component would
individually cross a red line. Then people like the woman who buttonholed Austin Bay
would think nothing was happening until it was too late. The thesis of Colonels Qiao
Liang and Wang Xiangsui was neatly summarized by War on the Rocks:"

See:

https://pjmedia.com/richardfernandez...form-of-peace/

[AnimeFan188]

Air Force prepares to test pod-mounted laser weapons for fighters:

"As the United States attempts to close the capability gap presented by Russian and
Chinese hypersonic missiles, another (even faster) weapon is quickly making its way
toward operational service on American fighter jets: lasers.

It may sound like science fiction, but with weapon systems like the AN/SEQ-3 Laser
Weapon System (also known as the XN-1 LaWS) already completing successful tests
aboard U.S. Navy vessels and the Navy investing another $150 million into Lockheed
Martin’s high energy laser system for deployment on Arleigh Burke-class guided missile
destroyers in the coming years, it seems the world may soon be entering into an era of
directed-energy weapons finding increasing relevance in ordinary combat operations.

“Laser weapons offer war-fighters opportunities for quick and precise target
engagement, flexibility and lighter and more responsive support logistics,” Eva Blaylock,
spokeswoman for the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), told Warrior Maven. The
laboratory has been leading the way in the effort to miniaturize laser weapon
technology sufficiently to make it both small enough and light enough to be carried
aboard military aircraft. Unlike the now defunct Boeing YAL-1, which used a large
chemical oxygen iodine laser (COIL) housed inside a 747 airliner to shoot down ballistic
missiles, these new weapons will be compact enough to be carried by aircraft like the
F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, though admittedly, they anticipate testing these weapons
aboard C-130 and C-17 airframes first, before moving on to smaller platforms."

See:

https://thenewsrep.com/116229/air-fo...-for-fighters/

[AnimeFan188]

Chronic Conflict in the Global World: Right at Your
Doorstep or on Your Computer:

"Modern warfare as practiced less resembles WWII than the rocket attacks from Gaza
into Israel or the shooting up of "Easter worshippers" in Sri Lanka. The goal isn't the
capture of geographical features but to gain media column inches, invitations to talk
shows, followers on Twitter and the like. The objective is not the conquest of a state
but its takeover by means of assisting to power the domestic political force most
congenial to the attacker. "Collusion" and political effects are not the exception but the
entire point of modern hostile operations. The 2020 election, not Sugarloaf Hill, is the
new high ground.

In fairness, this is exactly the game America is playing against Iran. The U.S. doesn't
want to conquer territory but ensure that a "moderate" or "reformist" faction comes to
power in Tehran. It would be silly to think China and Russia are not trying the same
stunt on Washington. That's why the cry "sappers are in the wire" is still valid even
though it's a different kind of sapper and a different kind of wire: the Internet and 5G.

Our conception of international conflict, molded by the events of the 20th century, may
now be obsolete. Conflict is now "always on" in our brave new global world, occurring
right at your doorstep or on your computer. The universal liberty briefly promised by
the fall of the Soviet Union has vanished, replaced by a chronic unease hidden just
beneath the surface like a fire kept in check but never quite extinguished."

See:

https://pjmedia.com/richardfernandez...ies-of-shadow/

[AnimeFan188]

Animated Rendering of Space Battles With Nuclear Orion Spaceships:

"Animations of nuclear battleship Orions fighting in space. It was created by Rhysy
who has made some of the best Project Orion related animations.

In George Dyson’s book, he mentioned an Orion battleship model that was shown to
President Kennedy. President Kennedy chose not to develop the project. Kennedy
made this choice because he did not want the arms race to go that extreme. This was
not a cancellation based upon technical problems.

Russia is now building superweapon concepts that were conceived in the 1960s that
were never built.

A technically feasible superweapon is the Project Orion Nuclear Battleships.

Russia’s President Putin seems to making different choices in regards to using nuclear
weapons into feasible superweapons.

This video shows where this ends up with fleets of nuclear Orion Battleships fighting
in our solar system."

See:

https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2019/0...paceships.html

[AnimeFan188]

Manned Fighter To Face Autonomous Drone Next Year In Sci-Fi
Movie-Like Showdown:

"The Air Force is hoping to pit an autonomous drone equipped with an artificial
intelligence-driven flight control system against a fighter jet with a human pilot in a
little over a year. The service has described this effort in the past as a "big moonshot"
that could revolutionize air-to-air combat in ways that have so far been limited to the
realm of fiction - at least as far as we know.

Air Force Lieutenant General Jack Shanahan, head of the Joint Artificial Intelligence
Center (JAIC), revealed that the Air Force had set the goal of holding the faceoff in
July 2021 during a remote event that the Air Force Association's Mitchell Institute for
Aerospace Studies held on June 4, 2020. The Pentagon established the JAIC in 2018
to serve as a central point of focus for AI developments and related activities across
the U.S. military.

Shanahan did not offer any details about the design of the unmanned aircraft that is
supposed to take part in this in this future aerial duel or specifics about its planned
capabilities. He did say that Air Force Research Laboratory's (AFRL) Autonomy
Capability Team 3 (ACT3), led by Steve Rogers, was still in charge of the effort, which
Inside Defense first reported the existence of in May 2018. AFRL created ACT3 that
year to focus on AI developments.

Regardless, the general concept of a fully-autonomous unmanned combat air vehicle
(UCAV) capable of air-to-air combat, as well as air-to-ground strikes, hold great
potential to fundamentally change the character of aerial warfare, something The War
Zone has explored in great depth in the past. At its most basic, a UCAV would be able
to perform many of the same functions as manned aircraft, but would be able to make
key decisions faster and more accurately, taking into account much more information
in a shorter period of time, without any concern about being distracted or confused by
the general chaos of combat. They can also be networked into swarms that work
cooperatively to maximize their combat effectiveness at any given time far beyond
what a human-piloted formation could."

See:

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zon...-like-showdown

[AnimeFan188]

'It Is Skynet': Pentagon Envisions Robot Armies
in a Decade

"“Over the next ten to fifteen years, you’ll see large portions of advanced
countries’ militaries become robotic,” Milley said. “If you add robotics with
artificial intelligence and precision munitions and the ability to see at
range, you’ve got the mix of a real fundamental change.”

“That’s coming. Those changes, that technology … we are looking at inside
of 10 years.”"

See:

https://www.theepochtimes.com/in-dep...e_5207504.html