(Translate this site) Search this site Site web log(s) First aid for broken links

Future War Technologies (of the 2060s) Sponser this page This page last updated on or about 2-6-02

GOOGLE CACHE INDEX Site map Latest site updates Site author

Back to 2050-2081 AD...

2060s milestone: state-of-the-art war toys

These locust-like clouds of death and destruction are today used by the advanced nations as the first wave of attack in war, rather than artilliary barrages, cruise missiles, or aerial bombings. Partly for their terror value, as by now everyone on the globe as seen graphic video of troops, tanks, aircraft and warships meeting pestX clouds in combat-- with devastating results.

PestX clouds can penetrate almost anything short of heavily armored spacecraft or undersea vessels, and human flesh and bone are like jello to them. If denied penetration to vulnerable parts of an enemy, the pestX clouds can simply gum up the works of exposed moving mechanical parts such as propellors and rotor blades, or do other damage, such as blocking gun barrels and missile tubes to induce misfires and explosions.

PestX clouds/carpets are typically composed of immense numbers of flea-sized/gnat-sized micromachines, that may fly, crawl, jump, or swim for mobility. The clouds/carpets may function in a standalone mode of 'collective intelligence' perhaps equivalent to a bee hive or ant farm under some circumstances, but typically are supervised in near-realtime by satellite, submarine, or aircraft hundreds of miles distant.

PestX technology has largely replaced elite covert military units of human beings. PestX has also replaced first strike Marine landing forces as well in invasive assaults on enemy territory. Soldiers are still used, but mostly only follow far behind in the wake of PestX clouds/carpets attacks.

Technology closely related to PestX also serves as something eerily akin to 'living skin' coating the exteriors of the most highly advanced aircraft/spacecraft of this time (mostly military craft). In these circumstances the technology serves as almost instantaneously 'self-healing' outer skins, as well as redundant control surfaces. Such aircraft/spacecraft are very difficult to put out of commission with anything but a direct and devastating hit-- and even then timing is often important too, such as striking the craft at its most vulnerable, during landings and take offs, etc.

Other attributes of some warcraft of this period (as well as commercial craft ruggedized to survive terrorism or peripheral involvement in military skirmishes) include cold plasma second skins of various sorts, serving a variety of purposes.

Super-cavitation technologies play an important role in many instances too today, including both commercial and military related transport and other devices.

The war machines of the developed nations have also better perfected their use of weather control over past decades. Not only may they usually reliably predict the weather over a four to six week period now, but they may also change it to some degree (though there's a great deal of international argument over their rights to do so, as there's often a price paid in climate byproducts for innocents elsewhere-- and those consequential effects are often wildly unpredictable in form, schedule, severity, and location, impacting the manipulator's own nation at times in a striking 'what-goes-around-comes-around' seeming phenomenon).

Small amounts of weather control were actually performed with varying degrees of success as long as 90 plus years ago, but only in the past few decades has the technology appeared sufficiently practical to be regarded as a weapons system in its own right.

Unfortunately for those who possess this new power, it is no longer as awesome to potential enemies as it might have been a half century or more earlier. The rising tide of technology has elevated forces the world over to levels where only the most severe weather extremes are much more than an inconvenience for modern forces. Of course, more primitive forces (as well as many civilian populations even in the developed nations themselves) remain nearly as vulnerable as ever to bad weather. The only trouble is, those states and civilian populations vulnerable to weather manipulation are not typically the ones challenging the super powers of the day. So today weather control is most often used to reduce the capabilities of enemy space launch and airbase facilities.

Anyway, in those few instances where it is cost-effective to exert military control over the weather in the 2060s, the effects include (assuming a target beginning with a normal baseline of climate for its location) up to a 25 degree difference up or down in local temperature over a region a hundred or more square miles in area, within only a matter of hours, blizzards with up to 14 feet of snow in a few hours, monsoons and related flooding, terrifying extended lifespan severe thunderstorms and high winds (which may or may not produce tornadoes, and on rare occasion develop into hurricanes which may escape the control of the military), severe droughts, and more. How long may such effects be sustained? It varies according to many factors, but usually one to two weeks can be sustained at substantial cost to the party paying for it.

Beyond the 2060s, weather control as a weapon becomes relegated mostly to use in riot control of civilian populations, as well as a handy way for governments to force people to evacuate a given area when ordered. Though, under special circumstances, and in combination with other systems, it'll still help resolve a few of the more intense diplomatic problems on occasion, in centuries to come (usually because it becomes so rarely used this way that some parties 'forget' it's still available, and neglect basic precautions).

Virtually all submerged and airborne combat craft of the developed nations are either unmanned or remotely piloted. A great deal of commercial aviation these days also operates without need of human pilots in the cockpit, or with them available only for backup purposes. And private aircraft gained 100% auto pilot capacities (on the high end) as far back as 20-30 years ago-- well before mid-range autos.

In major military actions still involving human participants on-site there are now two major categories of warrior involved (within the armed forces of the most advanced nations): first, 'hamburger' soldiers: soldiers equipped much like the elite of the 2030s, only with some updates of equipment and tactics (sometimes including a unit enjoying its own dedicated PestX carpet or cloud). 'Hamburger' soldiers are so named because they are among the most vulnerable combat elements in the field now, due to various technological and tactical advances.

Second are the 'dream-mare' soldiers: personnel essentially wearing considerably technologically advanced versions of circa 1998 Comanche helicopter/Abrams battletanks, or other armament functionality as appropriate to the mission and environment. The label comes from the paradoxical nature of these behemoths. Many 'hamburger' soldiers would far prefer the safety, firepower, and pay of a dream-mare assignment in combat-- and also plan to 'run-like-hell' if they (as a hamburger soldier) ever encounter an enemy dream-mare in battle. Another nightmarish aspect of dream-mare gear is the wearer instantly goes from enjoying heavenly protection to enduring hellish torment, if their side in a battle loses air/space superiority in the combat zone, even for a mere matter of minutes. For at that point dream-mare soldiers often become the highest priority targets anywhere around for enemy air and space forces.

These 'dream-mare' soldiers (when encased in their armored battlegear) are essentially cyborgs as large as houses, capable of terrifying speeds, mobility, and destructive power. Built from state-of-the-art micromachines, semi-conducting carbon composites, and other advanced technologies, these monsters eclipse the wildest dreams and nightmares of weapons designers from previous eras.

For all their awesome power though, 'dream-mare' soldiers only dare appear on battlefields where their own forces control the skys; for airborne threats are deadlier still today than dream-mare warriors. Dream-mare warriors are also limited by their great size from participating in actions carried out in cramped quarters; i.e., 'hamburger' units are still required for the taking of many urban environments, etc.

There's fully robotic versions of dream-mares in use too-- but they're judged significantly inferior so far to manned versions, for a variety of reasons, and usually lose any struggle with a manned dream-mare suit. But this is only the case on the ground, where combat can often get much more complicated than in the air or sea. In air and sea, robot (or remotely piloted) craft rule.

However, there's a wealth of robotic weapons platforms on the modern-day battlefield, that still rack up tremendous kills of 'hamburger' soldiers, and occasionally even down a dream-mare warrior or two. And the robot platforms are gradually getting better...

For the vast majority of military personnel throughout the world, life has never been better. They are well paid, highly trained, and typically sit in air conditioned quarters far from any physical conflict, spending much of their time playing with combat simulations involving state-of-the-art high tech toys. Most never see real combat, or even participate in same from remote locations. At their worst moments, they endure hectic scenes reminiscent of the work of civilian aircraft traffic controllers from the late 20th century. Of course, there remains a tiny minority of personnel who must still face deployment in the field as 'hamburger' soldiers...but they represent maybe as little as one person out of ten or twenty in the active armed forces of developed nations today.

On a somewhat related matter: USAmerican politicians and their military industrial complex 'sugar-daddies', frustrated and alarmed by the decline in military budgets and related profits over past decades, as well as their discredit by such obvious debacles as the wasted aircraft carrier and submarine monies of past years, constantly cast about for new ideas to increase military or security budgets again, and so refill their private coffers. Many boondoggles rise from this process, only to be shot down in the light of day. The more secretive measures last longer, but often fall victim to other events. Perhaps one of the worst attempts is the proposal to dig out enormous secret high speed train tunnels deep beneath the continental USAmerica, with periodic undergound cities built at major junctions. Supposedly this immense project would provide last resort shelter for a sizable portion of USAmerican citizens (mostly the women and children, with children being highest priority, and women of child-bearing age second), as a sort of 'life-boat' against major nuclear or bioweapons attacks, or cosmic collisions, as well as a high speed transport for defense of USAmerica itself in time of war. In peacetime, the highspeed, ultra-secure transport system would be available at a premium for the use of citizens (and free to high level politicians). The project actually gets some funding for a while, but eventually is killed (a much smaller version of this project is virtually completed in secret however, for the exclusive use of certain powerful figures of the American elite; by the time the public learns of it though, it's largely irrelevant).

From all the observations above a reader might get the impression that military hardware and software and forces are taking over the world in the 2060s. This is far from the truth. Military forces have actually been shrinking substantially in most nations, in an almost unbroken trend from 2000.

There's many reasons for this: The effect of greater democratization in regions of the world previously under totalitarian/despotic rule. The growing impact of market economics (excessive or misdirected military expenditures are extraordinarily inefficient). The expanding ease and lowering costs of education and training, due to computerization and the internet. Rising living standards for the majority of the world population. Significant new support for certain types of social stability due to the leveling off of population growth worldwide. Increasing productivity and efficiency effectively pushing real costs of many old but essential commodities like food, clothing, and shelter ever downwards. An explosion in dazzling entertainment and recreation options, which dilutes animosity towards others, and keeps a growing number of people engaged in benign pastimes, if not productive ones, during their free time.

Another reason military forces have been steadily downsizing is the emphasis many geophysicals place on 'focused solutions' today; that is, the specific targeting of troublesome individuals and/or organizations to solve many problems, or at least minimize or postpone them. Large military forces do little to help in such matters, compared to highly trained small units, equipped with the best state-of-the-art tools available.

Too, much actual conflict these days is of a cyber or economic nature, rather than physical. In cyberwar, the more physical assets you possess, the more vulnerable you are to attackers, as you must spread your defense and security measures thinner to cover all your resources. This has been one factor in the major pullback of physical military assets by USAmerica from overseas, over past decades. Another drawback to large physical inventories in the late 21st century is similar to what businesses discovered way back in the 20th century: obsolete inventories are enormous drains on efficiency and capital. In the military markets, where one new tech advance can almost overnight make obsolete a whole category of armaments in the field, it's especially important not to be too heavily invested in that armament in the first place. Nations like USAmerica today are still wishing they could have foreseen the rapid replacement of super carriers by towable stealthy offshore platforms converted to war use decades earlier, and so better spent their carrier money in the late 20th/early 21st.

The space battlefield of the 2060s.There's also spaceborne military operations to worry about. These days an enemy tries first and most to damage you via cyberassaults, as they are the easiest, cheapest, and often most effective. However, attacks on spacecraft and satellites are also common now during conflicts, and much easier and cheaper than observers from the late 20th century might expect.

Any nation with military combat aircraft today at least as good as that fielded by USAmerica in 1999 or so (which is most everyone now), is capable of firing missiles from those craft at the edge of space to knock out low orbiting satellites and other spacecraft. Other alternatives include ground-based, sea-based, or airborne lasers and other beam weapons, suitable for blinding, burning, or scrambling satellite sensors and communications. Even simple high altitude balloons may take missiles up to the edge of space and launch them, no warplanes necessary. There's also a few parties harassing satellites with enormous ballistic projectile cannons, some with amplified range due to linear accelerator technology. These ponderous cannon shots are more effective than 20th century observers might expect, as their projectiles can possess some capacity to alter course once fired. Too, some cannon shot are designed to produce a large debris field miles in diameter, that will grind up any hapless satellite which blunders into it. Small nuclear weapons may also be detonated at high altitudes to disable satellites with EMP (electro-magnetic pulse) blasts. Civilians today are not surprised when the internet and/or entertainment conglomerates suffer more glitches than normal during brief but heated conflicts between nations somewhere on the globe, as they are aware that often the supporting satellites are important targets in the game for both parties.

Lastly of course, the true superpowers may all send manned or robotic spacecraft into Earth orbit and attack whatever facilities they please, with little advanced preparation or warning.

Back to 2050-2081 AD...