Technological warfare

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Technological advances have played a growing influence in the weapons of war and how war is waged. Technology has aided and is used in every type of service from the infantry to the airplanes of modern militaries. Guidance systems used in missiles are very technologically advanced and can be used to fight wars on from the front lines of battle, the air, and even from friendly territory. This paper examines how technology is used in modern day military equipment and explains how each technologically advanced weapon contributes to the growth of technological warfare.

Contents 1 Advances in Front Line Weapons 1.1 Infantry 1.2 Armor 2 Air Power 2.1 Anti-Aircraft Weapons 2.2 Aircraft 3 Guided Missiles 3.1 Basic Guided Missiles 3.2 Nuclear Weapons 4 Conclusion

[edit] Advances in Front Line Weapons

[edit] Infantry

During the modern era and for most of the twentieth century, infantrymen relied on ordinary tools like flashlights and their eyesight to fight wars. However, in the recent decades, that has somewhat changed. Nowadays, soldiers of many militaries are equipped with night vision that allows them to see during nighttime operations. Night vision works in several ways. Some types pick up any light in a particular area and amplify it several thousand times using an image intensifier. Other kinds project infrared light and produce an image from the light reflected back. Still other kinds of night vision goggles show anything that that lets off heat radiation in a certain place. Night vision allows soldiers to see their surroundings nearly as clear as they could during the day and grant troops the ability to perform in combat in even the darkest areas. This type of vision is given to pilots and tankers to allow them to fight after dark as well. Night vision is just one of the many discoveries that is starting to change the way war is fought.

Infantry weapons in general have become more specialized do to emerging technology. Mortars in many militaries are equipped with a Blast Attenuation Device that reduce the blast effects of the indirect fire weapon on those who man it. Anti-armor weapons are now guided through wire or radio. Certain types of anti-tank weapons fire shells that are guided manually by an operator, who does so using a device similar to a joystick. In the past, anti-tank weapons were aimed like regular rifles and weren’t fired manually.

[edit] Armor

The twentieth century saw the emergence of tanks during the First World War. These armored vehicles were themselves a technological achievement in, but as the years passed, tanks became more advanced. Today, the best tanks are armored with a type of composite armor that is formed by several layers of steel and ceramics. The main US battle tank, the M1 Abrams, which is used in several other countries as well, is equipped with some of the latest military technology. It is equipped with a fire control computer, a laser rangefinder, and a CANT sensor. The advanced fire control system allows for either the tank commander or the gunner to fire the big gun. The tank is also equipped with night vision. The technologically advanced aiming system and powerful cannon of the M1 allows the crew to blow away enemy targets from over 4,000 meters away.^{[citation needed]}

However, other tanks and armored vehicles aren’t as powerful as the M1. Other military fighting vehicles can perform a variety of tasks from firing guided missiles to making medical evacuations. These powerful tanks (for lack of a better word) contain sophistically designed armor systems and are generally up to speed with the M1 in terms of fighting capabilities. The sophisticated armor and computer systems of US armored vehicles make them a deadly, but valuable addition to the military.

[edit] Air Power

[edit] Anti-Aircraft Weapons

The armed forcers of many militaries use Surface To Air Missiles (SAMs) as anti aircraft weapons. These missiles can be guided in a number of ways. Some are heat seeking, meaning that they’re programmed to be attracted to the heat of an airborne object (usually a plane). When the missile gets close enough to the plane, it explodes in a variety of ways that usually bring down the plane successfully. Certain kinds of missiles simply ram into the object that they’re tracking. Other types of SAMs and guided missiles are radar guided. These types of weapons use various types of sophisticated radars to lead the missile to the target. Still other types of guided missiles are directed using radio waves or other types of electronics. The main SAM of the US military, the Patriot guided missile, uses a phased array guidance system. This system uses a group of antennas, to which signals are fed. These signals are varied in such a way that the radio pattern of the array is forced in the desired direction. These advanced SAM systems are used to take down enemy aircraft and even ballistic and guided missiles. The sophisticated technology used in these is another factor that brings about technological warfare.

Anti-aircraft fire was relatively the same for a long period of time. From the First World War through the Korean War, anti-aircraft machine guns and anti-aircraft artillery (AAA, which used time fused shells that exploded at a certain altitude) were fired manually without sophisticated aiming systems or tracking devices. However, as computers came about, that began to change. Anti-aircraft weapons began to use computers and sophisticated radars to track airplanes. Some types were programmed to fire machine guns and AAA automatically at hostile planes when either the radar or the computer detected them. Other types have crews that man the weapons but use the computer and radar to track and aim enemy aircraft. These weapons use extremely sophisticated technology that has come about in recent times and have thus contributed to the start of technological warfare.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Aircraft

Most modern aircraft use very sophisticated technology as well. Many fighters are equipped with computers that can identify aircraft as hostile or friendly and can be equipped with laser guided bombs and missiles. Bombs dropped from warplanes direct a bomb towards its intended target, and certain kinds of radar systems allow pilots and crews of airplanes to identify ground targets from far away.^{[citation needed]} Guided missiles are also used on many fighter planes. These missiles can be used to destroy an enemy airplane from miles away, in certain cases from out of the pilots visual range. This means that because computers can detect enemy aircraft from miles away, the pilot no longer needs to view an enemy aircraft in order to attack it.

On many bombers, radar is used to detect and find targets. These radars are operated by a highly trained professional and allow for considerable accuracy while on bomb raids. During World War II, bomb operators had to find their target visually. When it comes to defending the bombers, defensive guns can be programmed to target and fire on an attacker either by themselves or by a remote control. The new systems used on both bombers and fighters in the militaries today show the growing influence of technology in warfare.

[edit] Guided Missiles

[edit] Basic Guided Missiles

Most guided missiles are guided by radar or attracted to the heat of an object (heat seeking). These types of missiles were first developed by Germany in World War II and were operated during the last year of the war.^{[citation needed]} As time progressed however, the missiles became more advanced. Today, there are many methods of guidance. Some missiles are guided using radar, others use radio waves, and still others (mainly anti-tank and aircraft missiles) are heat sinking. The types of radar have grown more advanced as time went by and now use a complex system of wires for using radio waves. Some types of missile, for example the AGM-65 Maverick, are guided manually using a device similar to a joystick, with a video monitor, showing video of the missile's bearing, serving as a visual aid. Guided missiles can be very powerful and can wreak widespread devastation.^{[citation needed]} However, the sophisticated tracking devices make it so that the devastation is usually limited to enemy military targets. The complex technology that is used in guided missiles shows the influence of technology in modern warfare.

[edit] Nuclear Weapons

Nuclear weapons, the most deadly weapons ever known to man, can also be classified as guided missiles, when deployed as warheads of a missile or bomb. They use similar guidance systems to regular guided missiles and can be fired miles away from their intended targets (necessary due to their wide blast radius).^{[citation needed]} The science used in building these weapons is aided by technological developments. The power of nuclear weapons shows the growing influence of technology in warfare.

[edit] Conclusion

Technological warfare has come about through the use of modern technology in the weapons of the military. Guidance systems appear to be the most influential to the military as they are used in everything from tanks to missiles. Technology has brought improvements to front-line weapons, missiles, and air power. These advances make the militaries of today more effective and have opened up a new type of warfare.