The battlefield is rapidly becoming multi-domain, meaning that fighting future conflicts will require the integration of various physical and non-physical “spaces” such as the sea surface, underwater environment, air environment, space environment and cyber environment, writes Inside Over.

In its broadest interpretation, the concept of multi-domain also includes other areas such as information, economics and all those non-military measures of assertion or coercion that are central to hybrid warfare, often referred to as the “grey area”.

Hypersonic missiles

Returning to the military realm, we cannot help but consider the emergence of new technologies (or new applications of those of the past) called “disruptive” technologies.

The most famous, especially due to the fact that it has the most media resonance due to the recent conflict in Ukraine, are hypersonic missile systems, that is, those missile systems (but not only) that are capable of developing speeds of more than Mach 5 (five times the speed of sound) and support them for most of the flight.

h: On the turn of race 3: Russia-USA-China / Europe

According to CNN, at the end of May, the Ministry of Defense of Russia announced the successful test launch of the hypersonic cruise missile “Zirkon” with a range of about 1,000 km. The missile was launched from the Barents Sea and hit a target in the White Sea, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported.

Russia successfully tested its new hypersonic missile “Zirkon” Photo: Sputnik / Profimedia Images

Then, in July, the US Air Force successfully test-fired a hypersonic missile made by Lockheed Martin, amid growing concern that Russia and China have made more progress in developing hypersonic weapons of their own, Reuters reported.

Aviation Rapid Response Weapons (ARRW) are moved under the wing of the aircraft before launching to the target. During the previous tests, the weapon did not detach from the aircraft.

• Read also: When the Russian Navy will receive the new “only in the world” hypersonic missiles “Zirkon”. Putin stated this

According to the Financial Times, last August China tested a hypersonic missile capable of carrying nuclear weapons. The top US military official, General Mark Milley, publicly confirmed the test at the time.

He compared the test to the launch of the USSR’s first artificial satellite, Sputnik, in October 1957, which surprised the US and started the space race.

In 2019, China already introduced the DF-17 hypersonic missile. This medium-range weapon (about 2,000 km), in the form of a glider, can be equipped with nuclear warheads.

American supersonic rocket Photo: Video shooting

Hypersonic missiles profoundly revolutionize defense

The development and deployment of cruise missiles and maneuverable hypersonic munitions for ballistic missiles will profoundly revolutionize defense: for example, the HgV (Hypersonic Glide Vehicle) intercontinental ballistic missile, due to its flight profile and capabilities, which is different from that of a classic intercontinental ballistic missile. to maneuver in the atmosphere, radically changing the course and altitude, tests the effectiveness of anti-missile systems in service.

Hypersonic cruise missiles, often designed with nuclear and conventional warheads, due to the extremely high speeds they develop, make it particularly difficult to intercept them with conventional kinetic defense systems (such as Ciws – Close In Weapon Systems), which requires a rethinking of the entire defense architecture of the armed forces. from individual naval units to stationary or mobile ground targets passing through the aircraft themselves.

• Read also: Russians brag about developing “carrier killer”

Currently, the development of powerful directed energy weapons has become a priority, along with the search for kinetic interception capabilities at very high speeds and precision.

Directed energy weapons will be integrated into the design of sixth-generation aircraft: there are currently development programs in the United States (Ngad – Next Generation Air Dominance), Europe (Tempest and Scaf – Système de Combat Aérien du Futur) and Russia for new fighter-bombers.

Russia says it is developing a “miracle weapon”.

In recent years, Russia has announced that it is developing several “miracle weapons” that cannot be countered by Western systems, as part of President Vladimir Putin’s plans to modernize the country’s armed forces.

Russia has announced the development of a new “carrier killer”: the Zmiyevyk ballistic missile with a hypersonic warhead, the TASS news agency reported, citing two sources in the arms industry.

The head of Roscosmos, Dmytro Rogozin, said that Russia is preparing new tests of its Sarmat ballistic missile, also known as Satan-2.

As recently as May, Moscow announced that it had created a laser that could destroy enemy drones “in seconds.” However, military analysts were skeptical of Russia’s statement, and the laser has not yet been seen on the battlefields of Ukraine.

Intercontinental ballistic missile “Sarmat” Photo: Telegram Dmytro Rogozin

Artificial Intelligence

The emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) and its use in the military is another revolutionary technology on the battlefield that is closely related to the world of unmanned vehicles.

The advanced automation of the decision-making process is reflected in the ability to autonomously determine the location of the target and the ability to attack it in the mode.

Even classic cruise launchers are equipped with a certain degree of autonomy, allowing them to identify the best target or, moving to the maritime sector, artificial intelligence allows the weapon to wait for a target for a long period of time, as in the case of the nuclear-powered Poseidon torpedo with a nuclear warhead of Russian manufacture .

Need for legislation / Russia and China ignore

The future prospects in this field are huge and also require a review of international law because of the serious consequences (and risks) they involve: in the West, at the moment, weapons systems are designed according to the man in the loop. , i.e. under complete human control, whereas elsewhere, such as in Russia, but especially in China, this is not the case: so we speak of human systems outside of technology, cyclic or fully autonomous systems.

Laser system “Persevet” Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Application at the biological level / Cyborgs

Technological research in the military also has applications on a biological level: in late 2020, for example, the French armed forces gave the green light to the development of “augmented soldiers”, which means the possibility of using medical treatments, prosthetics and implants to improve “physical, cognitive, perceptual and psychological abilities” of the soldier, as well as to provide communication with weapons systems and other soldiers.

A kind of man-machine integration that would turn soldiers into bionic organisms capable of resisting fatigue, pain, stress, and connecting with other assets on the battlefield in a completely revolutionary way, that is, by integrating transmitters and “sensors” into the human body.

Research in this field is also underway in other countries, such as Russia, China and the United States, where “biohybrid” research seeks to combine living tissue with machines to create a “cyberorganism,” a kind of cyborg with artificial intelligence.

Staying in the field of biology, we should mention the possibility of creating “ad hoc” biological weapons, although this is not entirely new in the field of conflicts. The development of genetic engineering allows, ideally, to create biological agents that attack only a certain group of individuals or are activated only under certain environmental conditions.

In summary, the war of the future will be fought by an increasing number of unmanned systems, automated or not, with a multi-homed architecture that will connect the soldier on the battlefield, who will wear or use new futuristic equipment, with the pilot in the fighter jet with the weapons operator on a naval unit (surface or underwater), with a satellite system, and will be based on personnel who work behind, but who will be “in front”, that is, those who will implement cyber, information and space warfare.

sources: Inside Over; Financial Times; Reuters; HotNews.ro