posted on Dec, 6 2011 @ 05:51 PM
The next war may see the end of a lot of major weapon systems.
Most of what we have now is designed to fight hordes of Russians crossing the Fulda gap.
The F22 will be the last manned fighter for sure.
Drones and Hypersonic missiles remove the need for aircraft carriers and maybe even bombers.
Not to mention they are giant floating targets for ship killers.
As far as I know the submarine seems to be ok for the future and may replace the carrier for force projection.
Plus there is talk of small unmanned submarine drones.
The job of Artillery is getting replaced by drones. Commanders want precision kills now, not the ability to level an entire grid square. And
politicians like less collateral damage.
That only leaves infantry and tanks.
Infantry? They're still screwed, he may get a better rifle, smart rounds, optical camouflage and ability to call down thunderbolts from the sky but
they will always be stuck in the mud. No matter what happens it will always be an 18 year old with a rifle holding the ground.
That leaves Tanks.
Missiles will get cheaper, smaller and smarter. Someone will eventfully come up with kamikaze drones.
Basically they just hang around and told "Go to X spot and find the biggest metallic object out there and Ram it"
Not very hard to find an 70 ton battle tank.
In WWII the Russians strapped explosives to dogs with a trigger switch on their back.
They were trained to run under tanks, trigger goes off, Kaboom.
Rough on Fido but I guess it worked well enough that Germans started shooting dogs on sight.
Take the same idea and apply it to a small robotic tank.
It doesn't have to go far and can be made cheap.
Contrary to the fantasies of many people no major power, U.S., China, Russia, can afford to invade the other.
So the next Major war may have to be short and brutal, with possible limited tactical nuclear exchange.
By limited I mean to battle field targets not cities.
Or a long protracted asymmetrical war.
Either way there's not much use for hordes of tanks.