Unmanned Military Weapons Systems and the Future of Warfare

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The art of war is simple...kill your enemy, destroy their resources, and eliminate their ability to wage war against you and your interests. How we accomplish those goals and objectives is more complex and difficult due to political, logistical, and moral complications. In today’s day and age, with the emergence of communications technology, the social stigmatism countries face when innocent non-combatants are killed or injured weighs negatively on the country’s ability to wage war in a very important area of successful warfare, the psychological aspect. The ability to project armaments on intended targets with minimal collateral human and unintended material damage is critical to winning the hearts and minds of the average person. The aim of this paper is to present a brief synopsis of the history and technological advancements in unmanned military weapons systems in modern warfare and the roles that these systems may play in the future, not only in warfare but also in non-warfare roles.

Since the beginning of time, the way humans have waged war has evolved through ingenuity and progressive technology. During the Revolutionary War’s Battle of Bunker Hill, Colonel William Prescott’s famous saying “Don’t fire, till you see the whites of their eyes” (Free Republic) was indicative of the close proximity combatants had to be with each other. Killing your enemy was up close and personal, you actually saw the target you were aiming at. Guns were single shot and slow to reload, often leading to hand-to-hand combat, which in my opinion, makes killing more difficult morally. As the industrial revolution took hold after the Revolutionary War, and with the emergence of automatic guns, tanks, airplanes, and missiles, close combat...

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...opments and make every effort to determine whether we can use those advances for the betterment of society and humanity as a whole. Technological advances carries a sometimes unknown element of surprise and change in our systems, as very small differences in the initial conditions of these systems can grow into very large differences as time passes (Cornish, 2004), which is not good for our future generations.

Works Cited

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/1788168/posts

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/ambush/

Hoffman, M. (2009, March 1) UAV pilot career field could save $1.5B Audit suggests

eliminating ‘unnecessary’ training.

Air Force Times. Retrieved from http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2009/03/airforce_uav_audit_030109/

Cornish, Edward. 2004. Futuring: The Exploration of the Future. Bethesda, MD: World

Future Society.

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