Military technology
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Military technology is the application of technology for use in
The line is porous;
Military technology is usually researched and developed by
Armament engineering is the design, development, testing and lifecycle management of military weapons and systems. It draws on the knowledge of several traditional engineering disciplines, including
History
This section is divided into the broad cultural developments that affected military technology.
Ancient technology
The first use of stone tools may have begun during the Paleolithic Period. The earliest stone tools are from the site of Lomekwi, Turkana, dating from 3.3 million years ago. Stone tools diversified through the Pleistocene Period, which ended ~12,000 years ago.[2] The earliest evidence of warfare between two groups is recorded at the site of Nataruk in Turkana, Kenya, where human skeletons with major traumatic injuries to the head, neck, ribs, knees and hands, including an embedded obsidian bladelet on a skull, are evidence of inter-group conflict between groups of nomadic hunter-gatherers 10,000 years ago.[3]
Humans entered the
The first large-scale use of iron weapons began in Asia Minor around the 14th century BCE and in Central Europe around the 11th century BCE followed by the Middle East (about 1000 BCE) and India and China.[5]
The Assyrians are credited with the introduction of horse cavalry in warfare and the extensive use of iron weapons by 1100 BCE. Assyrians were also the first to use iron-tipped arrows.[5]
Post-classical technology
The Wujing Zongyao (Essentials of the Military Arts), written by Zeng Gongliang, Ding Du, and others at the order of Emperor Renzong around 1043 during the Song dynasty illustrate the eras focus on advancing intellectual issues and military technology due to the significance of warfare between the Song and the Liao, Jin, and Yuan to their north. The book covers topics of military strategy, training, and the production and employment of advanced weaponry.[6]
Advances in military technology aided the
Although the destructive effects of gunpowder were described in the earlier Tang dynasty by a Daoist alchemist, the earliest developments of the gun barrel and the projectile-fire cannon were found in late Song China. The first art depiction of the Chinese 'fire lance' (a combination of a temporary-fire flamethrower and gun) was from a Buddhist mural painting of Dunhuang, dated circa 950.[8] These 'fire-lances' were widespread in use by the early 12th century, featuring hollowed bamboo poles as tubes to fire sand particles (to blind and choke), lead pellets, bits of sharp metal and pottery shards, and finally large gunpowder-propelled arrows and rocket weaponry.[7]: 220–221 Eventually, perishable bamboo was replaced with hollow tubes of cast iron, and so too did the terminology of this new weapon change, from 'fire-spear' huo qiang to 'fire-tube' huo tong.[7]: 221 This ancestor to the gun was complemented by the ancestor to the cannon, what the Chinese referred to since the 13th century as the 'multiple bullets magazine erupter' bai zu lian zhu pao, a tube of bronze or cast iron that was filled with about 100 lead balls.[7]: 263–264
The earliest known depiction of a gun is a sculpture from a cave in
As noted before, the change in terminology for these new weapons during the Song period were gradual. The early Song cannons were at first termed the same way as the Chinese
The 14th-century
Modern technology
Armies
The Islamic
Rapid development in military technology had a dramatic impact on armies and navies in the industrialized world in 1740–1914.[12] For land warfare, cavalry faded in importance, while infantry became transformed by the use of highly accurate more rapidly loading rifles, and the use of smokeless powder. Machine guns were developed in the 1860s in Europe. Rocket artillery and the Mysorean rockets, both pioneered by Indian Muslim Tipu Sultan, became more powerful as new high explosives (based on nitroglycerin) arrived during the Anglo-Mysore Wars[dubious ], and the French introduced much more accurate rapid-fire field artillery. Logistics and communications support for land warfare dramatically improved with use of railways and telegraphs. Industrialization provided a base of factories that could be converted to produce munitions, as well as uniforms, tents, wagons and essential supplies. Medical facilities were enlarged and reorganized based on improved hospitals and the creation of modern nursing, typified by Florence Nightingale in Britain during the Crimean War of 1854–56.[13]
Naval warfare was transformed by many innovations,[14] most notably the coal-based steam engine, highly accurate long-range naval guns, heavy steel armour for battleships, mines, and the introduction of the torpedo, followed by the torpedo boat and the destroyer. Coal after 1900 was eventually displaced by more efficient oil, but meanwhile navies with an international scope had to depend on a network of coaling stations to refuel. The British Empire provided them in abundance, as did the French Empire to a lesser extent. War colleges developed, as military theory became a specialty; cadets and senior commanders were taught the theories of Jomini, Clausewitz and Mahan, and engaged in tabletop war games. Around 1900, entirely new innovations such as submarines and airplanes appeared, and were quickly adapted to warfare by 1914. The British HMS Dreadnought (1906) incorporated so much of the latest technology in weapons, propulsion and armour that it at a stroke made all other battleships obsolescent.[15]
Organization and finance
New financial tools were developed to fund the rapidly increasing costs of warfare, such as popular bond sales and income taxes, and the funding of permanent research centers.
Postmodern technology
The postmodern stage of military technology emerged in the 1940s, and one with recognition thanks to the high priority given during the war to scientific and engineering research and development regarding nuclear weapons, radar, jet engines, proximity fuses, advanced submarines, aircraft carriers, and other weapons. The high-priority continues into the 21st century.[21] It involves the military application of advanced scientific research regarding nuclear weapons, jet engines, ballistic and guided missiles, radar, biological warfare, and the use of electronics, computers and software.[22][23]
Space
During the Cold War, the world's two great superpowers – the
By the end of the 1960s, both countries regularly deployed satellites.
The superpowers developed ballistic missiles to enable them to use nuclear weaponry across great distances. As rocket science developed, the range of missiles increased and intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) were created, which could strike virtually any target on Earth in a timeframe measured in minutes rather than hours or days. To cover large distances ballistic missiles are usually launched into sub-orbital spaceflight.
As soon as intercontinental missiles were developed, military planners began programmes and strategies to counter their effectiveness.
Mobilization
A significant portion of military technology is about transportation, allowing troops and weaponry to be moved from their origins to the front. Land transport has historically been mainly by foot, land vehicles have usually been used as well, from chariots to tanks.
When conducting a battle over a body of water, ships are used. There are historically two main categories of ships: those for transporting troops, and those for attacking other ships.
Soon after the invention of aeroplanes, military aviation became a significant component of warfare, though usually as a supplementary role. The two main types of military aircraft are bombers, which attack land- or sea-based targets, and fighters, which attack other aircraft.
Military vehicles are land combat or transportation vehicles, excluding rail-based, which are designed for or in significant use by military forces.
- List of military vehicles
- List of armoured fighting vehicles
- List of tanks
Military aircraft includes any use of aircraft by a country's military, including such areas as transport, training, disaster relief, border patrol, search and rescue, surveillance, surveying, peacekeeping, and (very rarely) aerial warfare.
Warships are watercraft for combat and transportation in and on seas and oceans.
- Submarines
- Complex masting and sail systems found on warships during the Age of Sail
- List of historical ship and boat types
- List of aircraft carriers
- List of submarine classes
Defence
Fortifications are military constructions and buildings designed for defence in warfare. They range in size and age from the Great Wall of China to a Sangar.
Sensors and communication
Sensors and communication systems are used to detect enemies, coordinate movements of armed forces and guide weaponry. Early systems included flag signaling, telegraph and heliographs.
- Laser guidance
- Missile guidance
- Norden Bombsight
- Proximity fuse
- Radar
- Satellite guidancein guidance weapons
Future technology
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is an agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of new technologies for use by the military. DARPA leads the development of military technology in the United States and today, has dozens of ongoing projects; everything from humanoid robots to bullets that can change path before reaching their target. China has a similar agency.
Emerging territory
Current militaries continue to invest in new technologies for the future.[24] Such technologies include cognitive radar , 5g cellular networks,[25] microchips, semiconductors, and large scale analytic engines.[26]
Additionally, many militaries seek to improve current laser technology. For example, Israeli Defense Forces utilize laser technology to disable small enemy machinery, but seek to move to more large scale capabilities in the coming years.[27]
Militaries across the world continue to perform research on autonomous technologies which allow for increased troop mobility or replacement of live soldiers.[28] Autonomous vehicles and robots are expected to play a role in future conflicts;[28] this has the potential to decrease loss of life in future warfare. Observers of transhumanism note high rates of technological terms in military literature, but low rates for explicitly transhuman-related terms.[29]
Today's hybrid style of warfare also calls for investments in information technologies. Increased reliance on computer systems has incentivized nations to push for increased efforts at managing large scale networks and having access to large scale data.[30]
New strategies of cyber and hybrid warfare includes, network attacks, media analysis, and media/ grass-roots campaigns on medias such as blog posts[31]
Cyberspace
In 2011, the US Defense Department declared cyberspace a new domain of warfare; since then DARPA has begun a research project known as "Project X" with the goal of creating new technologies that will enable the government to better understand and map the cyber territory. Ultimately giving the Department of Defense the ability to plan and manage large-scale cyber missions across dynamic network environments.[32]
See also
- List of military inventions
- List of emerging military technologies
- Bellifortis, late medieval treatise on military technology.
- Materiel
References
- ^ Douglas Peifer, "The Transfer of Military and Naval Technology," Europäische Geschichte Online (EGO), published by the Leibniz Institute of European History (IEG), Mainz 2019-05-03.
- ISBN 978-0-87905-911-8.
- S2CID 4462435.
- ^ Iron In Africa: Revising The History : Unesco. UNESCO. Retrieved 20 November 2014.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-85109-672-5.
- ^ Teachers' Guide for Military Technology (PDF), 26 November 2001, p. 1, archived (PDF) from the original on 9 October 2022, retrieved 20 November 2014
- ^ ISBN 9780521303583. Retrieved 20 November 2014.
- ^ Needham, Volume 5, Part 7, 224–225.
- S2CID 112733319.
- ISBN 9780801859540. Retrieved 20 November 2014.
- ^ "Missiles mainstay of Pak's N-arsenal". The Times of India. 21 April 2008. Archived from the original on 24 September 2012. Retrieved 30 August 2011.
- ^ Max Boot, War made new: technology, warfare, and the course of history, 1500 to today (Penguin, 2006).
- ^ B.H. Liddell Hart, "Armed Forces in the Art of War: Armies", in J.P.T. Bury, ed., The New Cambridge Modern History: volume X: The Zenith of European Power 1830–70 (1967), 302–330.
- ^ Michael Lewis, "Armed Forces in the Art of War: Navies", in J.P.T. Bury, ed., The New Cambridge Modern History: Volume X: The Zenith of European Power 1830–70 (1967), 274–301.
- ^ David K. Brown, Warrior to Dreadnought: Warship Development 1860–1905(2003).
- ^ Michael Howard, "The armed forces." In F.H. Hinsley, ed. "The new Cambridge modern history: volume XI: 1870–1898" (1962) pp 204–42.
- ^ John Sumida, In Defence of Naval Supremacy: Finance, Technology, and British Naval Policy 1889–1914 Naval Institute Press, 2014.
- JSTOR 1985709.
- ^ Jeffrey, Thomas E. (2016). "'Commodore' Edison Joins the Navy: Thomas Alva Edison and the Naval Consulting Board". Journal of Military History. 80 (2): 411–46.
- ^ L.F. Haber, The poisonous cloud: chemical warfare in the First World War (Oxford UP, 1986).
- ^ Harry Bondy, "Postmodernism and the source of military strength in the Anglo West." Armed Forces & Society 31#1 (2004): 31–61.
- ^ Richard S. Friedman and Bill Gunston, Advanced Technology Warfare: A Detailed Study of the Latest Weapons and Techniques for Warfare Today and into the 21st Century (1985)
- ^ Everett Mendelsohn, Merritt Roe Smith, and Peter Weingart, eds. Science, technology and the military (Springer Science & Business Media, 2013).
- ^ Lundmark, Martin; Andersson, Kent; Bull, Peter; Dansarie, Marcus (2019). Technology Forecast 2019 – Military Utility of Future Technologies : A report from seminars at the Swedish Defence University's (SEDU) Military Technology Division. Försvarshögskolan (FHS).
- ^ Lundmark, Martin; Andersson, Kent; Bull, Peter; Dansarie, Marcus (2019). Technology Forecast 2019 – Military Utility of Future Technologies : A report from seminars at the Swedish Defence University's (SEDU) Military Technology Division. Försvarshögskolan (FHS).
- S2CID 211411921.
- PMID 26017426.
- ^ a b Kopuletý, Michal; Rolenec, Ota. "THE REQUIREMENTS FOR FUTURE MILITARY ROBOTS SUPPORTING MOBILITY – Defence & Strategy". obranaastrategie.cz. Retrieved 6 December 2019.
- ^ Evans, Woody (2019). "Transhumanism (dot) Mil: A Bibliometric Analysis of Technoprogressive Terms in Military Publications". Library Philosophy and Practice.
- ISSN 0040-1625.
- JSTOR 26326478.
- ^ Pellerin, Cheryl. "DARPA's Plan X Uses New Technologies to 'See' Cyber Effects". America Forces Press Service. US Department of Defense. Retrieved 21 November 2014.
Further reading
- Andrade, Tonio. The Gunpowder Age: China, military innovation, and the rise of the West in world history (Princeton UP, 2016).
- Black, Jeremy. Tools of War (2007) covers 50 major inventions. excerpt
- Boot, Max. War made new: technology, warfare, and the course of history, 1500 to today (Penguin, 2006).
- Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 2 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 582–590.
- Dupuy, Trevor N. The evolution of weapons and warfare (1984), 350pp, cover 2000 BC to late 20th century.
- Ellis, John. The Social History of the Machine Gun (1986).
- Gabriel, Richard A., and Karen S. Metz. From Sumer to Rome: The Military capabilities of ancient armies (ABC-CLIO, 1991).
- Hacker, Barton (2005). "The Machines of War: Western Military Technology 1850–2000". History & Technology. 21 (3): 255–300. S2CID 144113139.
- Levy, Jack S (1984). "The offensive/defensive balance of military technology: A theoretical and historical analysis". International Studies Quarterly. 28 (2): 219–238. JSTOR 2600696.
- McNeill, William H. The Pursuit of Power: Technology, Armed Force, and Society since A.D. 1000 (1984).
- Parker, Geoffrey. The Military Revolution: Military Innovation and the Rise of the West (1988).
- Steele, Brett D. and Tamara Dorland. Heirs of Archimedes: Science & the Art of War through the Age of Enlightenment (2005) 397 pp.