This is a saying that I grew up with but the actual saying is “If the lights went out tomorrow, he would freeze in the dark.” And I think it applies to today’s (and future) equipment on the battlefield.
The equipment is getting very sophisticated with advent of the computer chip with the US being the leader sophisticated weapons and equipment. The list is endless, Guided bombs, infrared sensors, night scopes, battlefield computers that relay positions to one another, cameras on soldier’s helmets, etc etc. All powered by electricity and the computer chip. If the computer hangs up and has to reboot, or the battery dies or whatever in the heat of battle, can the soldiers keep going without losing a bunch of guys? This is a temporary loss of technology. What happens if it was permanent loss brought on by the enemy? I know there are back up systems and such and soldiers train for such event like a temporary loss, but could soldiers fight and defend for a week with their gadgets. IMO, it takes a different train of thought to do something without a computer. Can our soldiers switch to a new line of thought on the instant?
I know we would recover but how long would it take, I guess is my real question.
Technology has always had its place in war since the first rock was thrown but is it getting too sophisticated? That is my second question.
The equipment is getting very sophisticated with advent of the computer chip with the US being the leader sophisticated weapons and equipment. The list is endless, Guided bombs, infrared sensors, night scopes, battlefield computers that relay positions to one another, cameras on soldier’s helmets, etc etc. All powered by electricity and the computer chip. If the computer hangs up and has to reboot, or the battery dies or whatever in the heat of battle, can the soldiers keep going without losing a bunch of guys? This is a temporary loss of technology. What happens if it was permanent loss brought on by the enemy? I know there are back up systems and such and soldiers train for such event like a temporary loss, but could soldiers fight and defend for a week with their gadgets. IMO, it takes a different train of thought to do something without a computer. Can our soldiers switch to a new line of thought on the instant?
I know we would recover but how long would it take, I guess is my real question.
Technology has always had its place in war since the first rock was thrown but is it getting too sophisticated? That is my second question.
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Unsu...
Re: If the lights went out tomorrow, would we freeze in the dark?
Mon, August 14, 2006 - 11:44 AMIt would be interesting to see what a strong electro magnetic field would do to all that tech stuff. I can swear something will be out sooner or later.
There is the old Murphys law stating: If anything can go wrong, it WILL go wrong sooner or later. It,s just a matter of time. The more complex something is the more things can go wrong. Such a pessimist but i think he has a point. -
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Re: If the lights went out tomorrow, would we freeze in the dark?
Tue, August 15, 2006 - 11:33 AMI am guessing that both electromagnetic pulse weapons will become more important in the future (they were first used in warfare, as far as I know, in 1991) and that military electronics will be increasingly hardened against them. EMP weapons would be especially useful against swarms of small unmanned vehicles, because hardening a small vehicle's electronics would be difficult. Another possibility is the use of electron beam weapons as a means of projecting an EMP directionally and at long range (military sf usually calls this sort of effect an "ion cannon" or "ionic disruptor").
I don't think that we'll go back to simpler weapons, a la Dickson's _Dorsai_ stories, because the advantages of high-tech weapons are just so great. One possibility is that over the 21st century, military computers will convert to photonics systems, which are much harder to disrupt.
Sincerely Yours,
Jordan -
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Unsu...
Re: If the lights went out tomorrow, would we freeze in the dark?
Tue, August 15, 2006 - 2:54 PMI saw a tv program about a computer company, isolating their building with copper plates. They said that they tought that a EMP terrorist attack could be likely in the future. Speaking of something similar to this subject. There has been some major power blackouts in the latest years. Not only in the US.. offcourse one might say that the grid that cant handle the demand, but i think it,s still strange that these power blackouts occured in a cloose time rame to another. Mayby it,s some sort of experiment? Something to shut out the grid with? I cant remember the exact details of this but i feel it,s a bit amazing when it happened in different places. -
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Re: If the lights went out tomorrow, would we freeze in the dark?
Wed, August 16, 2006 - 4:34 PMLet’s stick with the Movie trail for a Minute. In the movies “Independence Day” and “War the Worlds” (Recent with Tom Cruise), Aliens took out our satellites (In I.D.) and used a EMP (in W of W) which left us blind and immobile.
Back to reality now, with the EMPs and Killer satellites out there, we would be in the same boat blind and immobile. We would be back to using “simpler weapons” because half of our targeting systems use GPS somewhere in their systems. No smart bombs and no Tomahawks missiles to name a few. Would we be using bow and arrows and muskets, No I don’t think that. But we would be at a serious disadvantage using somewhat outdated weapons against an attacker using up to date weapons. -
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Re: If the lights went out tomorrow, would we freeze in the dark?
Thu, August 17, 2006 - 1:03 PMThe movies make the rather large assumption that the electronics which our military and society depend upon are _not_ hardened against EMP, even though the threat has been well-known since the 1980's. I personally doubt that this is the case. Quite aside from the danger of a nuclear-induced EMP, it's possible to build a non-nuclear EMP bomb -- an electrical device designed to short itself out and produce an EMP with a radius of hundreds of meters in the process. Such weapons were used by America against Iraq in 1991.
So I don't think we're going to face the "mass loss of military technology" scenario, because the engineers have probably already countered it.
Sincerely Yours,
Jordan -
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Unsu...
Re: If the lights went out tomorrow, would we freeze in the dark?
Sat, August 19, 2006 - 4:11 PMSo how,s about a missile capable of taking out satelites? I wonder if anything has happened on that front. Or how,s about a prey satelite? Is there any other form of radiation or chemical capable of taking out techinical stuff? To disturb the atmosphere?
Fun facts: The sun sends oyt EMP too, solar winds. Radio and television communications are very sensitive to it. -
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Re: If the lights went out tomorrow, would we freeze in the dark?
Mon, August 21, 2006 - 7:15 AMWell, a number of ASAT missiles (and at least one ground-based ASAT energy beam) were designed and tested during the 1980's. Much of the tech was scrapped with the end of the Cold War, but if it was doable with 1980's technology it would be even more doable today. I would think that a modern war between Great Powers would have a space component.
- Jordan -
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Unsu...
Re: If the lights went out tomorrow, would we freeze in the dark?
Tue, August 22, 2006 - 1:43 PMI just remember something interesting to the thread. I saw a bomb somewhere that was capable of taking out the electric grid. It looked like a tiny bundle made of metal strings. When it explodes it exstends a very fine metal weave over an area. Have you heard of it? I think it was a gadget used by the US in the first gulf war to take out a powerplant.
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