Episode 98 - The Future of Warfare is Here

The future of war fighting and an unmanned arms race. All that's coming up on today's awesome episode of the Hot Zone

 

Hi folks chuck Holton here.  Today we're going to do something a little bit different for the podcast,  I want to talk specifically about the future of war fighting. That is what will our next major war look like? We are probably all familiar with the advances that have been seen in the civilian market with unmanned technology and drones and the like, but how is That being applied to the US military?

 

Well today were going to take a look at some of the advances that the military is making in that area and we're going to hear from some of the soldiers sailors and Marines who are Using this new technology.  Some of it is pretty exciting and some of it's a little bit scary.

 

First I want to show you a testing Facility Being used by the US Marines to try out some of these new technologies checked this out

 

Well that's pretty interesting Having Lost I think 2 inches of height myself During my time in the military because I was always carrying a heavy rucksack around, the idea of having an autonomous machine that will follow you around and carry all your stuff is pretty awesome. having another robot that will allow you to see around corners is great and An armed robot that will bring massive firepower to the foot Patrol squad level is hard to even imagine.  I just hope the artificial intelligence on those things is good enough to tell friend from foe.  

 

And that's what this next package is about,  How The Military is bringing together some of its best experts to Move this industry forward In a way that will Allow Unmanned Vehicles To Actually help Our warriors accomplish their mission without putting them in more danger.

 

Finally want to show youSomething really cool.  The army is actually now starting to take deliveryOf a new kind ofHeavy equipment transport that willDramatically reduceThe danger to our troopsOn the ground. You might remember that a couple weeks agoWe have three Marines killed in Afghanistan as they went out on patrolThey were in a heavily armoredVehicle but the bomb they had was so large it blew the entire front of the vehicle off. If you look back at the Iraq warOne of most dangerous things you could do was drive a truck between Kuwait City and BaghdadIt's hard to imagine how many troops were killed remained on those convoys butWithout a doubtIt was far too manyLogistics trains like that are typicallyOne of the more dangerous things you can do in battle because they typically don't have a lot ofFirepowerAnd they have to stick to the roadsWhich are predictable routes and anytime you're predictable in wore your risk goes up. Well in this caseThe army is now taking delivery of up to 20Self driving supply trucks in the next yearThey're called expedient leader follower trucksBecauseThere will still be drivers in the front vehicle but they can now attach up to nineAutonomous vehicles behind itThat will follow automatically where the first truck goesI think this is a really exciting technologyIn the armyDecided to name each one of the trucks after somebody who gave the ultimate sacrifice.

 

The military is now using autonomous vehicles And get what I'm saying here they are not remotely piloted they are completely autonomous And they are using them for everything from surveillance to LogisticsTo casualty evacuation And much more. I think we're going to see more and more of this Without a doubt over the next 5 to 10 years.And this will dramatically change the face of war. One real concerning point is that we are not the only ones who are Developing this kind of technology. Russia for example has a whole slew of autonomous vehicles already that they're testing. The difference is that most of theirs are armed. Russia  doesn't Suffer from the same ethical dilemmas the United States does because they really don't care who they kill with their weapons. And China will make anything for anybody As long as there's money involved. The intro to my show has a couple of clips from drone footage that was filmed by ISIS During the  battle of Mosul. . Isis employed off the shelf drone technology to killMore than 150 Iraqi troops Just by Attaching Conventional grenades to Drones and then flying them over Concentrations of Iraqi troops. they also used drones to vector inS uicide car bombs on their targets. So Developing the technology to counter These kinds of unmanned and autonomous vehicles is just as important as developing the vehicles themselves. And the military is doing that as well.

 

Well I hope you enjoyed today's show I am heading Out to the Darien Jungle here in Panama to do some reporting AndSo I should have some interesting Reports for you Later on this week.Thanks for being a part of the hot zone I'm chuck Holton we'll see you tomorrow.