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FUTURE WARFARE
Every age has its own kind of war, its own limiting conditions and its own peculiar
preconceptions. Each period, therefore, could have held to its own theory of war.
Carl Von Clausewitz
INTRODUCTION
A global technological revolution is leading to social, economic, political and personal
change throughout the world like the agricultural and industrial revolutions of the past.
The technology revolution with advances in biotechnology, nanotechnology, materials
technology and information technology at the vanguard has the potential to transform
human quality of life and lifespan, transform work and industry, reshuffle wealth, shift
power among nations and within nations and increase tension and conflict. The
technology revolution will not be uniform in its effect across the globe but will play out
differently depending on its acceptance, investment and a variety of issues such as
bioethics, privacy, economic disparity, cultural invasion and social reactions.
Armed forces in 2015 will achieve unprecedented strategic and operational speed by
exploiting information technologies to create a knowledge based organization. It will
exhibit tremendous flexibility and physical agility through streamlined, seamlessly
integrated organizations that use near fantasies and procedures. The collective result
will be a versatile, full spectrum, capabilities based force that can decisively respond to
any future global contingency.
Major Drivers That Will Shape The World In 2015
Specialists and a wide range of experts have worked to identify major drivers and trends
that will shape the world of 2015.The key drivers identified are:-
(a) Demographics.
(b) Natural resources and environment.
(c) Science and technology.
(d) The global economy and globalization.
(e) National and international governance.
(f) Future conflicts.
(g) The role of the United States.
Each driver will have varying impacts in different regions and countries. The drivers are
not necessarily mutually reinforcing; in some cases, they will work at cross-purposes.
Taken together, these drivers and trends intersect to create an integrated picture of the
world of 2015, about which we can make projections with varying degrees of confidence
and identify some troubling uncertainties of strategic importance to the country.
Emerging Technologies
Armed Forces the world over are being profoundly influenced by emerging technologies
specially in the area of High Energy Physics, Material Science, Bio Technology, Sensor
Technology and most predominantly in Computing and Communication Electronics.
These technologies, either separately or in combination with one another are acting as
engines for development of new weapons systems that promise to change in
fundamental ways future wars would be fought. A few specific contributions of these
Emerging Technologies in development of weapons systems are enumerated below: -
