The Future of Warfare is here

[Jolly Blue Giant]

Everything evolves in the last century at breakneck speed. It took 67 years to go from Wright Brother's first flight to men flying to the moon and walking around on its surface before flying home. In less than half a century, we went from hand crank telephones on a wall that had to go through an operator to talking world-wide on a phone you can carry in your pocket and use while fly-fishing in the Delaware River, miles from the nearest building. Or horseless carriages to self-driving luxury cars; digital music to play anywhere, anytime, and any song at your fingertips; high definition television, etc.

In the last couple of decades, warfare has been on an exponential incline that is nearly straight up on the mathematical graph board. AI, pilotless planes, lasers, outer space vehicles, robots of every type, skeletal framework underneath clothing that can make a man run twice as fast and jump 5 times higher, with perfect balance, etc

With the announcement last week of the start-up of manufacturing of the latest and greatest U.S. fighter plane, the F-47, aerial warfare takes another leap forward. The concept for this plane has been in design for well over a decade, and test flights of various concepts have been flying for more than five years to get the bugs out. The final version was released a couple of weeks ago and winning the contract to build them is Boeing

The figuration is almost the least of the wonders of the plane because of the sophisticated software and AI capabilities. China was amused that Boeing ended up using canards on the plane...as American inventors laughed at China for using canards on their latest and greatest 6th generation fighter. The canards are little separate flaps ahead of the main wings. They rotate and can move up and down. When rotated in opposite directions, the plane can turn on a dime at unheard of speed for such a turn. The main wings are two pieces and the half end of them can swing up or down as well as rotate like the canards, giving the plane incredible turning ability in the case of a dogfight or diversion from a missile. It also has AI capability to take over control of the plane should the pilot pass out from too much G-force (a real possibility during combat)

The only picture released to the public


Artists have compiled what they know, so we get a very clear idea of exactly what the plane looks like


or this


It flies faster than twice the speed of sound, has newly advanced stealth technology so it appears as a speck of dust on a radar screen if at all, and a flight ceiling over 60,000 feet, etc

But that just scratches the surface. Its software is so sophisticated that it communicates with a variety of ships, planes, drones, etc. And with the use of AI, has advanced warning much further than traditional radar, and has anti-radar jamming equipment to black out the radar screens of the enemy in search of the plane. As a huge bonus, if the plane comes under attack, AI can analyze an unlimited number of potential variations in less than a second to take action to subvert the attack and feed that info to the pilot. The pilot on the other hand can let AI take over control of the plane with a flip of a switch because the ultimate actions and reactions of AI far exceed that of a human, using guess work, while under extreme duress

Meanwhile, the plane will travel with a fleet of drones, not unlike the way aircraft carriers surround themselves with a variety of warships. Some which are dedicated to underwater warfare, some for aerial warfare, electrical jamming, laser weapons, etc. Since a carrier cost 13 billion to build, and has about 10 billion dollars worth of planes, its protection is vital





Likewise, the F-47 will fly in a fleet formation with drones that are controlled by the pilot of the F-47 or let AI run them. The drones cannot fly at Mach 2 yet, but they cost a hundredth of the cost of a typical fighter plane and they can be used for diversion tactics or even sacrificed to an incoming SAM to protect the plane.

Some of the drones being tested




Like the mother ship, the drones are being fitted with a variety of weapons as well as laser type guns


The U.S. Navy successfully shot down a missile with a laser gun last month. As it is being perfected, it will be fitted on many ships. There is no need to reload or pay massive amounts of cash to build bombs and missiles as it is just a collection of particles that never needs reloading. And once it locks onto a drone or a missile, the shot fired reaches the target at the speed of light

A ship mounted laser weapon


Next up is the battle going on in space. The U.S. has a highly secret unmanned mini space shuttle that scoots around outer space logging in every satellite from every country, along with precision details of its purpose and position. What type of weapons it carries is unknown, but some believe it is being fitted with laser type weapons. This ship has been flying for the last few years and stays in orbit for up to 440 days. It is called the Boeing X-37B, also known as the Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV), is a reusable robotic spacecraft, and is about the size of a small bus. There are two of them in operation and more are being built, as well as the X-37C, a larger and more weaponized version. In short, "Star wars is already here"



I can't even fathom what else is on the drawing boards, but it appears that ideas and testing of various concepts is fascinating. Always keeping one step ahead of China and Russia, who are developing their own versions of a 6th generation fighter and laser warfare technology

[Bob In PA]

Jolly: This news went almost unnoticed, generally, compared to everything else that's happening right now.

To me, it's a signal to the rest of the world that we are way ahead of even those who are believed to have made great strides in recent years to catch up with us.

OR - it's a trap to ensnare those who would attempt (or, should I say, continue to attempt) to steal our secrets. We'll never know, assuming I'm right, unless someone takes the bait.

Bob

[MightyGiants]

I was just reading an article in my Naval History magazine about how Marines developed groundbreaking techniques for aviation warfare (things like ground-to-air communications, drive bombing, and air transport) in the second Nicaragua campaign of 1926 to 1933.  These lessons were applied and demonstrated in WW 2.

I think the best glimpses into the future of warfare can be witnessed in Ukraine.  A big-ticket fighter jet may wow, but the best lessons for how the nature of warfare is changing can be drawn from that tragic conflict.   

[Jolly Blue Giant]

The three biggest changes (to my assumptions anyway), are the use of AI in warfare, the use of laser weapons, and the battlefield that will take place in outer space. This is far different from WWII or any other war in my lifetime - exponentially different

I've challenged Grok this past week concerning an issue I have with a certain individual (Samuel Eddy) who arrived in America with his wife Elizabeth in 1630. He was awarded 20 acres of land in Plymouth according to a staunch rule of the pilgrims, that "Old Comers" (those who arrived on the Mayflower, the Fortune, or the Anne) would be allotted free land as a tribute to the earliest settlers. Grok answers each of my questions in literally a second with a two page essay on the "Old Comers", the deal of property rights, etc., complete with references to rare documents. So I get further into it until we are discussing church records, wedding records, cemetery records, etc., in Leiden, New Netherlands in the late 1500s and early 1600s. Again, I was given pages of information, complete with sourcing, etc., in less than 1 second. I then told Grok I disagreed with his summary of why Sam Eddy received land, and Grok asked me for an alternative premise...which I provided. Grok then conceded that my speculation as to why Eddy received land was a better alternative than the speculation offered by Grok

The information I have on the subject took me 50 years of research, and digging through an insane amount of rare documents hidden away in musty old rooms - books, papers, and documents that haven't been touched in many years. Yet, Grok talked about them as if it was common information that everyone knew, in response time as if that was an issue on his mind at that moment and had spent a hundred years gathering information. That is the power of AI. It blew me away. Sign in to Grok (it's free) and ask it any question that you believe to be obscure and deeply difficult information and watch the reply. It will blow you away. I used to us ChatGPT, until I discovered Grok. Mind-boggling

Now that lasers are proven to successfully blow up missiles, rockets, drones, and basically anything, I envision a future world with a country surrounded by laser towers along (or near) coastal boundaries of a country, with AI operated stations that can detect incoming threats and immediately blow them out of the sky before reaching their target

The preparation going on for future battles in outer space is worth keeping an eye on. It's is also America's most secret mission

Currently I'm fascinated (and have been for years) with aviation warfare, but I am not unaware that there is also an exponential explosion of sea warfare technology going on. And that would be a subject by itself. I've only caught a couple of airshows in the last decade or so, and I find them to be a lot of fun. Watching an F-15 fly by close to the ground is awesome because I see it go by and it's entirely silent. Then as the jet is gone, comes the roar that was missing. I always got a kick out of that

The ability for the new F-47 to fly within a pack of dedicated drones also blows me away. And with AI availability for the single fighter jet to control many multiple robots and drones, while communicating seamlessly with dedicated specialized killer drones as well as back home with headquarters is again, mind-boggling. I find it fascinating as well as worrisome

[MightyGiants]

Ric,

From what I have seen so far, the biggest trend I have seen is the use of drones.  By air or by sea, drones have proven deadly and effective.   At sea, inexpensive drones have made mega-expensive ships targets rather than means of control.

On land, drones (and other weapons) have laid low the mighty tank.   In the air, cheap drones have eliminated the idea of absolute control of the air.