War for the 21st century

How Cyberwarfare and Drones Have Revolutionized Warfare

By TIM HSIA AND JARED SPERLI, NYT

Since World War II there have been many advances in military weaponry, communications and technology. In early May 1942, naval forces from Imperial Japan and the allied forces of Australia and the United States fought in the Battle of the Coral Sea. That engagement was the first battle in which naval ships did not shoot upon or even see the opposing force. Aircraft carriers directly engaged one another using aircraft, with their long-distance reach, as their sole offensive weaponry. This new type of warfare, the carrier versus carrier, was an inevitable escalation of the air, radio and radar technology of the day. It was viewed as a revolution in military affairs.

There is a tendency within military circles to call a particular advancement in technology a “revolution.” That was the case when former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld trumpeted technological advances as enabling the United States to wage war in Afghanistan and Iraq without significant numbers of troops. More often than not, an advancement in technology ends up only incrementally changing how war is fought.

But there have been true revolutions in military affairs since the Battle of the Coral Sea, including the development of nuclear and space weapons. And now there is much discussion over two recent advancements in United States military capabilities: cyberwarfare and drones.

We believe the next few decades will be dominated by advancements in software and hardware (cyber and robotics, including drones) just as the last decade was dominated by counterinsurgency. We also believe that historians will look back and see advancements in cyberwarfare and robotics as the first two revolutions in military affairs of the 21st century.

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