US, WASHINGTON (ORDO NEWS) — The attention of the world military community was attracted by the news of December 27, 2019. The Russian Ministry of Defense said it was the first to adopt hypersonic missiles.
They fly along an unpredictable trajectory at a speed of 20 times more sound. Since conventional ballistic missiles fly along a parabola, if you find the launch point and passage points, you can calculate the trajectory and shoot them down. But the trajectory of hypersonic missiles is impossible to determine, therefore, it is not easy to hit them.
Nightmare weapon
“Hypersonic missiles are a nightmare weapon with nuclear warheads,” one of the senators said during a military commission meeting last July. He also added: “Aircraft carriers will become a relic of the past. It’s likely that all of our aircraft carriers may disappear in just a few minutes as a result of a massive strike.”
The largest carrier group in the world is a symbol of American military power. She staggered due to the emergence of new types of weapons. There is even a danger that the missile defense system, in which the United States and Japan are investing huge amounts, will become an obsolete development.
Revolutionary weapons that devalue existing weapons are called the “game-changing factor.” The fact is that you have to reconsider the usual tactics and strategies, as well as violating the military balance and the principles of war.
One example is aircraft carriers that the United States is worried about. They appeared during the First World War, but their importance was demonstrated by Japan during the Second World War. On December 8, 1941, a Japanese aircraft carrier group attacked Pearl Harbor, and aircraft taking off from aircraft carriers dealt a crushing blow to the American Pacific Fleet. So there was a new form of the Navy, which can be deployed at a long distance simultaneously with the air force.
Appearance during the First World War
A typical representative of a system that has been preserved since ancient times and changed the rules of the game, ¾ firearms. It breaks through the enemy’s defense and has destructive power, more powerful than arrows and other similar weapons. Firearms spread from China to the Middle East and developed in the Ottoman Empire. Such weapons came to Japan in 1543: wick guns appeared on Tanegashima Island.
During the Battle of Nagashino, Oda Nobunaga used several thousand of these guns and defeated Katsuyori Takeda cavalry. The main role in the battle begins to play not cavalry, but firearms.
Machine guns seriously changed the course of battles. Due to new weapons that can fire in bursts, the death toll has increased. They began to be widely used after the Civil War in the United States in the nineteenth century. During World War I, long trenches were dug mainly due to machine-gun threats.
During the First World Development received various types of weapons. For example, submarines. German submarines sank a large number of ships of Great Britain, which dominated the sea. They even attacked merchant ships without warning, as a result of which Great Britain lost the supply routes connecting it with the colonies and the USA.
Also began to use aircraft. At first they were used for reconnaissance purposes, but then they were re equipped, creating fighters and bombers. Tanks were designed to overcome enemy fortifications. It is assumed that the first in a real battle the UK tested them in 1916. To counter the tanks, mines and chemical weapons were used during the First World War.
Mass destruction and the appearance of drones
Germany launched ballistic missiles during World War II. They can be safely launched from a long distance. In 1957, the USSR tested an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching North America. With the help of her launched a satellite.
Nuclear bombs shocked the world as inhumane weapons of mass destruction. In August 1945, the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The exact number of deaths is unknown, but by December of that year, approximately 140 thousand people had died in Hiroshima.
The idea of nuclear deterrence came up: if each side has nuclear weapons, none of them will strike. Nuclear threat is an integral part of the global security strategy.
Last year, drones attacked the oil bases of Saudi Arabia. China and Russia are developing autonomous UAVs that will attack based on artificial intelligence solutions. This is the so-called robotic weapon. The history of weapons is characterized by the desire for maximum destructive power with minimal damage. We can say that the autonomy of nuclear weapons and missiles is the crown of evolution.
No consensus on restrictions
The world community must not turn a blind eye to new weapons that appear one after another. The use of inhumane weapons is limited.
Biological and chemical weapons were banned in 1925 in accordance with the Geneva Protocol. After that, it could not be developed, manufactured and stored. In 2010, an agreement was also signed prohibiting the use, storage and production of cluster bombs.
Nuclear weapons storage was limited to the 1970 Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Nevertheless, there is still no comprehensive structure prohibiting such weapons.
Under the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, tests in space, in water and underground cannot be conducted, but it has not been ratified by the United States and India. This means that countries have not come to a common denominator both in the Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty and in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
The UN Security Council banned North Korea from launching ballistic missiles. Japan, the United States and European countries have created a missile technology control regime to prevent the spread of ballistic missile technology.
Recently, a discussion has intensified around weapons with artificial intelligence. The UN is discussing responsibility in case people are killed in battle by autonomous weapons with artificial intelligence. Meanwhile, the United States, China and Russia, developing such weapons, take a cautious position.
US superiority staggered
On March 21, the DPRK launched a rocket in the direction of the Sea of Japan, which flew along a low and non-standard trajectory. There is a danger that in the future it will adopt missiles that are also difficult to bring down, like hypersonic ones. China and Russia lead in hypersonic weapons.
At the same time, on March 20, the United States announced that they had successfully tested hypersonic missiles. The development of air defense systems is still lagging.
For Japan, adhering to an exclusively defensive strategy, difficult times are coming. Attacking missiles is much easier than knocking them down. In addition, the development of air defense systems will be very expensive. Attacking is much more profitable than defending. Japan’s security was built on an alliance with the United States, which has the largest military power in the world. China is a leader in the field of artificial intelligence and autonomous weapons.
If a weapon that changes the rules of the game shakes US supremacy, it will seriously affect Japan’s security.
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The article is written and prepared by our foreign editors from different countries around the world – material edited and published by Ordo News staff in our US newsroom press.