We are in a constant battle. It is not a battle which will be fought on a field somewhere, it is a battle for the most advanced and deadly weapons which can be developed. In World War I one of those weapons were tanks. When the British developed the tank it completely changed trench warfare. Before the tank troops were bogged down and since both sides were dug in and sitting in trenches the lines didn’t change very much because of another advanced invention, the machine gun. As soldiers climbed out of their respective trenches and tried to rush the enemy’s trenches they would be cut down by machine gun fire. Then the British invented the Mark tank. It was slow, broke down many times, but it allowed protection from machine guns and allowed troops to move up on the enemy’s trenches. The original tanks were called land ships. After the first British tanks appeared, it was only a couple of years before other countries developed their own tanks. We are still finding weapons from World War II but finding a tank from World War I is quite unusual, yet a Mark IV tank was just found in France. It was one of 340 stationed against the German army at Cambrai. Isn’t it amazing how fast modern weapons become antique ones?

Sometimes something which seems to be bazar comes along and somehow what I am about to tell you seems to fit the bill, it is sort of an oxymoron. The United States has decided to develop biodegradable ammunition. While they are only talking about using it for training ammunition so far, it is being said it will contain seeds which will germinate for several months. The seeds will then sprout and the plants will remove contaminants from the soil and also consume the biodegradable components of the ammo. Here we have an object which has as its main purpose to kill or train others on how to kill and yet it will also be beneficial to the earth. Does this seem strange to anyone else?

Are we being told the truth about stealth? A couple of years ago an article stated the Australians had found a way to detect any stealth aircraft. If this is true we have wasted untold billions on our stealth program, because it will only be a matter of time before others will figure out how to do this. Keeping this in mind is the already overpriced F-35 Joint Strike Fighter with all its problems worth the price? People laughed when President Trump asked the question if an F-18 Super Hornet could be made comparable to the F-35. If it could it would be a lot cheaper and the plane has already proved itself. It turns out the F-18 minus some of the stealth might be a much cheaper alternative and a safer one for pilots. In any event we could cut our order for F-35s way back, but then the price would go up even higher. Just because we have the most expensive fighter doesn’t mean it is the best. To add to this argument both the Russians and Chinese are developing new radars which they believe will be able to track stealth planes.

I have never thought the United Nations was capable of doing what it was created to do which is get all the nations of the world on the same page. We seem to pay for most of the institution’s bills and yet get little for the money. I would hope this will change and we will only pay our fair share. Anyway the United Nations has stated they are going to take up the question of Killer Robots in 2017. The UN wants to have a discussion on lethal autonomous weapons systems. It looks like they are trying to get a preemptive ban on weapons controlled by Artificial Intelligence. It seems like a worthy goal, but we all know this ban will never happen. There are already AI controlled weapons in use, many of which are secret. Many robotic weapons are only another few years from becoming autonomous. One of the areas where AI is being experimented with is cruise missiles, another is robotic soldiers and exoskeletons.

China claims it has created what we call a 5th generation aircraft. This would be equal to our F-22 and F-35 craft, but is it true? There is so much false news around it is hard to tell, but a respected source states the aircraft known as the Chengdu J-20 is not what we think and wouldn’t be able to take on our fifth generation planes, but it is also reported it was never intended to. The report states the purpose of this plane is to destroy flying tankers and radar aircraft which are much slower movers and the rationale behind this is if planes can’t refuel and can’t tell what are around them they won’t be much use and this would hinder our 5th generation planes without having to take them on.

Missiles are also being developed by some countries with the sole purpose of knocking out aircraft carriers and we know who has most of the aircraft carriers in the world. The missiles I am talking about have a speed far above Mach 5 which is five times the speed of sound and some are said to currently be able to hit Mach 10 or more. This number is very important, because it is believed our ships only have the capability of knocking down missiles which travel at Mach 5 or less. Weapons development is one of the most closely guarded areas of defense so there is no way to know if we have found a solution to this problem or not, but the missiles which are being developed also have the capability to change course in flight which is said to be something new and very dangerous.

The Russians now claim to have developed a hypersonic stealth bomber which is capable of launching a nuclear attack from space. They also say it can reach any target on earth in two hours. This would seem correct for an object which can be placed in orbit and then reenter the earth’s atmosphere. I am sure we have an equivalent. It is known the US has been working on space planes since at least the 1990s.

Weapons have short life spans. In today’s technological world almost any country with the desire can create some sort of weapon of mass destruction. It is almost impossible to stay ahead of them all.