Who knows? Perhaps combatants will wage future battles in their own comfortable settings, on computers, much like chess games are played, before a single shot is ever fired. Humankind can certainly hope so.
For military command and control, information technology is radically shortening the time needed to react to an event. The future will bring more combined data from various sensors and surveillance systems, and quicker interpretations of that data with faster computers. This means speedier decisions and reactions, like attacking, but how much faster? It will take just minutes to accomplish what used to require days.
One scenario gaining favor is known as "sensor dust." In this setting, thousands upon thousands of microsensors—the size of dust-like particles, each with its own transmitter—would be sprinkled all over a certain area to collect intelligence and biological data. Their outputs would be fed wirelessly to a central computer that would rapidly crunch, analyze, and act on the data in near real-time conditions. Incredibly, such a system could become reality within only three to five years.
To rapidly and effectively treat wounded soldiers on the battlefield, the military is looking to the emerging field of telemedicine. Battlefield casualties would be transported quickly to a field hospital equipped with a telemedical station. There, trained medical personnel would examine the soldier and transmit images and vital-sign information, in real time, over a telemetry link to a physician located in a hospital or office anywhere in the world. Then the doctor would diagnose the patient and instruct the medical personnel on-site with the patient about treatment options. Interest-ingly, the concept of telemedicine was born during the U.S. space-exploration programs back in the 1960s to medically treat astronauts who were in outer space.
Speaking of outer space, advances in optics and electronics will expand exploration. Starting this year, DARPA has initiated a program to develop the Space Surveillance Telescope. This advanced ground-based optical system, to be fabricated and tested by 2004, will enable the detection of faint objects in space, while providing rapid wide-area search capability. It will leverage recent advances in curved focal-plane-array technology and large lightweight optics. The SST will have a large aperture that provides detection sensitivity with a low-aberration wide field-of-view. This will allow quick high-sensitivity detection of small space objects such as asteroids. It could also be used for defense-related military applications, like detecting warheads and missiles in outer space.
Clearly, electronics will form the underpinning of the government's future security and military programs. It's imperative that the government implement this powerful technology judiciously, so as not to abuse the rights of individuals. This double-edged sword must be handled with care.
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