Future Military

The second Nagorno-Karabakh war—fought between Armenia and Azerbaijan between September 24 and November 10, 2020—was the first war in history won primarily by unmanned systems. This forty-four-day war resulted in a decisive military victory for Azerbaijan. Armenia was outfought, outnumbered, and outspent and lost even though they controlled the high ground in a mountainous region. The fact that Azerbaijan won the war is not extraordinary. What is exceptional is that this was the first modern war primarily decided by unmanned weapons.

War Transformed provides insights for those involved in the design of military strategy, and the forces that must execute that strategy. Emphasizing the impacts of technology, strategic competition, demography, and climate change, Mick Ryan uses historical and contemporary anecdotes to highlight key challenges faced by nations in a new era of great power rivalry. Just as previous industrial revolutions have advanced societies, the nascent fourth industrial revolution will have a similar impact on how humans fight, compete, and build military power in the twenty-first century.

Paul Scharre, a Pentagon defense expert and former U.S. Army Ranger, explores what it would mean to give machines authority over the ultimate decision of life or death. Scharre's far-ranging investigation examines the emergence of autonomous weapons, the movement to ban them, and the legal and ethical issues surrounding their use. Through interviews with defense experts, ethicists, psychologists, and activists, Scharre surveys what challenges might face "centaur warfighters" on future battlefields.

Twenty-seven years is a long time unless you are trying to save the world. Nick was enjoying a late fall day, happily skipping his English class, when he was interrupted by a little silver ball. A ball that not only spoke, but claimed to be an alien artificial intelligence sent to warn humanity that a xenophobic alien race was on its way to wipe out every man, woman, and child on the Earth. The catch: They would arrive in 27 years.

The Future of War - which covers civil wars to as yet unknown nuclear conflicts, proxy wars (real) to the Cold War (not), fashionably small wars to the War to End All Wars (it didn't) - is filled with insight and fascinating nuggets of military history and culture from one of the most brilliant military and strategic historians of his generation.

Backed by Russian airpower, Syria has begun an operation to push Turkish troops out of Northern Syria. Despite US efforts not to get dragged into the conflict, the US 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines "Lava Dogs", find their hilltop combat outpost encircled and their Kurdish allies under siege. Further west, a Syrian armored advance across the border into Turkey pivots, threatening US troops at the Turkish and NATO airbase of Incirlik. But will Syria be satisfied with reclaiming its northern border region, or is the operation just the first move in a bolder plan to regain lost territories?

In The Aviator, Navy fighter pilot Jack Knapp reports to the aircraft carrier Independence for his first deployment in the Pacific. As a “nugget”, he must learn the ropes and gain acceptance among the tight-knit tribe of the squadron called the Gargoyles. In The Warfighter, Jack returns to Independence, which is now bound for war games in South Korea. Once aboard, he must contend with a tough new commander and a failed romance.

A Post-Apocalyptic Survival Novel The fight for survival isn’t over—it’s only just begun. Blake Sullivan and his makeshift family have reclaimed the compound, but victory comes at a cost. Supplies are dwindling, tensions are high, and the weight of leadership rests heavy on his shoulders. They may have won the battle, but the war for their future is far from over. As the group struggles to build a sustainable life, new challenges emerge. Reinforcing the compound, forging alliances with neighboring survivors, and securing enough food to make it through the coming seasons are only the ...

When we think about the future of war, the military and Washington and most everyone gets it backwards. We think in terms of buying single military systems, such as fighter jets or aircraft carriers. And when we think about modernizing those systems, we think about buying better versions of the same things. But what really matters is not the single system but "the battle network"—the collection of sensors and shooters that enables a military to find an enemy system, target it, and attack it.

The war on terror has taken a terrifying twist. Iranian scientists have developed a deadly bio-terror virus that not only kills its victims but causes them to reanimate as monsters who viciously attack everyone around them, spreading the infection to those they bite. An elite team of former military and law enforcement experts are brought in to confront this shocking new terror threat. Chuck McCain and his squad of federal officers find themselves confronting what they thought only existed in their nightmares. Will they be able to prevent the the collapse of society as we know it?

A vast and largely unseen transformation of how war is fought as profound as the invention of gunpowder or advent of the nuclear age is occurring. Flying cars that can land like helicopters, artificial intelligence-powered drones that can fly into buildings and map their interiors, microsatellites that can see through clouds and monitor rogue missile sites—all these and more are becoming part of America’s DIU-fast-tracked arsenal. Until recently, the Pentagon was known for its uncomfortable relationship with Silicon Valley and for slow-moving processes that acted as a brake on innovation.

Since the Second World War, Arab armed forces have consistently punched below their weight. They have lost many wars that by all rights they should have won, and in their best performances only ever achieved quite modest accomplishments. Over time, soldiers, scholars, and military experts have offered various explanations for this pattern.

Against all odds, four friends have advanced the sciences, influenced world media, and created a world government. But the aliens are coming. Will it be enough? Can Nick, David, Cindy, and Jake save the Earth, or will they be wiped out with the rest of humanity? It will take a colony ship, battlecruisers, a mission to Mars, exosuits, and casinos on the moon. They have all looked toward the future since they were 16 years old.... But the future is now.

GOLAN, This is the Future of War, asks a question few want to consider. What will happen if Iran acquires nuclear weapons in the next ten years? In true Future of War style, GOLAN explores the question through the eyes of front-line participants on all sides, in a conflict set ten years into the future. Featuring military tech that is on the drawing boards today and characters you won't easily forget, GOLAN throws the listeners straight into the center of a nuclear storm and doesn't ease up.

Two thousand years ago, the Fae were banished from Earth. They've spent that time plotting their return and revenge. When their portals open around the world and start crushing the human's military with spell encased steel and dragon fire, it becomes a massive stuggle between technology and magic.

In the near future, the United States has fought a short, bloody war with China in the Pacific. The fighting is over, but the US Navy maintains a blockade. Some call it the First Sino-American War. Others worry it is the start of World War III. In a prison cell in Beijing, Navy fighter pilot Jack Knapp tells his story about the victory in the Battle of Taiwan and how he ended up in a Chinese show trial, accused of crimes against humanity. With his life in the balance, Jack will have to choose between survival and participating in his captors’ lies.

Smallpox, the only infectious disease to have been eradicated, was one of the most terrifying of human scourges. It covered the skin with hideous, painful boils, killed a third of its victims, and left the survivors disfigured for life. In this riveting, often terrifying look at the history of smallpox, Jonathan B. Tucker tells the story of this deadly disease, the heroic efforts to eradicate it worldwide, and the looming dangers it still poses today.

Kameron Hurley, award-winning author and expert in the future of war and resistance movements, has created eighteen exhilarating tales giving glimpses into the warfare of tomorrow. A bleak future, yet there is hope for us. With Hurley's characteristic grim optimism, her characters fight for what they believe is right. They exhibit degrees of humanity only possible in the worst of circumstances. It is these characters, driven by a murky sense of honor and written with sincere, deep empathy, that make Future Artifacts: Stories a powerful collection you won't soon forget.

In the coming decades, artificial intelligence (AI) could revolutionize the way humans wage war. The military organizations that best innovate and adapt to this AI revolution will likely gain significant advantages over their rivals. To this end, great powers such as the United States, China, and Russia are already investing in novel sensing, reasoning, and learning technologies that will alter how militaries plan and fight. The resulting transformation could fundamentally change the character of war.

Future war is almost here: battles fought in cyberspace, biologically enhanced soldiers, autonomous systems that can process information and strike violently before a human being can blink. A leading expert on the place of technology in war and intelligence, Robert H. Latiff, now teaching at the University of Notre Dame, has spent a career in the military researching and developing new combat technologies, observing the cost of our unquestioning embrace of innovation.