Overkill: Future Weapons, Future Wars, and the New Arms Race

Overkill: Future Weapons, Future Wars, and the New Arms Race
by Nick Turse
Published on Tuesday, February 1, 2011 by TomDispatch.com

In the future, the power of magnetism will be harnessed to make today's high explosives seem feeble, "guided bullets" will put the current crop of snipers to shame, and new multi-purpose missiles will strike targets in a flash from high-flying drones. At least, that's part of the Pentagon's battlefield vision of tomorrow's tomorrow.

Ordinarily, planning for the future is not a U.S. government forte. A mere glance at the national debt, now around $14 trillion and climbing, or two recent studies showing how China's green technology investments have outpaced U.S. efforts should drive home that fact. But one government agency is always forward-looking, the Department of Defense's blue skies research branch, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

Born in the wake of an American panic over the 1957 Soviet launch of the Sputnik satellite, DARPA set to work keeping the Pentagon ahead of potential adversaries on the technology front. It counts the Internet and the Global Positioning System among its triumphs, and psychic spying and a mechanical elephant designed for use in the jungles of Southeast Asia among its many failures. It also boasts a long legacy when it comes to creating and enhancing lethal technologies, including M-16 rifles, Predator drones, stealth fighters, Tomahawk cruise missiles, and B-52 bombers, which have been employed in conflicts across the globe.

Today, DARPA is carrying on that more than half-century-old tradition through a host of programs designed with war, death, and destruction in mind. Wielding a budget of about $3 billion a year and investing heavily in futuristic weaponry and other military technology, it is undoubtedly helping to fuel the arms races of 2020 and 2030. While the United States seems content to let China sprint ahead in green technology, a number of its future weapons appear to be designed with a country like China in mind.

All of its planning is, however, shrouded in remarkable secrecy. Make inquiries about any of the weapons systems it's exploring and a barrage of excuses for telling you next to nothing pour forth -- a program is between managers, or classified, or only now in the process of awarding its contracts. DARPA spokespeople and project managers even prefer not to clarify or explain publicly available information. Still, it's possible to offer a sketch of some of the future weaponry the Pentagon has in development, and in the process glimpse what messages it's sending to other nations around the world.

We need to trim the military budget but DARPA funding is a rounding error on the roughly $1 trillion spent by DOD. DARPA also funds many technologies that are currently not viable for commercial exploitation. If we ever get cars that drive themselves it will be because of DARPA. Body Armor which saves more lives than anything else in Iraq & Afghanistan came from DARPA. DARPA has funded research for countless battlefield medicine improvements which have civilian trauma center applications. DARPA is currently funding among other things a shelf stable synthetic blood which would be worth its weight in gold during natural disasters or other event which push blood banks to their limits.

Cut the DOD 10%, 20%, hell 30% but cutting DARPA makes about a much sense as killing NASA to balance the budget.

DARPA has done numerous good research over the years.

I think we could save more lives in the sandbox by getting out, but that's another discussion.

The Interceptor Body armor is a generation ahead of what use to be available. That technology will make it into the hands of Police Forces. The two cops killer last year by the nut who thought Obama was going to take his guns were wearing body armor it just wasn't designed or able to defeat rifle ammunition.