If there is anything that will never change is the need for soldiers to protect us. Whether it's another country, a terrorist group or an alien invasion – outside threats will never stop to exist. Nevertheless, the innovations of the coming years will provide soldiers with many unbelievable super-abilities: from super-strength and super-senses to flying and invisibility, the soldiers of the future resemble today's fictional superheroes.
The History of the Military Homo sapiens have always used weapons. The ability to create advanced and sophisticated weapons was actually one of of the Homo sapiens' main distinguishing features and one of the main reasons for its survival as a specie.
While weapons have been used mainly for hunting or protection for thousands of years, it was only at the time of settled agrarian civilizations that organized military armies started to form. The very first documented military confrontation was between Sumer (current Iraq) and Elam (current Iran) around 2700 BC near the modern Basra.
Over the years, with the constant technology advancements, more types of weapons and war tools expanded the military arsenal: from cannons and tanks to fighter jets and drones. Toward the end of the 20th century many people believed that the need for infantry will gradually decline. Nonetheless, military conflicts of recent years have clearly proven the need for strong infantry.
The Importance of infantry
There are many reasons for the need of infantry in modern warfare: infantry are very fast and agile, the costs for infantry is much lower relatively to other units, but above all – infantry is simply the only tool that allow the military to win a war.
While tanks, bombs and aircraft serves to support the infantry, the main goal of war is to either control a population or a certain area - both things can only be achieved by human beings holding the ground. This fact is even more significant when dealing with terrorist groups, which initiate many of the recent military conflicts.
Constant innovations
About a year ago, the US Army Natick Soldier R&D and Engineering Center released a short video that demonstrated future army abilities:
At first, this video might seems like it's part of a science fiction movie or even a computer game. Amazingly, this is an actual statements of intent by the US army about the way it perceives the future infantry.
Among the innovations that are mentioned in the video, we can find smart clothing that can keep the soldier's body in the right temperature and monitor his health status, human augmentation that can increase the soldier's speed and load capacity and Integration with drones that can provide real time information portrayal, assessment and displays. But this is not all – the video presents even more crazy ideas.
Bulletproof tactical garment
Lightwear body armor is considered by many to be the ultimate equipment for military ground forces. In a world where humanity has become the ground value of the main leading countries, the life of every solider counts. For years scientists have looked for ways to create some sort of a suit that will be both bulletproof and lightweight and comfortable enough for combat. It seems like this ambition is very close to being fulfilled.
Several months ago, a biotech company named Kraig Biocraft Laboratories delivered the U.S army a special prototype fabric named "Dragon Silk". The fabric was produced by genetically engineered silkworms out of spider silk - the strongest fiber known to mankind. Tactical spider silk garments are both light-weight and incredibly strong – to the extent of bullet stopping ability. The fibers are biocompatible, which means they are less likely to create irritation and can be worn directly against the skin.
Another interesting material that has the potential to be used in order to create the next bulletproof body armor is graphene. In its natural state, graphene is light and flexible as foil, but a recent study had provesproven that two thick layers of graphene stacked one on top of one anotherthe other can temporarily become as hard and impenetrable as a diamond. Several armies around the world, including the Spanish Navy, are now testing the option to manufacture a graphene graphene-based bulletproof vest.
Self-guided bullets
Precision guided firearms (PGFs) are long-range rifle systems designed to improve the accuracy of shooting at targets at extended ranges through target tracking. While the most obvious necessity of such a system in combat is the ability to neutralize the enemy faster and with less ammunition, its main benefit is the fact that it can reduce the cases of soldiers getting hit by friendly fire and save the life of innocent passersby.
Inspired by missile lock-on and fighter jet technology, the application of PGF technology serves to fix aiming errors including mis-aim, trigger jerk and shot setup miscalculation, and also to actually track and follow moving targets!
In 2008 DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) started developing a smart sniper rifle system including a guided smart bullet and improved scope. In 2015 they demonstrated results showing the bullet altering its course to correct its path to the target. In 2016, Russia revealed it was developing a similar "smart bullet" weapon designed to hit targets at a distance of up to 10 kilometers.
PGF is not limited to sniper rifles only. A Texas-based company named TrakingPoint has developed a series of assault rifles with self-guided bullet abilities: first, the shooter tags his target, then the scope takes a ballistic formula accounting for distance, wind, elevation, temperature and a wide variety of other factors and tracks the target; finally the system only allows the shooter to fire when the reticle is in proper position to hit the target.
Interestingly enough, In 2017 computer security experts Runa Sandvik and Michael Auger demonstrated that in some cases the rifle's aiming computer was left wide open to remote hacking, when their WiFi capability was turned on.
Real life Captain America
In 2012, a reporter from New Scientist named Sally Adee got a rare opportunity to visit and cover a unique training facility of the US army that actually uses electric brain stimulations in order to improve soldiers' performances in battle. Adee was even permitted to test these brain stimulations on herself to fully evaluate the procedure.
Her experience was tremendous. Adee participated in a combat simulator before and after getting the stimulations. While before she felt clumsy and barely hit any of her virtual enemies, after getting the brain-stimulations she became a natural-born assassin:
"As twenty of them run at me brandishing their guns, I calmly line up my rifle, take a moment to breathe deeply, and pick off the closest one, before tranquilly assessing my next target."
Brain stimulations is not the only human-upgrade experiment currently being performed by the US army. Several months ago, the US army announced it's going to invest $ 15 Million in "bio-enhancement experiments will develop technologies to maximize physiological performances". The experiment's goals include producing soldiers who require a fraction of the minimal amount of sleep needed for an average human being to function normally, and who can cope under "highly stressful situations". While the army keeps a veil of secrecy over this project, it seems like someone was highly inspired by the comics of Captain America.
Different armies – different super soldiers
When it comes to well-founded armies around the world, it seems like the sky is the limit – literally: The British military for example is seriously considering developing "Iron Man" flying suits, based on a British inventor demonstration.
The Russian army is attempting to develop a camouflage system for its infantry that will be able to change color depending on the camouflaged surface and environment. The system's developer has stated that the technology “can reflect color changes and imitate complex graphical depictions, up to the leaves wavering in the wind.”
The Chinese army is apparently working on the creation of genetically engineered super-strong soldiers. The research is based on the CRISPR technique that was recently used by the Chinese to create dogs with twice the muscle mass of their natural counterparts and that are considerably stronger and faster.
In conclusion
WhileWhile the world is rapidly changing, two things will probably stay same: countries will need their armies and armies will need their infantry. Nevertheless, the infantry units of the future is going to change dramatically. If you want to have a glance at the way it is going to look – go see a Marvel movie. We can only hope that the good guys will win in real life too.