Regardless of the causes that propel wars in the future, military technology will continue to evolve. New technologies will improve weapons in four broad areas: connectivity, lethality, autonomy, and sustainability.
The newest nuclear weapon has a lower explosive yield than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. But it is still very dangerous.
The most dangerous weapon so far
Throughout the history of humankind, weapons have been used in many ways. Some have been designed for protection, others to hunt and kill, and still others as tools of war. However, the most dangerous weapon in the world right now is a nuclear weapon. The most destructive device in existence, a single nuclear warhead could instantly kill millions, with the potential for billions more to die from subsequent famine and disease.
The use of nuclear weapons is the biggest threat to humanity, and it has been responsible for the destruction of two cities – Hiroshima and Nagas. Since then, nuclear technology has become more advanced and there are now more weapons capable of destroying entire cities. According to the Federation of American Scientists, there are currently about 15,000 nuclear warheads in the world. Roughly half of these are kept on hair trigger alert and can be launched within a few minutes of a presidential order.
While some countries, such as North Korea and Israel, are believed to have H-bomb capability, others, like Russia and the United States, have more conventional nuclear weapons that can cause mass destruction. Even the smallest nuclear weapons can have an explosive yield of up to 80 times that of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
Another deadly weapon is the cluster munition, a shell that consists of a central bomb that detonates upon impact with an outer layer of smaller explosive submunitions. These can cover an area as large as a football field and can injure or kill anyone they come into contact with. Often, they fail to explode at the first time of impact and can continue to bury themselves in the ground and kill or maim people long after a conflict has ended.
Terrorists are also known to use weapons such as cars, trucks and suicide bombings as well as guns, pistols, rifles, grenades, mines and mortars for assassinations, armed attacks, massacres and more. Some terrorist groups are also known to possess surface-to-air missiles that can bring down civilian airliners and helicopters.
Aside from the deadly nuclear weapons, other weapons that can destroy huge areas are chemical weapons, which involve poisons or toxins used to incapacitate or kill people. Biological weapons, which are sometimes called germ warfare, are also dangerous and can have an impact on a population that is much larger than the damage caused by an H-bomb.
The Most Dangerous Nuclear Weapons
After the world’s first atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, a taboo emerged that said the only acceptable use of nuclear weapons would be a direct military strike against the enemy’s homeland. This meant intercontinental strategic nuclear weapons, with their ability to target the far-off home cities and strategic military positions of an enemy nation, would never be used. But this practical inhibition—and, in a perilous twist of history, the moral one as well—is being ripped away by the Trump administration. In fact, it’s now possible to deploy nuclear weapons of the kind that once only the US and Russia could possess, and their proliferation into the hands of other nations (particularly China) has the potential to set off a catastrophic global war.
While many experts disagree wildly about what a future nuclear war would look like and how it might happen, there is a consensus that the risk of such a war is keeping most experts awake at night. And although they may disagree wildly about what would trigger such a conflict, they almost all cite the same three dangers that worry them:
First, there is the risk that the nine countries that have nuclear weapons will misuse them. There are plenty of reasons why this might occur, but a few examples include:
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un believes that his regime needs nuclear weapons to deter an invasion by foreign powers. Former CIA director Elbridge Colby, meanwhile, has suggested that the United States should keep its arsenal of nuclear weapons to counter Russian and Chinese advances in missile defense technology.
Finally, there is the possibility that a terrorist organization or hackers will acquire nuclear weapons and decide to use them. While this threat is less common than the other two, it’s still a significant concern.
The fact is, despite the best efforts of the nuclear nonproliferation treaty organizations and the world’s leaders to prevent nuclear proliferation, there is now no guarantee that such weapons will not be used again. Especially now that the Trump administration has begun to pull out of Cold War-era nuclear agreements and is rolling a new "limited" weapon off the assembly line, one that can be launched from sea-based Trident submarines. It has only five kilotons of destructive power, but that’s more than enough to destroy the entire city of New York.
The Most Dangerous Biological Weapon
As the name suggests, biological weapons use disease-causing organisms or toxins to harm or kill humans, animals or plants. These organisms or toxins may be released deliberately by a state or non-state actor as part of military action, but they could also be disseminated unintentionally through air, water or food contamination, or even infecting people who come into contact with the pathogen through natural means such as being bitten or scratched by an animal. If they spread beyond a local area, the consequences can be devastating – not only in terms of the loss of life but also food shortages, environmental catastrophes, economic loss, widespread illness and fear.
For more than a century, warring states have worried about the threat of large-scale biological warfare. In the past, blight to destroy crops, anthrax to kill horses and soldiers, and plague to poison not just armies but whole districts have all been the cause of alarm among military and political leaders. Today, no country openly maintains a biological weapons program for offensive purposes, and most of the world’s countries have signed the Biological Weapons Convention which prohibits the development, testing, production, manufacture, or transfer of these deadly pathogens.
The primary reason is that biological weapons are extremely difficult to make at scale and distribute in an effective manner. For example, one gram of botulinum toxin will kill a million people if it is inhaled. Also, there is a long lag time between exposure and the appearance of symptoms, giving targets ample opportunity to protect themselves through vaccines and other countermeasures. In addition, the difficulty of delivering an effective attack on a large scale can be complicated by a wide range of factors such as insufficient doses, incorrect dosages and changing wind patterns that might result in an aerosol attack failing to disperse pathogens over a target area.
Despite these obstacles, it is still possible that biological weapons will be used on a large scale in future wars because they are less costly and time-consuming to develop than nuclear weapons. However, they remain more of a threat to civilians than to soldiers. The majority of the fatalities in wars since the end of WWII have been caused by assault rifles like AK47s, handguns, land mines and mortars.
The Most Dangerous Weapon of Artificial Intelligence
One of the most dangerous weapons is artificial intelligence (AI), which can be used to develop lethal autonomous weapon systems. These AI systems can be designed to perform calculations mechanically and decide when to strike. The development of intelligent machines that can kill humans without any human input is a threat to humanity and represents an unprecedented risk for wars in the future.
This is an extremely important development, because it will transform the way wars are planned and fought in the future. It will make it possible for machines to plan and conduct military operations more efficiently than ever before. It will also enable nations to use advanced weapons systems with pinpoint accuracy. For example, hypersonic weapons could be used to destroy enemy missile launch sites and other critical infrastructure before they can even respond.
Another significant development is the ability to deploy swarms of drones that can attack targets simultaneously. These drones can be deployed from aircraft, ships, and ground vehicles. They can be equipped with various sensors to identify enemies and their positions. This will allow the drones to attack an enemy more effectively and quickly. It will also be possible to develop intelligent drones that can learn from past attacks and adapt their tactics accordingly.
However, there are some serious concerns with the development of AI in the military. First, it will be difficult for the military to keep up with this fast-moving technology. In addition, it will be easy for countries with access to more resources to gain a competitive advantage over other countries in the development of AI.
Furthermore, the use of AI in the military can lead to dangerous mistakes. For instance, if a machine is programmed to analyze data and identify the highest-risk targets, it may conclude that it is necessary to launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike. This could potentially cause a full-scale nuclear war, which would be devastating for the planet.
Finally, it is vital to understand how the military uses these dangerous new weapons. While these tools can be used to achieve strategic goals, they can also be abused by dictators and extremist groups. For this reason, the international community must work together to ensure that these technologies do not end up in the hands of totalitarian regimes or terrorists.
