Notes from Chapter 16: Society and Technological Change

The ideas and examples referenced below are notes compiled by Robert Keel from his reading of Volti, Rudi. 2014. Society and Technological Change. 7th edition. New York, NY: Worth Publishers. They are intended for classroom use.

The Era of Smart Weapons

Issue: psychological and geographic separation of those making war and the consequences of war.

• Limited risk for those waging (post-modern) war today.
• Distanciation and dromology.

Cruise Missiles

• Weapon of choice: small, pilotless, launched from land, sea, or air.
• Sophisticated navigation and flies below radar.
• Supersonic and nuclear capabilities.
• Cost around $1 million, yet use does not put American soldiers in harm's way.
• History:
  • 1917: Charles Kettering's "Aerial Torpedo" (not used in WWI)
  • 1944: Germany's V-1, later rocket powered V-2: The work of Werner von Braun.
    
  • By 1991: USA Tomahawk cruise missiles used extensively (288 fired) in Gulf War I (see also) and 725 in Iraq (2003).
  • Fired at suspected Al Qaeda sites in the late 1990s and against Serbians following Yugoslavia's dissolution.

Smart Bombs

• Need for improved bombing accuracy.
• Germany, WWII: FX-1400 "Fritz" (see it). Steered by radio. Used as an anti-ship weapon.
• 1950s: solid state electronics and Precision Guided Munitions (PMGs). Televised view of bomb trajectory, steerable fins for remote guidance.
• 1960s: Lasers and integrated circuits: successful use in the Vietnam War.
• Use in Gulf War--views of targets aired on television.
• Problems during bad weather--targets obscured. Use of GPS for guidance--subject to jamming.
• Still all rely on military intelligence--need a target location.
• Problem of "collateral damage" (Iraq War and search for Saddam Hussein)(USS Vincennes destruction of misidentified civilian Airbus: 1988).

High-Tech Surveillance

• Need to identify and track targets (enemy).
• Satellites: detailed imagery. Cloaked in secrecy.
• First "reconnaissance satellites" used film cameras (film ejected and retrieved). Now digital.
• USA control: National Reconnaissance Office (not publicly revealed until 1992; "black" budget).
• Original concerns: USSR, operation billed as "science": Discovery Project.
• Now commercial firms have similar capabilities.

Drones

• Satellites have limited "time over target."
• UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) fly low, and can provide detailed, real-time information on specific targets
• Some as large as a regular aircraft, some tiny.
• Equipped with cameras, microphones, other sensors. Some carry weapons, others designed to "crash."
• Low weight equals extended flying time.
• Original use--Vietnam War: "Fire Fly".
• Iraq War: Predator drones
• Extensive use. 2009-Secretary of Defense Robert Gates: USAF training more drone pilots than regular pilots.
• Some (Reaper UAVs) carry "Hellfire missiles" and serve as antitank weapons.
• Used extensively in Somalia, Yemen, Afghanistan, and Pakistan to kill suspected terrorists.
• Again-issue of "collateral damage." USA says this is rare, one report, however, suggested 282-535 civilians killed in 260 strikes (Volti page 310).
• Drones are flown by pilots thousands of mile away (Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada is a key base): just another "high-tech" job or?

The Cost of Technological Sophistication

• In the 21st century, the USA possesses the most powerful collection of weaponry ever seen. Yet, there are no guarantees on security.
• Military strength is necessary, but so is a strong economy.
• German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck: "Guns or butter?"
• Since WWII, the USA has maintained a "healthy" defense budget: $646 billion for 2012 (4.8% of overall GDP)(other sources place it at $729 billion, but dropping in 2013 and 2014: $572 billion appropriated for defense spending in 2014). Down a bit from the cold war days, but still equal to the rest of the world combined.
• Technology is a driving force: F-22 fighter at $412 million (WWII P-51 Mustang at $650,000).
• Norman Augustine, former under Secretary of the Army: "In the year 2054, the entire defense budget will purchase just one aircraft. This aircraft will have to be shared by the Air Force and Navy 3.5 days each per week except for leap year, when it will be available to the Marines for the extra day." (in Volti page 311)
• 2012 budget for 74,000 PGM more than $4.65 billion, M1A2 Abrams battle tank: $6.2 billion, and one nuclear submarine: $8.3 billion.
• 2014: 2.4 billion appropriated for modernizing 9 navy ships which were to be retired.
• Additional costs: scientists and engineers doing defense R&D (some spillover to civilian sector: DARPA and the internet).
• Similarities between military (death and destruction) and health care (health and healing):
  • Satisfied with only the best (most expensive).
  • Most funding from 3rd parties: insurance, government(s).
  • Both engage is substantial lobbying.

Asymmetrical Warfare

• Issue of advanced weaponry and security: most recent wars, USA significant technological superiority compared to opponents:
  • More bombs dropped in Vietnam and Cambodia than in WWII.
  • Infrared goggles, smart bombs, drones and satellite imagery in Vietnam.
  • Iraq: "shock and awe." Still heavy losses and long, drawn out conflict.
  • Iraq and Afghanistan--insurgents used IEDs. Ninety methods for detonating. Robots finally used to destroy IEDs, but these could be ineffective, too.
  • Missile gap: Exaggerated Cold War gap between the USSR’s perceived superiority over the US in terms of ballistic missile arsenals.

Technology and Terrorism

• Spread of nuclear weapons versus global terrorism: similar to asymmetrical warfare.
• Increasing technological sophistication of terrorists.
• Probability of terrorists obtaining nuclear weapon capability is low: requires high degree of expertise and "raw materials."
• "Dirty bomb" is a higher probability--radiation sickness and panic.
• Chemical weapons also easy to produce and a long history of use: most recently, Saddam Hussein in Iran-Iraq war (1980s) and Syria (2013).
  • Nerve agents (sarin, tabun, VX).
  • Blood agents (hydrogen cyanide and cyanogen).
  • Blister agents (mustard gas).
  • Choking and incapacitation agents (chlorine).
  • Most recent terrorist use: 1995 in Japan. Aum Shinrikyo--dispersed sarin--developed expertise in manufacture, but low-tech dispersal.
• Biological weapons. Many available: anthrax, plague, small pox, Ebola, even salmonella (less lethal, but incapacitates).
  • Easy to manufacture, easy access to raw materials. Distribution somewhat problematic--most agents do not survive for long periods, require close contact.
  • Even so, their use can spread panic and fear: novelty, invisible attacker, and difficulty in controlling--ideal terror weapons.

Cyberterrorism and Cyberattacks

• Technologically sophisticated societies vulnerable to disruption: electric grids, computer networks, communication systems.
  • Impact on virtually all areas--military and civilian
• Information attacks:
  • Access, destroy, and/or alter information stored in computer networks
  • From the trivial to the significant (Edward Snowden).
• Infrastructure attacks:
  • Damage or disable services: electricity, gas, water, air traffic control, communication, etc.
  • There is redundancy, yet not infallible.
  • Computer viruses, worms, and Trojan horses.
  • Most attacks are by hackers with no political agenda. One, however, in2007 disabled Estonia's computer network--perhaps of Russian origin.
  • 2008, USA and Israel, introduced a computer worm into Iranian computers used for enriching uranium.
  • 2014, Chameleon goes “airborne.”
  • New "arms race?" Producing and protecting against cyber attacks.
• Irony--use of modern technologies to attack the modern world.
• Effective terrorist attacks do not require technological sophistication--Oklahoma bombing (1995), Madrid train stations (2004), even 9/11.
• Electronic media and communication devices: used to both promote democratic reform as well as the goals of terrorists.
  • Coordinate activities.
  • Broadcasting of events.
• 2014: US cyberwarfare force grows significantly, "Cyber will be a part of all future conflicts," Chuck Hagel, Secretary of Defense. Force to grow to 6,000 by 2016.

Military Technology and a Changing World

• Today we have the ability to kill and destroy at levels never before seen or imagined.
• Still, basic questions remain: What does it mean to be a warrior? What is the point of warfare?
  • Happens each time a new weapon is introduced. Now, with total destruction a possibility--what is to gain?
  • Remote control and drones: Wipe out a terrorist camp and go shopping at the mall later.
  • If drone pilots are combatants--is it justifiable to kill them in their homes?
  • Who is to blame for striking a wrong target?
  • Program glitches and collateral damage?
  • Are video gamers the soldiers of tomorrow?
  • If war is more precise and "easy," does that make it more likely?
• Dissolution of USSR in 1991--reduced the threat of nuclear war, but is the world today less or more dangerous? One foe or many?
• Reduction in state-to-state conflict, and the rise of "Whack-a-Mole" warfare.
• Technology cannot fix the "terrorist problem": values, beliefs, ideals.
• Nuclear proliferation is still a significant long-term threat. Can it be contained?

Questions (pages 319-320):

1. "Collateral damage," in which innocent people are killed or injured and their homes destroyed, has been an inevitable feature of warfare. World War II was particularly lethal, as millions of civilians died as a result of enemy actions. Do
   modern weapons have the potential to reduce civilian casualties? If so, what prevents them from doing so?
2. Drones are now used extensively for reconnaissance in combat areas, and they can also be used by the police and private parties to gain information about activities below them. Do they pose a serious threat to privacy? Should anything be done to prevent or limit the use of drones?
3. A major goal of antiterrorist operations is to deny safe havens in countries or parts of countries that support or tolerate terrorists. Does harboring terrorists justify military actions that amount to waging an undeclared war on a sovereign power?
4. Could the United States survive an extensive cyberattack? Should the federal government take steps to limit the damage done by such attacks? What sort of things could be done to blunt the force and mitigate the consequences of a cyberattack?
5. In recent wars, the number of uniformed men and women engaged in support activities far outnumber those who are involved in combat. Are they really soldiers? What about drone aircraft operators who are located far from the field of combat?

Chapter 17