With its rapidly evolving information gathering and technological capabilities, along with
its cutting-edge unmanned weapons of war, for better or worse, the United States military
is poised for global domination far into the future.
But it won’t just do it with unmanned planes, tanks, and ships.
Warfare is about to go next-level, with America’s imminent completion of a system of satellites,
unmanned spacecraft, and cyber weapons that will give it control over all levels of Earth’s
atmosphere, including space.
Few Americans know just how close we are to this unprecedented moment in history, as the
details of these defense department projects are highly classified.
But we do now know enough to form a clear picture of how the overall plan works.
To start, a fleet of hundreds of powerful drones, like the $200+ million-dollar-a vehicle
Global Hawk, will continuously patrol the lower altitudes.
With their high resolution cameras and powerful surveillance sensors they’re already the
remote-controllable all-knowing eyes and ears of the US military.
Launched from over 60 bases and 10 aircraft carriers around the world, these drones can
monitor and precisely strike nearly any target on Earth.
Giant solar-panel-covered Unmanned Aerial Vehicles with 400 foot wingspans, like the
Vulture, will stay in the air continuously for years gathering data.
Hypersonic vehicles capable of traveling at 13,000 miles an hour at an altitude of 20
miles up will be able to get and bomb any location on earth in under 120 minutes.
A network of ultra wide-angled space surveillance telescopes will allow for real-time monitoring
of any object, anywhere in the sky, from a bay of computer screens.
To completely control the planet, vehicles like the X-37 will patrol space, ready to
track down and eliminate an enemy satellite at a moments notice.
The 30-foot long unmanned vehicle completed a 22-month non-stop flight in 2014.
Destroying a satellite from land with a missile, the way China did in a 2007 test, creates
thousands of tiny pieces of space debris that could trigger a Kessler effect of a runaway
destructive event like the one depicted in the blockbuster film Gravity.
Experts think that just 10-15 of these types of explosions could create so much debris
that low earth orbit would suddenly become a no-go zone.
That’s why future weapons that target satellites will try to disable or jam them, or use lasers
or an agile space vehicle -- like the X-37 -- to push or drag a satellite back toward
earth where it would break up upon reentry.
As a countermeasure, the United States is developing many smaller satellites -- instead
of the traditionally larger ones -- to make its system as difficult as possible to attack.
Paired with this growing armada of satellites; the world’s most powerful computers will
coordinate all of these capabilities by gathering, storing, and analyzing staggering amounts
of information.
And taking into account America’s already best-in-history military, the US government
is set to dominate aerospace, cyberspace, biometrics, and robotics far into the current
century.
And there’s no reason to think the US will hold back.
Its current track record of runaway weapons development and relentless drone strikes in
the Middle East, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and North Africa, proves that the Americans will
use every tactical advantage to dominate the theatre of war.
And it’ll likely set off a new arms race, as every game-changing weapon developed in
the past by the military industrial complex of the United States has eventually been embraced
by other countries.
Fighter jets are now used by dozens of countries around the world, six nations have nuclear
submarines, eleven have aircraft carriers, and nine have nuclear weapons.
Recently, when the NSA created a portfolio of cyber weapons, other countries, like China,
immediately began copying them.
In the past America has been unable to prevent other countries from building warplanes planes,
ships, or even nukes, however it will soon be the only country -- with the possible exception
of China -- capable of stopping its rivals from launching or keeping their satellites
in orbit.
But, this seemingly impenetrable 21st century coat of armor may still have one significant
weakness: if the American computer programming force can’t keep its increasingly vital
and complex systems from being successfully hacked by its enemies.
Thanks for watching my take on the global military landscape of the near-future.
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Until next time, for two man team here at The Daily Conversation, I’m Bryce Plank
along with my brother, Brendan Plank, the editor of this video.