21st Century Warfare: Harder, Faster, Deadlier.

“Humans, no matter their color, are fragile as doves in the meat grinders of war.” - Pierce Brown

The earliest known evidence of mass violence was in Jebel Sahaba, Sudan. There, a large 13,400-year-old cemetery was uncovered. 20 skeletons were found to have sustained injuries during their lifetime. It was first concluded that they all died in a single war; a reanalysis showed that this probably wasn’t the case. Taking another look at the 61 skeletons (including the 20 aforementioned), scientists at the University of Bordeaux discovered over 100 healed and unhealed bone lesions, suggesting that these people suffered multiple injuries over a long time. War was never a “modern” phenomenon. It has been one of the largest shadows following every footstep humanity takes. 

Image: Systel

In the following centuries, humanity’s mission in war has remained largely unaltered. We wage war for revenge, hate, land, and resources. What has indeed evolved is our means of obliterating the enemy. The ancient Chinese used crossbows to punch through armor, and the Egyptians used chariots that revolutionized warfare with faster armies. After the invention of gunpowder, the meat grinder that was war consumed more lives than one could count. The Chinese developed fire lances, designed to ideally shoot out fire and projectiles over a short distance to give its user an edge in close-quarters combat. Swapping the bamboo tube to a more resistant metal one, combined with the added power and damage provided by the gunpowder through time, these contraptions became first-hand cannons. By 1380, handguns were known all across Europe and militaries were adopting this new piece of weaponry. The invention of the wheel lock allowed for the generation of sparks to propel the bullets without the need to light a match. The flintlock mechanism later improved this process. At first, all guns were smoothbore, creating problems with accuracy. After the rifling principle was adopted (creating grooves inside the barrel to spin the bullet), bullets could maintain their trajectory because of the constant spinning motion. The development of handheld explosives, artillery, and machine guns followed suit. 

Modern warfare differed from its 18th and 19th-century counterparts due to 2 key factors: power and technology. In the 1800s, french emperor Napolean Bonaparte fought multiple wars against several shifting coalitions of nations. He is widely regarded as a master in that particular period’s form of warfare. Troops were equipped with smoothbore muskets, so it was a popular practice to pack the ranks of troops close to each other. Although the guns were only practical over short distances, a hail of bullets could still cause considerable damage. Alongside line infantry, cavalry were used as shock troops to break through enemy lines and harass troops. Artillery guns were utilized for their substantial power to bombard key positions, support friendly forces, and lower morale. Warfare in the 1800s was defined by strategically using speed, power, and positioning to defeat the enemy. 

In 1884, Sir Hiram Maxim successfully created the first machine gun. It used the recoil caused by the previous shot to chamber the new rounds. All the major armies adopted the Maxim gun or other variations within the following years. During the outbreak of the First World War, the general public believed that it would be like most other wars: a short abrupt conflict won with line infantry and cavalry. In the early stage, the war was filled with movement from both the Allies and Central Powers, but machine guns and artillery forced them to dig below for protection. This later became the defining pattern of the First World War: hundreds of men crammed into trench systems dozens of kilometers long, reinforced with razor-sharp barb wires of similar length. They were pounded with hundreds of shells a second. Rain poured down and made the trenches muddy and miserable. Cavalry charges were mowed down by gunfire and so much as lighting a cigarette could be the difference between life and death. 

In the Second World War, sophisticated ammunition and vehicles were adopted widely. The conflict starkly opposes the slow nature of The Great War. Instead, the battles were fought across mountains, deserts, jungles, and the open sea with mechanized infantry, ships, and planes moving at blazingly fast speeds. Now, even smaller squads could lay down a wall of lead with their submachine guns and light machine guns like the MG42. Then came the Cold War. The period of extreme rivalry between Western Countries and the Eastern Bloc drove military R&D and funding through the roof. The newly unveiled power of the atomic bomb drove every powerful country to build bombs a thousandfold more destructive than the ones used in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The craze even spread to the newly formed North Korea making it their mission to build a bomb of their own, starving millions in the process. As nuclear weapon development increased, radio and internet technology leaped great bounds in the 1990s, connecting any two people from polar opposite locations in the world in the blink of an eye Now, intelligence agencies can communicate and share information at lightning speed. Troops on the frontlines can talk with their generals and even transmit live footage from their cameras. 

The ongoing war in Ukraine serves as a “playground” for new military technologies. Ukraine’s stockpile of military equipment is a small dot compared to what Russia has been producing and collecting for decades. Thus, the Ukrainians understood that to even stand a fighting chance, they had to use everything they had to their advantage. It started with using consumer-grade drones as reconnaissance tools, surveying the Russian troops. Then troops attached explosives; drones could hover above trenches and drop a grenade killing scores of soldiers. 

As seen in Ukraine, mastery of 21st-century warfare requires armies to use cheaper methods to their advantage, identify opportunities, and correctly use their advanced weaponry when necessary. In a world where China, Russia, or the USA can launch an intercontinental ballistic missile that will almost certainly hit any city around the world within 30 minutes or less, cost efficiency matters. 

War has become less personal, more mechanical, and more efficient. Critics and lawmakers can argue that this would dehumanize conflict and cause more suffering than required. Alas, the world must acknowledge that this is a set path. Protests will not stop the military-industrial complex and criticism has never stopped the powers from manufacturing more weapons of mass destruction. The survival of the fragile “world peace” rests upon the generals, the lawmakers, and the corporate executives.