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Gaming the Future: The Book!

Category: Future Warfare

Pervasive surveillance, swarming response for terrorist threats

from the high-tech-immune-response dept.
A commentary in the Washington Post ("Netting Bin Laden" by David Ignatius, 11 November 2001) proposes the use of a number of technologies familiar to the Foresight community to counter the threat of dispersed, pervasive, networked enemies — such as international terrorist organizations. The piece suggests the use of pervasive, highly networked but decentralized surveillance and maneuver units that include a "swarming" counter-attack may be key to effective responses to such threats.

Read more for excerpts, and a link to a book-length Rand Corp. study on "Networks and Netwars". The excerpts are provided because free access to the link to the Washington Post article may expire.

Battle is on for U.S. soldier nanotech center

A number of universities in the U.S. are competing to become the host for a University Affiliated Research Center (UARC) for the U.S. Armyís Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies (ISN). A considerable amount of information about the intended goals of the ISN center can be found in the formal solicitation for the ISN center, released in October 2001, which is available as an Adobe Acrobat PDF file (about 155 KB). Funding for the ISN will be about $US 10 million per year, for at least five years.
According to the solicitation: "The individual soldier will. . . will require systems revolutionary in their capabilities. Recent advances in the field of nanoscience suggest that may be possible to provide the soldier with radically new capabilities in full-spectrum threat protection without incurring significant weight or volume penalties. Such soldier systems will only be realized by directing additional resources to the Army's Science and Technology Program in the emerging field of nanoscience. . . . The purpose of this research center of excellence is to develop unclassified nanometerscale science and technology solutions for the soldier. A single university will host this center, which will emphasize revolutionary materials research toward advanced soldier protection and survivability capabilities."
Responses to the solicitation are due by 15 November 2001, and competition for the center is keen. An item from the Cornell Daily Sun ("Army Research Facility May Replace Ward Lab", 25 October 2001) describes some of Cornell universityís efforts to bring the center there.

Previous coverage of the ISN program appeared here on 28 June and 13 September 2001

U.S. Army may use nanotech materials

A number of people spotted the item from Associated Press from 10 September 2001 on the proposed use of nanotech-derived materials in U.S. Army combat uniforms. According to the article, "To help soldiers survive, the U.S. Army is developing a new generation of combat uniforms using tiny, doctored fibers that let air through while blocking toxins from chemical and biological weapons . . . The 'chemical protective overgarment,' expected to ship in as little as two years, is one of the early uses of nanotechnology."

The proposed new uniform is part of the U.S. Armyís Soldier Nanotechnologies program, which was announced in June 2001.

U.S. "Soldier Nanotechnologies" program comes to attention

from the battletech dept.
The U.S. Armyís new Soldier Nanotechnolgies program to create a University Affiliated Research Center (UARC), with industry partners, to develop nanometer-scale science and technology solutions that could be incorporated into a soldier's gear, has attracted considerable attention in the media.

An Army-sponsored workshop that initiated the program was previously covered here on nanodot.

NRC advocates biotechnology for U.S. Army

from the battletech dept.
The National Research Council's Board on Army Science and Technology has released a study ("Opportunities in Biotechnology for Future Army Applications") that recommends the U.S. Army embrace advancements in biotechnology that promise to help soldiers survive and perform better in the 21st century, and seek exemptions from some regulatory approval processes to speed up the development of new medical treatments. The NRC is part of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.
Recommendations in the report stress the importance of developing defensive technologies aimed at improving the survivability and effectiveness of U.S. soldiers. The report specifically does not address the use of biotechnology for offensive applications. The recommended technologies included biosensors, biomaterials, molecular electronics and biological energy sources.
"Although soldiers in 2025 may look much the same as their present day counterparts, they will be drawn from a society that has been armed by biotechnology with increased strength and endurance and superior resistance to disease and aging," the report's executive summary said.

Additional information is available in this UPI article and this press release.

U.S. Army program looks at military nanotech applications

from the small-arms dept.
For a detailed look at what short-term applications the U.S. Army sees for nanotechnology, you can take a look at the proceedings of a Workshop on Nanoscience for the Soldier, which was held by the Army Research Office at the North Carolina Biotechnology Center in Durham, NC, in early February.

The work shop marked the start of a program announced by the U.S. Army to create a University Affiliated Research Center (UARC), with industry partners, to develop nanometer-scale science and technology solutions that could be incorporated into a soldier's gear. That could be a uniform that monitors a soldier's vital signs, or sends out an alert in the presence of toxins and decontaminates the soldier before any damage occurs. Or it could be a material that changes color to camouflage the soldier or protect him or her against ballistics.

An article on the Small Times web site provides a good overview of the Army program, as well those of other branches of the U.S. military.

UK Defense ministry reviews nanotechnology

from the World-Watch dept.
RobertBradbury writes "The British Minstry of Defence (MOD) has released this recent report NANOTECHNOLOGY: Its Impact on Defence and the MOD (in Adobe Acrobat PDF format).

It's interesting for what they get wrong. They seem to be including quantum cryptography, AI, MEMS and biotechnology as part of "nanotechnology" while entirely missing the possibility of nanobots. Guess that's what happens when you don't include a microbiologist on the "expert" panel. It mentions that European funding is ~100 million pounds a year, but like the U.S. funding, that probably includes a lot of nanoscience and larger-than-nanoscale research."

CIA on nanowarfare: "we do have to worry"

from the worrisome dept.
TNT Weekly brings our attention to an ABCNEWS.com interview of CIA Assistant Director John Gannon. Asked about misuse of nanotech, he says "…we do have to worry about what bad people will do with the same capabilities. And individual governments and the international community need to invest in an effort to understand the implications of these technologies and to take early steps to control potential adverse effects. I would stress that, in the area of new technologies, we do not pretend to know all the answers, which is all the more reason why we need to work together on these challenges. "

Defense Graduate Fellowships in Nanotechnology

from the tax-dollars-at-work dept.
The U.S. National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship Program, administered by the American Society for Engineering Education, is offering up to 35 new graduate fellowships in nanotechnology beginning in Fall 2001. The U.S. Dept. of Defense is sponsoring interdisciplinary fellowships focusing in nanoelectronics, nanomaterials, and bionanotechnology. Application deadline is January 17, 2001.

IEEE steps up to Artificial Immune Systems

from the staying-intact dept.
Discussions of defending against nanotech-based weapons often conclude that we will need something like an immune system. Dipankar Dasgupta, a computer scientist at Univ. of Memphis, will edit an Artificial Immune Systems special issue of the IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation. Deadline for papers is December 15, 2000.

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