In “ War and Anti War” , Alvin Toffler postulates :
“If war was ever too serious a business to be left alone to Generals, then , today , it is all the more serious to leave it to uninformed , uninitiated and unaware , whether in uniform or otherwise“
Mind you this book came out in mid 90s when US was working out a doctrine for the synchronisation of Land - Air battle to fight OUTNUMBERED and win a limited Nuclear war . Almost quarter of a century has gone and technology driven weapon systems, characterising RsMA, has impacted war making in two ways :—
a) Emphasis of Land warfare has shifted to WOM (War by other Means), where you exploit internal vulnerabilities of the enemy by making use of “Irregular Soldiers”. Land war will therefore be limited to “Designer Conflicts”, where there would be no more MONKEY DANCING by the armies across the borders. At best, it will be confined to border skirmishes .Therefore there was a need for the armed forces to be structured and reorganised to deal with this kind of land war. “Smart weapons” and “irregular soldiers” would play an important role in the “Designer Land Wars” of the future . They would be protracted conflicts with “No Fronts” and “No Rears”.
b) Driven by High tech and mass destruction weapon systems , mankind will upgrade from “Land wars” to “Space Wars”. Deep into the future, Battle Zones are going to be in the space . There will be rush for land grabbing on the moon and other planets . The focus of the modern conventional war is shifting to SEAS & SPACE . Therefore Naval forces and Airforce get priority over the land forces . In view of this importance of STAND -ALONE weapon Systems attain significance . These are A- SAT , Anti- Missile systems such as Iron Dome or S-400 , EMP guns , Laser Guns, Drones and anti- drone systems , Missiles (Ballistic, Supersonic and Hypersonic) ; SWARM weapon systems , Aircraft careers , Nuclear Submarines , Laser Killers, long range artillery with perfect accuracy and deadly lethality, as well as 5th and 6th generation aircrafts .
Covid -19 and Ukraine war has brought out new aspects of emerging form of war . If Corona Virus was driving mankind to helplessness, it now turns out from Ukraine conflict that some countries were working on more dangerous “pathogens”. It was revealed by “Fox News” , sometimes back, that Washington has been funding laboratories in Ukraine for the investigation of "lethal pathogens" for the last 14 years or so . Weaponisation of the birds is a new way of WOM (War by other Means)
It is alleged by Russia that in Ukraine, USA had been financing and funding to create “numbered migratory birds” , produced by biological and bacteriological laboratories in Ukraine.
How do migratory birds get weaponised? After studying the routes of the migration of these birds and observing them through various seasons, the environmental specialists and zoologists understand the path these birds take each year on their seasonal journeys across the globe, which includes flying over various nations and continents.
Accordingly, these observations and records are used to select some migratory birds. They are then, captured , digitised and injected or loaded with a capsule of germs embedded into their body, along with a chip to be controlled through computers. They are then released again to join migratory birds in countries where damage is desired to be affected.
The known places of origin of these birds are from the Baltic Sea and the Caspian Sea to the African continent and Southeast Asia. Besides there are two other paths followed by them from Canada to South America in varying seasons. The intelligence agencies then monitor their movement through out their journey with the help of embedded chips. Now , in case the targeted nation, let us say, India or Iran or even Russia, the chip is destroyed when the bird flies over these countries. They Kill the bird that falls carrying the epidemic. Thus, diseases spread in this or that country. In this way, the enemy country is harmed at no military, economic and political cost. It is a new form of the war, the War by other Means ( WOM), also called Hybrid or Fifth Generation warfare.
The hybrid war seeks to implode your adversary by using “irregular soldiers” or the separatists , who have revolted agsinst the Government of your adversary . In short it seeks to exploit internal weaknesses and vulnerabilities. This is followed by misinformation campaign in the media to undermine the authorities . A flurry of anti - India articles in USA, Canada and Europe are part of such a misinformation campaign, may be by China or Pakistan . A doctored report by GHI ( Global Hunger Index), placing India at 107 rank out of some 130 countries is aimed at discrediting the present regime . It is a joke that India has placed below Sri Lanka and Pakistan .
Fifth columnists play a very important role in WOM . The aim of WOM is to subdue your adversary without “ firing a bullet”. Trade and Economic blockades are used to break the will of the targeted country . This is the new format of war now gaining momentum . In a way , engaging Russia in Ukraine in another way of WOM . USA had cleverly “outsourced” its fighting to Ukraine . No wonder ex Chief of Staff of US Army General Jack Keane said : “ —- We paid only 66 billion for Ukrainians to die for US interests in the war with Russia”.
Besides, war is now entering outer space . Race is on for the colonisation of outer space. This has heralded the coming of the Cosmic Age , where “cosmic space” would be more important than a piece of land on the planet Earth . It is NOT science fiction . Times are fast changing . Frontiers of space are no more VIRGIN . Message is : Join the race or cool your heels in the Ghettos of Earth .
NASA scientists say that there was icy crystal of waters in the subsurface of Mars , suggesting that some kind of life might have existed on Mars in the distant past . Recently, a news has also come that Europa , one of Jupiter’s moon has water and it could have some form of life . Some years back an earth like planet was discovered , called Earth -2 , some trillion light years away from earth . Therefore outer space and cosmos are now considered to be habitable by humans . Therefore there is a race for colonisation of outer space, a new kind of Lebensraum. This race will lead to conflicts snd wars in the outer space, may by the end of this century. War would then be entirely in its unrecognisable “ Avatar”.
(Col. Rajinder Kushwaha is an ex-NDA, commissioned into 3 Bihar. He is a battle-hardened veteran who served in ’71 War & has operated extensively in various insurgency environs across the country. He is a renowned author, and a highly respected defence & national security expert writing for several reputed publications such as ‘Defence and Security Alert’ (DSA), the ‘Indian Defence Review’ (IDR) among others. You can reach him on Twitter: @RajeeKushwaha, Email ID: [email protected])
(Views expressed are the authors own, and do not reflect the editorial policy of 'Mission Victory India')
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