N.B.C. - Weapons of Mass Destruction

n-b-c nuclear biological and chemical the three weapons of mass destruction bar the first the latter to have been used extensively throughout history in warfare and of these the biological weapons which have not been used to their full potential are considered the most abhorrent biological weapons are those defined as being living organisms by the bacterial viral or protozoic that in fact either an environment or host organism such as animals or humans usually the toxins of living organisms are considered non biological and fall within the purview of the third category of chemical weapons there are four kinds of bio weapon bacteria viruses Rickettsia and fungi their main purpose is to reproduce in the host victim and incapacitate and be highly contagious or easily transmitted bio weapons can be both tactical and strategic when weaponized they can be dispersed in the battlefield by artillery or rocket or dispensed into water supplies or aerosol sprayed to contaminate large areas of earth to deny enemy occupation bioweapons are generally taken from nature although there have been attempts to manufacture them they are designed to infect soldiers or civilians or livestock and crops to destroy in large populations most of these agents are slow acting requiring time to multiply in an infected host before causing an effect others may not be stable enough to exist outside a host long enough to infect others some agents are moderately fast working but may not be lethal the kinds of disease or bacterium that have either been used studied or weaponized include but are not limited to and prax Salmonella enterica Q fever Rift Valley fever psittacosis bubonic plague v first type 3 para melioidosis Lassa virus yesenia pestis play yellow fever Ebola others include Marburg virus tularemia brucellosis glanders Shigella Rocky Mountain spotted fever Japanese be encephalitis and smallpox some naturally occurring toxins can also be used as weapons including the easily manufactured ricin staphylococcal enterotoxin be often the cause of food poisoning botulism toxin sexy toxin and many other mycotoxins for centuries mankind has been using the human body itself as a weapon biological weapons are invisible but deadly the first known uses recorded in hittite texts written more than 3000 years ago when victims of the plague were driven into enemy lands to spread their deadly germs ancient warriors were known to tip their arrows and Spears with poison animal feces and snake venom to infect their enemy's wounds Hannibal of Carthage filled clay pots with poisonous snakes and launched them onto his opponent ships while the city of Hatra attacked the Roman army with pots containing scorpions when the bubonic plague ravaged Europe during the Middle Ages soldiers catapulted infected body parts and excrement over battlements during sieges in later years infected clothing was used for the same purpose when Europeans established colonies around the world they also unwittingly brought an avalanche of diseases which ravaged native peoples who had no immunity although this was unintentional there is one recorded case of a plan for deliberate infection during the French and Indian War in 1763 a letter between two British officers details the possibility of handing out blankets infected with smallpox to Native Americans there is no evidence that the plan was carried out but if it had been it was likely to have been effective Native Americans were highly susceptible to European diseases as they had not lived closely with domesticated animals in the 20th century the lethal disease anthrax was used very early on spread by spores rather than infected people it was hidden in Russian stables by Scandinavian freedom fighters in 1916 anthrax and the animal disease glanders were used against allied livestock in the First World War despite the Geneva Convention of 1925 that prohibited the use of biological and chemical weapons Germany and Japan carried out biological warfare experiments on prisoners during World War two and used biological weapons in China in the 1940s Japan bombed China with ceramic pots carrying fleas infected with bubonic plague which resulted in outbreaks of the deadly disease the Allied countries also launched research into biological weapons working out ways to convert tularemia anthrax brucellosis and botulism toxin into weapons british tests on Scotland's Grenada Island left the area contaminated with anthrax for almost 50 years the fear and paranoia that characterized the years of the Cold War saw many allegations of biological agents during the Korean War China and North Korea accused the United States of testing biological weapons and releasing disease carrying insects against their forces declassified documents have revealed that the United States carried out widespread testing on human subjects at Fort Detrick during the 1950s earning the army camp the nickname for doom in a project known as Operation white-coat authorities first used army volunteers when the men demanded to know what substances they were being exposed to the government recruited seventh-day adventists who as conscientious objectors refused to be part of the military draft in 1969 President Richard Nixon announced that the United States would no longer conduct research into offensive biological weapons instead concentrating on preventing possible infections from biological warfare in 2008 Bruce Ivins a senior bio defense researcher at Fort Dietrich committed suicide after being informed the FBI would charge him with contributing to a series of anthrax attacks in 2001 five people died and many more were infected when they opened letters carrying anthrax the letters were mailed to senators and media organizations after many years of investigation in which eivin's himself was involved as an anthrax expert the FBI narrowed the search suspecting that Ivan's motive in sending out the anthrax was to test a vaccine he was developing although the FBI closed the case following Ivan's death others are not convinced that he committed the crime or if he did that he acted alone Chemical Weapons fall into several categories mainly due to their effects nerve blood skin and lung agents are the most prominent other types of cytotoxic proteins like ricin tear gas and incapacitating gases are also included under the umbrella of chemical agents nerve agents react quickly either inhale they're absorbed through the skin or digestion some affect the brain by blocking the synapses plaid agents also asphyxia agents can be absorbed the same way and often block the metabolic processes of cells skin or blistering agents are quick acting acid forming compounds that blister the skin and Airways like mustard gas lung agent similar to blistering agents form acids in the airways damaging the respiratory tract subcategories take into account the persistence of the chemical and the environment lethality and speed of affect most of the vines to be delivered by artillery shell mortar gravity bomb or rocket warhead dispersal is through base ejection where liquids can form vapours modern nerve agents like VX are a two compound type two inert chemicals brought together in the warhead and dispersed creating the toxic chemical like biological warfare chemical warfare is insidious and indiscriminate affecting the civilian population as much as the military it feeds on fear and hysteria and has been used since ancient times to intimidate opponents in the 4th century BC the Chinese used bellows to pump smoke from burning balls of mustard and other vegetables into tunnels being dug by a besieging army in the 5th century BC the Spartan army set fire to a mixture of wood pitch and sulfur in order to spread a toxic cloud that would disorient it the Athenians and give Sparta an edge when its army stormed Athens in the 3rd century AD the Persians used burning bitumen and sulphur crystals in tunnels to suffocate Roman soldiers by the 17th century shells filled with sulphur tallow rosin turpentine and saltpeter were used in various sieges one Bishop included extracts from the poisonous belladonna plant in incendiary devices sent into the city of groningen a year later the French and German signed an agreement banning the use of perfidious and odious toxic devices unfortunately mankind did not heed this call and world war 1 saw the most effective and disturbing uses of chemical warfare ever used in the world to that point first the French launched tear gas at German forces the Germans sent shells containing Xylo bromide into Russian lines then Germany attacked French Canadian and Algerian forces with chlorine gas at the Battle of Ypres followed by phosgene and mustard gas at various times the Allies responded with their own chemical attacks although the number of fatalities due to chemical weapons was relatively low compared with other methods of attack the chemical exposure caused millions of men lifelong suffering between the wars chemical weapons were used against the people of Mesopotamia by the British and by the Bolsheviks against the white Russians fascist Italy dropped mustard bombs on Ethiopia during the second Italo Abyssinian war killing and injuring an estimated 150,000 people the Japanese army used mustard gas against the Chinese and carried out many experiments the Germans also fast-track their chemical research producing the nerve agents Taborn and Cyrene in the late 1930s we have a court on combustion fuse and a gunpowder charger is here and this is an internal piston and as the fuse burns it will set off this gunpowder charge it will share the piston here forcing that down the interior which then she is the the lightly threaded baseplate throws the base play out and disseminates the chemical out of the rear the Allies also stockpiled chemical weapons ingredients and carried out their own research but apart from Japan none of the combatants used the weapons poor gas is dropped from planes either as a spray or in gas bombs but should enemy Raiders use gas against your community there is no reason for fear or panic because if you know what to do you can protect yourself and safeguard your family against the Menace of gas from the air the ideal protection for civilians is an airtight gas shelters ventilated by a system which removes gas vapors from the incoming air such a shelter can be designed to provide some protection also against the effects of high explosives on some war gases can be seen by the eye others are invisible but it is important to know that most of them are heavier than air and that they settle down and are most concentrated close to the ground hence if no gas shelter is immediately available so indoors and go upstairs the gases that higher-level will probably be less concentrated to down here to drown some work answers of shredders liquid which slowly evaporate giving off invisible but poisonous vapor this type of gas remained for a long time and hence is false for business certain chemicals neutralize this liquid gas and train decontamination teams of the United States citizens Defence Force which is the civilian protection force that your community are equipped to utilize the liquid gas so that people may go outside without danger of exposure to the liquid force poisonous fumes but these workers must wear special gas clothes clothing and masks for protection the completeness of their protective clothing emphasizes the fact that without such special protection you must stay indoors until notified that the liquid gas has been neutralized and that the air is free of harmful gas fumes liquid gas may also be washed away by a heavy rain or by a stream of water from a fire hose out in the fields where liquid gas has been dropped dry chemicals that utilize the liquid gas are mixed with the earth this seam should remind us to stay off the grass after a gas attack resistant liquid gas and the fumes that it gives off may be lurking unseen and covered by grass or shrubbery for days or even weeks after his drop there another type of war gas was dropped as a vapor this cloud gradually thins out and disappears in a few minutes when it is cleared from the neighborhood it is no longer a minute because this type of gas disperses quickly it is called non-persistent why does the enemy use gas against civilian well gas bombs dropped by the enemy do not destroy our homes and factories as to high-explosive bombs war gases must start the devastating fires that are the great Menace of incendiary bombs war gas does not shatter arms and vectors full of sand bomb fragments do the real purpose at the enemy and using war gas is to spread fear and panic to destroy our morale and to [ __ ] our war production the enemy hopes that we will become scared and panic but the weapons our soldiers are waiting for will fail who arrived when crucial battle Samantha but you can force the enemy by not giving way to fear and panic because you know what to do with gas come remember close all openings which might permit gas Laden air to enter the building use blankets to cover windows shattered by high-explosive bombs go up above the first floor don't go down into the basement unless you have a gas proof shell visit stay indoors until your air warden tells you it's safe to leave if you come in contact with gas outdoors leave outer clothing outside the building time is your ally if you use it so apply first aid as quickly as possible quickly remove any liquid gas by blotting be careful not to spread the liquid gas then gently and thoroughly bathed the affected skin area with the bleaching solution wash each eye out for two minutes with a 2% baking soda solution soap and wash nation used lots of soap do a thorough job he was either a shower or four buckets of water over you in a bathtub irrigate your nose and Darvill your throat with the baking soda solution after bathing don't waste time looking for first-aid materials if you haven't provided them in Assam soap and shower immediately after removing your clothing wash your eyes out with plain water if your lungs are affected lie down to rest while waiting for the doctor to arrive Horace whispered form summoned medically the Cold War saw intensive research into chemical agents by both sides of the conflict the United States put them into practice during the Vietnam conflict when it embarked on the herbicide 'el warfare program for ten years from 1962 agents purple pink green and orange was sprayed by low-flying aircraft on vast swathe of jungle to kill vegetation that might hide the Vietcong and destroy crops that could sustain the guerrilla army the dioxins released over Vietnam were highly toxic and killed or maimed hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese civilians Agent Orange in particular caused long-term health problems in thousands of US servicemen and led to a high rate of birth defects court cases regarding the use of the herbicide are still pending against the US government and the chemical companies involved but Vietnam veterans in Australia Canada and New Zealand have received compensation settlements we garima would like each Street facility it won't go to Rachel you'll leave ecology problem of the destruction of chemical weapons is part of a major project that we're implementing in Green Cross and that project is called legacy and it is aimed at eliminating the environmental consequences of the Cold War and the arms race it's a terrible legacy that we're trying to eliminate other issues and this is a major project another chemical used extensively in modern conflicts is white phosphorus the incendiary agent was amongst those used than the Allies fire bombing campaign against German cities in the final years of the war it was also part of the American Arsenal in Korea and Vietnam Russia employed white phosphorus munitions against rebel forces in Chechnya during the mid 90s we're about a quarter of Russian artillery or mortar rounds were smoked or white phosphorus despite multiple international conventions prohibiting the use of chemical weapons against civilians Iraq Saddam Hussein used numerous chemical agents in his campaign against the Kurds the most notorious was the Halabja poison gas attack that killed up to 5,000 people and injured thousands of others during the iran-iraq war Iranian photographer cava golestan was one of the first to enter the town of Halabja in March 1988 and was dumbfounded by what he discovered quote it was life frozen life had stopped like watching a film and suddenly it hangs on one frame it was a new kind of death to me he went into a room a kitchen and you saw the body of a woman holding a knife where she had been cutting a carrot unquote the people of Halabja had been exposed to mustard gas sarin nerve gas and various other toxic substances unfortunately international reaction was muted and the United States refused to support sanctions against Iraq people see chemical and biological weapons in the context of WMD weapons of mass destruction which indeed they are history has instances where these chemical weapons have been have killed enormous numbers of people to my mind the real danger of chemical and biological weapons lies in their capacity not for killing people in large numbers but for changing them these are the only weapons around which can attack individual life processes the processes which govern inheritance cognition reproduction all these basic factors which make human beings human to my mind the possibility of changing that altering that opens up pathways to most awful forms of aggression and that weighs more heavily in my mind these as weapons of mass destruction terrorists have also used sarin gas in 1995 the album Shinrikyo cult launched a sarin gas attack against commuters on the Tokyo Metro wealth people died and thousands were affected when the colourless odourless nerve agent was released from plastic bags onto the floor of several trains police later discovered tons of deadly chemicals in the cults headquarters at Mount Fuji and the ringleaders were later convicted of a number of crimes including the subway attack self-protection for soldiers is of paramount importance being supplied with NBC garments and the gas masks is only part of the answer getting soldiers to Don these garments in good time is another in the United States soldiers are given the experience of a chemical attack by being led into a sealed chamber where a tiny amount of a chemical weapon is released the soldiers are then required to remove their gas masks and endure the first symptoms of the toxic gas they are then laid out into the open air this sort of training imprints upon the soldiers the need to get a protective garments on as quickly as possible during a threatened chemical attack early attempts at chemical protective suits were anything but comfortable and were almost as incapacitating to the soldier as the attacking agent modern materials have improved the soldiers lot considerably everything from lightweight helmets to heat proof boots has been designed to make life more comfortable and safer these new outfits are part of the ongoing program to improve military equipment and to take advantage of new inventions and designs while the rifle may be known as a soldier's best friend senior officers say comfortable kit is vital for fighting effectiveness and morale the boots are the most important part of soldiers kept the raw Marines will call their boots my best friends and so the boots are probably the one most emotive part of kit the soldier has because that carries all the weight and everything else you do but wearing your clothing if you're hot and sweaty your morale can dip to keep morale flying high the new designs include heat proof boots that have been tested to withstand hours of being cooked on a surface heated up to 300 degrees Celsius fashionable looking goggle sunglasses with toughened lenses can stop shrapnel or pellets from a shotgun blast as well as UV rays British troops will also be issued with state-of-the-art underwear impregnated with antibacterial antifungal agents to prevent infections and discomfort you know soldiers they always like their personal fashion some may say hey I don't like these they don't look cool you know there's no bling to them either they'll say yeah I like it but at least we're providing them so there's no excuse now in a combat situation not to wear your underwear improvements have also been made to vital life-saving equipment like NBC suits to protect troops from radiation biological or chemical weapons for this one you catch the right next to your skin which obviously in the heat of the day you know you can run around your bed weigh as much vets ology can work better that sort of thing and it's lined you don't actually get charcoal rubs off all over your body so what's the better and it's a completely better design the new generation suits a lighter cooler and easier to wear in the post-cold war world one of the most terrifying prospects for defense planners is the use of a radiological weapon by either a rogue state or terrorist group also known as a dirty bomb a radiological weapon uses conventional explosives to spread radioactive material the main impact of a dirty bomb or a radiological device would be sort of like anthrax wouldn't necessarily kill that many people but would panic the country would bring networks perhaps the subway to a halt it would terrorize people despite reports that terrorist group al Qaeda has tried to get materials to build it former homeland Chief Tom Ridge says there's no evidence the easiest to get would probably be radiation sources such as you'd find at a hospital or at a welding shop those would only be able to contaminate a fairly small area if you are trying to contaminate a much larger area say something the size of Central Park you'd probably have to steal a lot of spent fuel rods from the nuclear power plant that would be much more difficult to do massive radioactivity exposure like the one in Chernobyl in the 1980s would kill thousands of people but experts say such a large-scale attack is unlikely if you're talking about a small one that could contaminate a subway station scare away subway riders for a few weeks I don't think we can exclude that possibility the possibility of a dirty bomb has been quietly examined for years this is something that's been studied for a while plans are in place and if something like this happens I think that the local emergency responders are prepared to deal with it there is some debate as to exactly how many casualties would result from the detonation of a dirty bomb but even if the nuclear contamination were limited the fear and hysteria that would be caused could be just as damaging some military experts are hopeful that new technology will make battles cleaner and shorter Britain's Defense Science and Technology Laboratory has run simulations with Allied forces to give military personnel the experience of working with new technology in war situations sorts of things that we're trying to see here is well how can we control that data how can we give commanders of the future better visualizations of the data that they've got before them so they can make decisions quicker communicate those decisions to other nations and then make the appropriate decisions to fight effectively quickly and overwhelmingly in the future key to the whole operation is our Star Intelligence Surveillance targeting acquisition and reconnaissance it's the eyes and ears of the network and the way military information is collected collated and distributed to Allied forces water actually experimenting with is how we can move the information that is derived from those istar capabilities across the network into the command and battle space management systems which can then manipulate that information to inform the commander's of all the components land sea air and joint one British firm working at D STL is ultra electronics their mapping system is better than the current manual one allowing battle commanders to harness new technology to decision-making using the electronic system here which we worked very closely with the British Army in developing allows us to draw at once so they move things around electronically and their output is of course automatically tidied because the computer is drawing the symbols rather than have a two stencils and tidy things up afterwards it's hoped that harnessing new technology to military exercises will allow battle Chiefs to target the enemy and bring a speedy end to conflict Britain's military encourages its most innovative designers to come up with new combat solutions running a regular competition to locate the best and brightest ideas from flying helicopters to all-terrain vehicles all are on show at the Ministry of Defense's grand challenge the competition is an opportunity for companies and educational centres to develop new technologies on show are all kinds of gadgets designed to make soldiers safer and more efficient while providing an edge on gathering vital intelligence one of the trends present at this year's show are automated devices that can be deployed in dangerous situations by the military some of the robots can be operated from relatively safe locations thanks to laptops or handheld devices one company exhibiting three of its remote-controlled helicopters is Serge NC a-- its designers have built three helicopters varying in size and the distance they can travel the larger one is powered by a small petrol engine and was recently put through its paces by being flown across the English Channel david jones from such NC a-- says they are focusing on visual detection our pro truly is to use a visual detection looking at the targets essentially using a camera where you have the helicopter based hovering over the area of interest onboard the helicopter can carry a video camera that relays live pictures to the controller helicopters can be piloted by soldiers equipped with a laptop and virtual reality glasses no need for a complicated joystick pilots simply use a handheld device with built in motion sensors John says the helicopter actively looks for potential targets and then processes the collected data this helicopter sentry goes backwards and forwards looking for targets of interest we use image processing then to analyze where are likely areas of interest and then you couldn't move it so move it that way we've said in that direction we would like great bring it back down there and you've got the mousetrap down and then this it goes I've come down depending on the master and essentially have a view in the old virtual reality glasses you can see the scenery as if you reaction in the in the helicopter itself to fly over the wall ever look around and another company competing in the Grand Challenges mind sheet the company has developed a remote-controlled all-terrain vehicle used to search for IEDs improvised explosive devices it was developed with feedback from British soldiers who have served in Afghanistan Ragland tribe from mine sheet says they have experienced soldiers in their team in this situation we've got some soldiers to join our team who've come back from Afghanistan and under their guidance we're developing a concept which we hope will win the Grand Challenge the developers hope their remote-controlled vehicle will one day be part of the kit soldiers use in dangerous situations the robot that we've made is actually built on a remote control platform some expensive toy but it's very durable you can actually drop it you can carry it on your back and you can control it from a PDA where you can see a map view for instance and then you can designate where it needs to go to on hand to inspect the teams is Mark Welland from the Ministry of Defence he says one of the major trends on show are automated devices that reduce the risks soldiers face the trend is towards being able to sense remotely to interrogate remotely and to do that without having having minimal that human intervention also unsure - all-terrain vehicles developed by Thalys in conjunction with the University of Reading and Ryland research dubbed sick this device has been designed by Reading University and can be equipped with motion sensor cameras another all-terrain vehicle is a firefighting tract robot developed by Ryland finally kaarvok has unveiled its new remote-controlled helicopter which can relay high-definition pictures to soldiers in the field demonstration and appraisal by the military of these new small surveillance drones occurred recently at the British Army's urban warfare training centers at cope Hill down village on Salisbury Plain the futuristic vehicles equipped with high-tech cameras and sensors are designed to detect a range of threats including roadside bombs and snipers the information is fed back to a control center where commanders on the ground can decide what action to take the cortex team have designed an unmanned aerial vehicle that has the advantage of vertical landing and takeoff and can hover near a target it's essentially a vertical takeoff and landing platform which acts as both a helicopter and an aeroplane the cost of the vehicles ranges from tens of pounds for the smaller planes to tens of thousands for mini helicopters and twin tract buggies the Myra team have built a vehicle that includes a balloon and a flying saucer-like probe for observation it looks very like flying saucer it's actually works on the grinder effect it's designed really for low to medium level flight it can go higher but it's novelty its advantages are flying it very low very stable platform flying in around building things and in urban environments where it can bump into things bump off without anything nasty happening it can hide it carry quite a high payload and one of the other things of great use to the army that we we hope only expect is it can carry stabilized camera to fly over and hover and look down at things on the ground like IEDs in a very easily very safely another use for remote vehicles is rescue of wounded or injured soldiers removing them from a hazardous situation without risking other soldiers lives to carry them I think there's some very clever ideas out there and it's wonderful to see both industry and academia getting together because as you're well aware there's an amalgam of teams out there from industry and academia trying to produce something for us for the future even the old barrage balloon may make a comeback equipped with the cameras it could provide wide area surveillance unmanned aerial vehicles or UAVs are probably best known for their military uses their cameras and radar are used to gather intelligence during warfare and carry out routine espionage without risking the lives of pilots they are controlled from the ground by operators who program onboard guidance computers airborne longer and cheaper than helicopters they have been used in all kinds of missions from border patrols to crop spraying in the wake of the July terror attacks in London Britain is looking to use the technology for surveillance of vehicles and individuals the ability to follow potential suspects in complex urban terrain is something that this kind of system gives you a very very important military capability in this war regulators will insist on stringent collision avoidance radar and what the designers call flight termination systems self-destruct if all else fails of course the us have been utilizing UAVs and combat situations for some time now arming their Predator drone with Hellfire missiles the drones can be remote flown from a local facility or base or flown from a military base in Florida half a world away their military effectiveness has been impressive however the danger of collateral damage has been heightened in recent times the mark one human eyeball of a pilot in the air can still outclass any CCD video technology available and might be able to discern a Taliban terrorist meeting from a local wedding ceremony before firing its missiles another new approach to searching out the enemy at sea has been put into effect thanks to new high speed computers a fleet of ships sailing in a group can link their radar systems together not only does this improve the overall range of the radar but it can generate a highly accurate three-dimensional map giving clear positioning of high-speed threads and even allows for fleet defense systems to combine their efforts autonomously what happens is it has its own built-in communication system a very high fidelity radio system which passes data in real time between the ships extracting data from individual radars and within a central computer system that's fitted in each of the sea sea ships it forms what's called the composite track so iteratively but in very high-speed time you build up this very high fidelity epic what C's he does is by netting together platforms it creates a very large volume of battle space so if a hostile target enters that huge volume and he's tracked quickly and then crack accurately it will give the commander's far more time to decide which is the appropriate shooter to shoot it down or not do anything if in fact it's not posing a threat although the threat level of all-out war is greatly diminished the under c2 is reaping the benefits of new technologies the threat has diminished it's changed in our modern era but it has not gone away and it's also evolved from noisy nuclear submarines that we used to be able to detect passively that meant that we could listen to them into much quieter electric submarines that operate in far more challenging shallower waters which mean that we need to put active sound into the water to bounce energy off them and hear them actively the new 2087 system uses towed pods that are dropped into the sea it can be lowered to different depths and relay back information to the ship the thermal layering would otherwise hide at the moment most of our ships are fitted with what's called hull mounted sonar that means sonar that are hard welded to the ship's hull 2087 gives us a unique new capability to vary the depth of our sonar with a towed body that means that we can use the most advantageous piece of the water column at any one time and the low-frequency nature of its pulse will give us much greater ranges than we currently enjoy of course this data can be tied into a sleep network giving 360 degrees of surveillance in every direction today's complex political and military maneuvers have transformed military thinking the terrorist attacks of September 11 brought new challenges to defense Chiefs who now have to contend with the possibility of large-scale attacks launched by very small numbers of people in a speech on the new security environment British defence secretary Geoff hoon said September 11th had shown the world that terrorism today was not a conventional enemy and had its own rules of engagement the territory controlled the economy to protect or nurture those citizens to whom it has obligations nor does it have an existence within a society of states there's no institutional relationships with States or supranational organisations this hostility might be self inspired by some ideological fervor or externally generated response to some action perhaps of ours or condition of its constituency in a sense it seems to me to have nothing to lose there was also the additional threat from rogue states with weapons of mass destruction which went the UK might follow the u.s. lead and develop new weapon systems to deal with the threat of ballistic missiles this government agrees therefore with the United States ballistic missiles are a threat take seriously we are equally concerned about the rate of proliferation there's a threat grows and technologies develop and may come a day when we need to decide to add a further capability to our current range of responses by acquiring missile defences for the United Kingdom and for Europe as a whole in the way that the United States has already decided to do and with the prospect of more estates of wiring such missiles he feels that defense against them is vital as increasing numbers of states acquire increasingly sophisticated technology ballistic missile proliferation it's a fact we have to deal with a very real threat when viewed in combination with programs to develop weapons of mass destruction the international community has a right to ask why missiles of this range of wanted warheads they might carry to threaten population centers and to consider how best it must respond he believes with such systems in place enemy states would think twice before attacking the UK leader of a rogue state contemplating a ballistic missile attack the United Kingdom or an ally would need to reckon not only with the near certainty they powerful retaliatory response but also with the possibility that active defenses would prevent his attack of succeeding at all blissed-out ballistic missile attack on the United Kingdom or our interests involving weapons of mass destruction will be an overt undeniable form of assault would such a leader be prepared to take the risk in those circumstances he concluded that measures taken in tandem with members of NATO the North Atlantic Treaty Organization will also help prevent the potential for attack and hopefully keep rogue States and terrorist organizations in check today's soldiers need to be versatile light and capable of rapid deployment I think what we have are people who are widely experienced in the operational arena people who have a deep understanding of the various natures of warfare because we have been engaged in operations since the Second World War for every year except one and so the training regime is tough and hard the soldiers are tough and hard and the experience they have gained means that we do have a capability which other nations find it hard to match on occasional conflicts like Iraq have led to new forms of warfare one of the weapons favored by Iraqi insurgents is the ie D the improvised explosive device crude homemade bombs that are detonated by remote control every one of the items on this dusty shelf the remote-controlled toys the walkie-talkies the cordless phones has been used to kill coalition soldiers and Iraqis who help them this small building at US military headquarters in Baghdad is where evidence is collected and examined from thousands of bombs ken Chisholm is one of 20 experts working here I've done more bombing investigations in three and a half weeks than I have in 17 years as an ATF agent gathering the evidence is dangerous work when teams respond to a bombing a second bomb often awaits them new faster and more agile robots are helping soldiers keep their distance from the bombs using a remote control specialists guide the robots to the bomb they use the robots extending arm and cameras to figure out the type of ordnance and how to deal with it sometimes that means blowing it up to avoid accidental detonation the fragments they carry Bank have convinced these experts that the Bombers are getting increasingly high-tech the volume and then the sophistication is something that we haven't seen in two short years the Bombers have gone from using remote-controlled toys to detonate bonds easy to work but not very precise to far more complicated detonators with much greater power if the devices can be activated from miles away the insurgents can spot a Humvee passing and detonate the bomb almost instantaneously and they are apparently getting their expertise from the Internet and the information is available on how to make homemade explosives the forensic specialists have learned a great deal about the bombs but it hasn't made it any easier to find the people using them a new robot originally designed to function in the operating room during surgery may also be a key tool in preventing devastating scenarios such as the explosion of a dirty bomb form experts have been using remotely operated robots for years robots have given them the ability to inspect suspicious packages and detonate them from a safe distance but what happens when a bomb can't be blown up as is the case with so called dirty bombs that would release dangerous radioactive material or what if a bomb is located in an area where an explosion isn't an option in the past bomb experts have had to risk life and limb in their attempt to defuse it Tom Lowe is the head of engineering and technology at SR I international he and his team say they have the answer the mobile m7 robot if we do some point have a threat from the dirty bomb or I have a charge placed on a target this is far too valuable to risk the device being detonated a device like our robot could be brought in place to do a more surgical deactivation of the system the m7 was originally designed as a surgical robot with funding from the US Department of Defense it was created to perform the same tasks as a human surgeon but in extreme location such as a battlefield or during spaceflight the system can be operated by telepresence and offers a surgeon the same sensory experience as conventional surgery Lowe has modified the m7 and mounted it on a Segway system to make it mobile he says it is the ideal answer for defusing the next generation of bombs this system is capable of doing anything that a bomb expert would do if they were able to operate with their hands on a device like this but to do it remotely in a safe environment it gives them a sense of touch called haptics it transmits the very very subtle information about texture and vibration of what they're feeling back to the operator so it's very much like they're they're actually they're haptic technology allows communication through touch and is increasingly used in remote robotic interfaces Lowe says the m7 is still in development but with extra funding SR is looking forward to producing the first of its robots for commercial use this is modern combat a team of international soldiers from different countries fighting a group of ideological extremists with no flag or country to defend were able to hide amongst the civilian population of course has has been proven time and time again in warfare to take and hold map grids requires soldiers on the ground it seems man himself is the ultimate weapon the modern combat soldier has at his disposal rockets and grenades armored and heavy caliber guns he can radio in for close air support or bombing missions or artillery fire but from ancient times through the modern world massed armies world wars and beyond no matter how sophisticated the individual soldiers of salt rifle becomes they still include the attachment for a bayonet for wars are fought for whatever reasons I met men will continue to be the single component that war seems unable to do without you

Channel: Planes, Trains & Automobiles

Views: 24,971

Rating: 4.688889 out of 5

Keywords: Weapon (Interest), Weapon Of Mass Destruction (Literature Subject), Nuclear Weapon (Film Subject), Biological Warfare (Film Subject), Chemical Warfare (Literature Subject), Nuclear Warfare (Film Genre), weaponized virus, Future War (Film), dirty bomb, Terrorism (Film Genre)

Id: p_pFk2nQsUQ

Length: 52min 42sec (3162 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 30 2015