Weather as a Force Multiplier: Owning the Weather in 2025
August 1996 | Authors: Col Tamzy J. House, Lt Col James B. Near Jr., LTC William B Shields (USA), Maj Ronald J Celentano, Maj David M Husband, Maj Ann E. Mercer, Maj James E. Pugh
“In 2025, US aerospace forces can “own the weather” by capitalizing on emerging technologies and focusing development of those technologies to war-fighting applications. Such a capability offers the war fighter tools to shape the battlespace in ways never before possible. It provides opportunities to impact operations across the full spectrum of conflict and is pertinent to all possible futures. The purpose of this paper is to outline a strategy for the use of a future weather-modification system to achieve military objectives rather than to provide a detailed technical road map.”
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BIOTECHNOLOGY: GENETICALLY ENGINEERED PATHOGENS
“Just as the twentieth century was the “century of chemistry and physics,” the twenty-first century will emerge as the “century of biology.” 3 It will forever change how living organisms will be viewed because of the biotechnological revolution in altering and replacing genetic materials…
…Rogue nations would have more liberty to work with genetically engineered pathogens because of their dual-use nature. They could easily carry out a clandestine biological warfare program in the name of medical science without being detected. Unlike the chemical and nuclear weapons programs, a biological warfare program has no unambiguous signatures to differentiate its legitimacy for conducting biotechnology research vis-à-vis research for offensive military biological weapons.54 Additionally, the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention lacks effective verification provisions to check the parties’ compliance with the program—as exemplified by the former Soviet Union who carried out a massive illegal offensive biological warfare program.55
Biological warfare agents are mostly invisible to the human eye and naturally present in the environment. One of the advantages of using biological warfare could be “an optimal death to cost ratio; they are virtually undetectable; and they offer the potential for mass panic.”56
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