MEDIA ROOTS – Two weeks ago the U.S. department of defense tested a new weapon that, by being able to travel faster than the speed of sound and strike any location on the planet in under an hour, combines the global reach of the Cold War’s intercontinental ballistic missiles, and the surgical precision of today’s robotic flying drones.
In doing so, the military problem of Mutually Assured Destruction that once kept adversaries at bay is being stripped away, making the use of military force more “reasonable.”
The new weapon, called the “Advanced Hypersonic Weapon,” or AHW, is a remote controlled flying weapons delivery system (a flying bomb) that travels at hypersonic speeds within the earth’s atmosphere. The weapon was launched from the Hawaiian islands and steered 2,300 miles over the Pacific ocean to the Marshall Islands in under half an hour.
The AHW is a first-of-its-kind glide vehicle designed to fly long range carrying a payload of up to 5500 kgs, including a nuclear bomb, according to a statement issued by the US Department of Defense. A hypersonic speed is one that exceeds Mach 5- or five times the speed of sound (3,728 mph).
Among other things, this means the army will no longer have to depend on forces stationed around the world as they can lay down fire power anywhere they need from the comfort of a home base, without risking any American lives.
During the Cold War, the West and East developed nuclear and intercontinental missile delivery capabilities, but the concept of Mutually Assured Destruction made the actual use of the weaponry “unreasonable.” Using them would have been an act of insanity and suicide for both parties because the destruction would be so wide spread for everyone involved. As instruments of policy, these weapons were deemed useless.
The new AHW, however, promises to be a very usable weapon of policy. By eliminating the need for U.S. forces in the immediate theater of war, the AHW moves offensive actions further along a continuum that distances the warrior from their target and, in effect, from the moral responsibility for pulling a trigger.
Such a weapon even allows for plausible deniability. No blood on their hands, and you certainly can’t place them at the scene since they were halfway around the world at the time.
For these reasons, the AHW is a weapon that allows its possessor a step in the direction of absolute power. We don’t risk our people, we don’t risk our sense of morality, and we don’t even risk blame. It’s a clean and detached method of warfare, but how will it change our moral and ethical code as a people who are sponsoring this futuristic weaponry?
Written by Joel E. Hersch for Media Roots
Photo by Flickr user lrargerich
