Is China trying to make its own version of Captain America? US intelligence has suggested so. But beyond the hype, the possibility of a super soldier is not so outlandish and one that not just China is interested in. With deep pockets, and a desire to get an edge, the world's militaries have often driven technological innovation, from the state-of-the-art to the humble.
Announcing a new initiative in 2014, then-President Barack Obama told journalists: "Basically I'm here to announce that we're building Iron Man." The US military had already begun work on the project - a protective suit, known as the Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit. (Talos). A video game-like promotional video showed the wearer bursting in on an enemy cell, bullets ricocheting off the armour. Iron Man was not to be. Five years on, the initiative ended, but makers hope individual components of the suit will have applications elsewhere. Exoskeletons are just one of the promising technologies militaries are exploring to enhance their soldiers.
Enhancement could mean much more than merely giving an individual soldier a better gun. It could mean altering the individual soldier. In 2017, Russia's President Vladimir Putin warned that humanity could soon create something "worse than a nuclear bomb". ... "One may imagine that a man can create a man with some given characteristics, not only theoretically but also practically. He can be a genius mathematician, a brilliant musician or a soldier, a man who can fight without fear, compassion, regret or pain."
Last year, the former US Director of National Intelligence (DNI), John Ratcliffe, went further with a blunt accusation against China."China has even conducted human testing on members of the People's Liberation Army in hope of developing soldiers with biologically enhanced capabilities. There are no ethical boundaries to Beijing's pursuit of power," he wrote in the Wall Street Journal. Needless to say, China called the article a "miscellany of lies".
A 2019 paper from two US academics said that China's military was "actively exploring" such techniques as gene editing, exoskeletons and human-machine collaboration. The report was based primarily on comments from Chinese military strategists. Ratcliffe was referring to testing on adults. While some characteristics could be altered in adults using gene editing, changing the DNA of embryos would offer one of the most plausible routes to a "super soldier".
Some analysts see China's efforts as a direct response to the US. A 2017 report in the Guardian said that a US military agency was investing tens of millions in genetic extinction technology that could wipe out invasive species, something UN experts warned could have military applications. China and the US are not the only countries seeking an advantage. France's armed forces have been given approval to develop "enhanced soldiers" with a report laying out ethical boundaries for the research.
Companies are now developing and deploying sophisticated new defences, from frying the electronic circuits with powerful beams of microwave radiation (phasers), to precise jamming systems.
Xina, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Russia, India, and Pakistan are also developing military-grade directed-energy weapons, while Iran and Turkey claim to have them in active service.
The first use of directed-energy weapons in combat between military forces was claimed to have occurred in Libya in August 2019 by Turkey, which claimed to use the ALKA directed-energy weapon. After decades of research and development, most directed-energy weapons are still at the experimental stage and it remains to be seen if or when they will be deployed as practical, high-performance military weapons.
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By programming a UAV to fly around numerous points before arriving at its target it can avoid the obvious directions from which an attack is expected. This may explain why existing radars failed to spot the drone formation which attacked Abqaiq. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-49984415
