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It's all kicking off

As I type this, Iran has launched a pretty significant missile attack against Israel and Israel is promising a significant response.

Could the long-feared Middle East war be finally kicking off for real?

If so, might this be the most hi-tech conflict to yet take place on the planet?

Let's take a little look at how our war technology has changed in the many decades since WW2.

The last truly gobal conflict was World War 2 which was waged in the late 1930s through early/mid 1940s.

Almost every developed nation on the planet had at least some involvement in the battles that took place during that period as Nazi Germany and Japan sought to expand their empires by way of the military annexation of neighbouring countries.

As a result of these wars, we saw some amazing advances in technology, driven by the desire to defeat "the other side".

Just some of the technology that evolved rapidly under pressure of war includes radar, the jet engine, cryptography and nuclear weapons.

Since WW2 there have been steady improvements to these technologies and the appearance of new techninques for defeating enemies.

We now have satellites that provide resilient battlefield observations and communications, GPS to deliver pinpoint location and targeting data, powerful lasers that can disable incoming missiles, drones of all shapes and sizes, laser-guided smart-bombs, aircraft that can travel at speeds that greatly exceed that of the soundwaves they generate and a whole lot more.

In the first images coming from today's missile attack on Israel, the radar-guided patriot missiles that are used to create the "iron dome" defense system can be seen shattering the darkness with their rocket trails and detonations. This would have been pure sci-fi during the era of WW2.

It was also interesting to see the high-power defensive laser systems also kicking into action against ballistic missiles that are approaching targets at high speed. Once again, laser weapons (or "ray guns" as they'd likely have been described) were beyond the wildest dreams of the participants in WW2.

The big question right now is "what will happen next?".

Israel may well choose to launch attacks directly against Iran, possibly opting to target that nation's nuclear program with bombing raids. Such an attack would likely be very effective since there is no indication that Iran has significant air-defense capabilities in the way that Israel does.

It's clear that Israel does have grave concerns about Iran's desire to create nuclear weapons and they addressed this previously with a cyber-attack using the Stuxnet malware however, this time the approach is likely to be more ballistic in nature.

We certainly live in "interesting times".

Now a change of subject...

My apologies for the absence of the column in the last two days. The good old Covid struck the household and knocked me out for four days but fortunately I'm back on deck now and feeling fit and healthy again. Apart from a snotty nose, a head-ache and general lethargy, it wasn't a big thing but I sure as hell didn't feel like sitting in front of a keyboard during that time.

It was somewhat disappointing that the immunity provided by my previous bout of Covid seemingly lasted less than six months and I doubt that booster vax shots would be any more effective these days. Covid has clearly become just another one of those annoying viruses that we can expect to catch on a semi-regular basis but at least it seems to be far less debilitating than many strains of influenza and I'll likely be safe from reinfection for the next 8-12 weeks.

Carpe Diem folks!

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