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Winning a war, tech or technique?

The leaders of China, Russia and North Korea are having a party.

They've all rolled up to Xi's place and he's rolled out a huge array of his latest and greatest weapons and associated technology.

It should be a scary sight to the West, with lasers, stealth-drones, nuclear-capable missiles and autonomous underwater craft being just some of the cutting edge arms on display.

We're constantly reassured by the US president that America has the very best technology and leads the world but I'm starting to wonder if that even matters -- should we find ourselves in another global conflict.

That's because although the USA may have "quality", there's an old saying which claims that "quantity has a quality all it's own".

It can not be denied that China is a manufacturing power-house, capable of production levels that likely dwarf anything the USA can aspire to. In any war, running out of bullets, bombs and other munition puts you at a huge disadvantage and we've already seen that the war in Ukraine has been straining US and NATO munitions reserves as it is.

It would also be a huge mistake to underestimate China's and Russia's ability to innovate in the area of weapons tech. Then there's North Korea's army of hackers who will almost certainly have been able to "lift" secrets from within the bowels of the US military's highest-ranking contractors.

You didn't think Kim Jong Un was invited just because he's a snappy dresser with a fashionable haircut did you?

Although the USA are putting on a brave face after being confronted with this awe-inspiring array of weapons tech, I suspect there are a lot of furrowed brows and worried faces anxiously discussing the future behind closed doors in high places within that country.

The US military have stated that they have an operational advantage when compared to these dictatorial countries because of the way they delegate responsibility on the battle-field. Instead of decisions having to be made by high-ranking commanders, as is the case with the nations of the party-boys, the USA and NATO give lower ranks in the field an ability to make decisions on the spot. This makes them far more "agile" in battle, or so we're told.

Unfortunately, even this "edge" may no longer be particularly effective, thanks to AI.

Apparently China is doing an awful lot of work in creating AI-powered weapons systems that can effectively think for themselves. If this was successful then that would hand the "edge" to China and its allies in a big way.

Things can move very quickly when you're in the worlds of manufacturing and technology -- after all, who would have picked China as becoming one of the world's leading car makers just a few short years ago?

So let's look at a possible situation that might become reality in the very near future:

The party boys have better weapons, more of them, greater manpower, the ability to sustain weapons production and an ability to make much faster, possibly even more effective AI-based decisions in the heat of battle.

Yes, if I was any of the major Western military powers, I'd be more than a little worried right now.

Nature abhors an imbalance -- even one of the military kind and we've clearly seen that none of the dictators mentioned have much regard for human life or the sovereignty of countries they might find useful to them.

Buckle up!

Carpe Diem folks!

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