Word: infowars
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...Infowar weapons may be even more exotic than computer viruses. Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico has developed a suitcase-size device that generates a high-powered electromagnetic pulse. Commandos could sneak into a foreign capital, place the EMP suitcase next to a bank and set it off. The resulting pulse would burn out all electronic components in the building. Other proposals combine biology with electronics. For instance, Pentagon officials believe microbes can be bred to eat the electronics and insulating material inside computers just as microorganisms consume trash and oil slicks...
...Infowar will aggressively foster new intelligence-gathering techniques. The Pentagon already has satellites, spy planes and unmanned aircraft with cameras aboard to watch the enemy on the ground. In the future, thousands of tiny sensors may be sent airborne or covertly planted on land. M.I.T.'s Lincoln Laboratory is trying to build an unmanned aerial vehicle about the size of a cigarette pack that can take pictures. Miniature aerial sensors might even smell out the enemy. For example, aerosols would be sprayed over enemy troops, or chemicals would be clandestinely introduced into their food supply. Then biosensors flying overhead, says...
...While infowar may precede fighting or prevent it, the techniques and the technology can also enhance the management of an actual hot war, and make up for shortfalls in the conventional armed forces. With the Pentagon budget shrinking and the total U.S. ground Army of 1.1 million soldiers now only the eighth largest in the world, senior military officers believe they will have to harness America's technological lead in information processing and communications in order to fight future battles. During a simulated war game last May at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, a 20,000-man infantry division, outfitted with sophisticated...
...consequences of infowar will reach down into the ranks. By 2010, the Army hopes to "digitize the battlefield" by linking every soldier and weapons system electronically. A research team led by Motorola and the Army R.-and-D. lab in Natick, Massachusetts, plans to unveil next year a prototype of the equipment that the "21st century land warrior" will have. His helmet will be fitted with microphones and earphones for communications, night-vision goggles and thermal-imaging sensors to see in the dark, along with a heads-up display in front of his eyes to show him where...
There are skeptics, inside and outside of the Pentagon, who fear that infowar is being oversold. "If you think this is going to replace four divisions or a carrier battle group, it can't," insists a senior Army operations officer. "The adversary who's confronted with an information-warfare attack and doesn't see anything behind it is likely to see a paper tiger." Psy-ops succeeded in Haiti because 20,000 U.S. soldiers were on the way to back up the message. Even if infowar becomes the American way of fighting, it's not clear how effective it will...