Introduction to Military and Weapons Engineering

A Brief Description  

     

A weapon, according to the Oxford dictionary, is a thing designed or used for inflicting bodily harm or physical damage. It is hard to determine an exact time in which weapons were first used, but according to ancient cave paintings dating back from 10,000 to 5,000 BC weapons such as bows were used even back then. Weapons have steadily advanced throughout human history.




With the beginning of the renaissance in Europe firearms were also introduced to warfare and guns and rockets gained a place in the battlefield. Firearms were revolutionary weapons as they used chemistry instead of mechanical methods. Hence, even early firearms which lacked accuracy were much more powerful than traditional weapons. Gradually, the ignition mechanisms of firearms were improved. Ammunition handling capacity was increased. Precision was enhanced. Even warship propulsion changed from being sail powered to fossil fuel powered. The mid-18th century is sometimes even referred to as the ‘Age of Rifles’ as firearms for infantry came into practice. The machine gun was also born during this period.

The beginning of the industrial age helped the progress of these weapons further. The quick replication and production of firearms enabled more availability as well as helped produce ideas and designs for counters.



By the time of WW1, warfare had become fully industrialized. ‘Weapons of mass destruction’ were produced during the war. Changes in military tactics happened as vehicles were brought into the battle and replaced cavalry. Air warfare was also introduced along with the usage of air carriers in naval warfare.

Between the two world wars, initially disarmament was encouraged. But eventually rearmament started rapidly. Continuous evolution of weapons happened.

WW2 is probably the most rapid period of evolution of weapons until today. Massive numbers of new designs and concepts were produced, and all existing ones were improved. While the most powerful weapon created during this period is obviously the atomic bomb, creations like jet planes and radars also created major impact in the world.

While superpowers, USA and USSR started arming themselves with nuclear weapons during the cold war, after the realization of mutually assured destruction full nuclear war was no longer considered a viable option. This caused shift in funding to more traditional firearms so as to cause limited wars and not full destruction.





During WW2 another form of warfare which was born then and has gained major popularity today is cyber warfare. Usage of computers to crack encoded messages of the opposition is one of the first examples of this. Cyber weapons also achieved major advancements due to constant improvement in the architecture of computers as well as increase in their usage for all forms of information transfer. Trojans, viruses, worms etc. are examples of types of malware which are used for cyber-attack and extraction of data from different sources. Today the data of the entire world is generally available in one form or the other in digital format. Its protection is a must. Hence, development of anti-malware software as well as training of cyber security experts also becomes a major aspect of learning to handle weapons today.



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