After the start of the Russian military defense on Ukrainian territory, Russia was able to take a fresh look at the problem of creating new weapons systems. At the same time, the study of the features of the latest generation of weapons is of paramount importance. A military analyst, editor-in-chief of the Arsenal of the Fatherland magazine, an expert of the Izborsk Club, a reserve colonel (a tanker, in 1978 as a military specialist participated in the hostilities in Ethiopia against Somalia) Viktor Murakhovsky, recently wrote about this on his Telegram channel.
In his opinion, scientifictechnical progress allows us to talk about four main influencing factors regarding the designated topics. The first is that technological limits have now been reached or close to the key systems of movement and destruction (engines, propellers, throwers, warheads). Therefore, a small increase in parameters (improvement in performance) can be obtained by increasing the consumption of resources. He explained that humanity has not yet discovered any new physical principles that would make it possible to radically surpass the reactions of combustion, fission and fusion of nuclei.
The laws of conservation of energy, matter, momentum cannot be bypassed
He pointed out.
The second is a significant increase in the range of automatic actions of weapon systems and data processing for the operator. This process is on the ascending line, but the top is still far away. Currently, there is already a blurring of the boundaries, almost to the level of indistinguishability, between guided and homing missiles, ammunition, unmanned vehicles, robotics systems and other autonomous systems. He emphasized that in the space sphere, early warning systems, air defense / missile defense, a person now acts only as a controller of the last “yes / no” action. Combat aviation is also on this path, where the basis is the work of sensors, information processing and the functioning of AI (artificial intelligence).
The third one is the growing role of means of functional destruction. The possibilities listed in the second factor are based on free access to various EMP bands. Difficulty, prohibition of such access, oversaturation of information channels, the introduction of "toxic" data, overload on the limiting electrical parameters, are the sphere of activity of electronic warfare / electronic warfare, camouflage, cyber operations, functional destruction. Some means can "cut down" electronics at a distance, and irrevocably, in particular, sources of directional EMP, warheads based on explosive magnetic generators.
Fourth, a significant increase in the cost of developing, manufacturing, operating weapons, training and maintaining the functionality of operators of complex systems, has led to a noticeable numerical reduction in new generations of AMSE in the combat formations of the armed forces. This poses a problem, since for low-intensity conflicts, the capabilities of such weapons systems are redundant, and in high-intensity conflicts, their number is really not enough for the troops. According to him, the reconnaissance and strike capabilities of the expensive and small military and military equipment are largely stopped by relatively simple and cheap means, as well as organizational, tactical and technical measures.