788
8 Modern Weapons: Possibilities and Limitations
Another field of weather weapons consists in altering transparency of the atmosphere in the region of military operations. Bad weather is often used to conceal
concentration of forces or attack the enemy from a different, unexpected direction.
The main obstacles for precision-guided munitions are smoke, mist, and precipitation. The underestimation of the level of cloudiness led to the fact that during
the Desert Storm operation (Persian Gulf 1990–1991), the effectiveness of aviation
bombs with a laser direction was 41–60% instead of the expected 90%. Instead of the
principle “one bomb for each target,” 3–4 projectiles were used to hit a single target.
Air transparency is especially important if weapons of mass destruction are used:
light emission at the moment of the nuclear explosion can be reduced by 40–60%, if
bad visibility is maintained near the suggested targets. Thus, spraying of fog-forming
substances can become one of the protection measures in the future.
The civilian use of meteorological weapons technology extends from anti-hail
service to the dispersal of clouds during the Olympic Games and football matches.
Climate weapons are used to alter natural weather processes in the territory of an
enemy state. Its use can result in changes in the temperature mode, occurrence of
hurricane winds, change in the amount of precipitation, and much more over the last
50 years, various mechanisms of influencing the environment have been developed,
and the effect from their use is complex.
The goal of using climate weapons will be to reduce the agricultural production of
the enemy, hinder food supplies to the population, and disrupt economic programs; as
a result, political and economic changes can be achieved without starting a traditional
war. Climatic weapons will play the key part in large-scale wars over fertile lands
predicted by the futurists. In this case, the existence of the golden billion will be
achieved due to mass losses of population of large regions. Development of various
means of influencing climate was the most intense during the Cold War, while the
strategy of using climatic weapons against USSR was seriously considered in the
USA in the 1970s. The CIA report “The Potential Implications of the Trends in
World Population, Food Production and Climate” published in 1975 is indicative in
this regard. According to the report, artificial climate change in the USSR, China,
and a number of underdeveloped countries “would provide the United States with a
level of power that they had never had before.” One of the peculiarities of climatic
weapons is that, with other conditions being equal, of the two countries that used
them, the country with less climatic and soil potential loses; this may be the reason
why the climatic weapon was never used against either the USSR or the USA.
Technologies of climatic weapons are diverse; the main ones include creation
of chemoacoustic waves, changes in the ionic composition of the atmosphere, and
introduction of special chemical agents in the atmosphere and hydrosphere.
For example, reducing the amount of precipitation is achieved by applying
substances that inhibit evaporation and the formation of cumulus clouds to the water
surface. In this regard, the European part of Russia and Ukraine are very sensitive, since a quarter of the heat supplied here falls on a relatively small area in the
northern part of the Atlantic Ocean. Influencing formation of cloud masses in this
region or their dehydration can lead to a prolonged draught. Spraying of substances
that absorb sunlight (thus reducing the temperature of surface of the Earth) or absorb
8 Modern Weapons: Possibilities and Limitations
Another field of weather weapons consists in altering transparency of the atmosphere in the region of military operations. Bad weather is often used to conceal
concentration of forces or attack the enemy from a different, unexpected direction.
The main obstacles for precision-guided munitions are smoke, mist, and precipitation. The underestimation of the level of cloudiness led to the fact that during
the Desert Storm operation (Persian Gulf 1990–1991), the effectiveness of aviation
bombs with a laser direction was 41–60% instead of the expected 90%. Instead of the
principle “one bomb for each target,” 3–4 projectiles were used to hit a single target.
Air transparency is especially important if weapons of mass destruction are used:
light emission at the moment of the nuclear explosion can be reduced by 40–60%, if
bad visibility is maintained near the suggested targets. Thus, spraying of fog-forming
substances can become one of the protection measures in the future.
The civilian use of meteorological weapons technology extends from anti-hail
service to the dispersal of clouds during the Olympic Games and football matches.
Climate weapons are used to alter natural weather processes in the territory of an
enemy state. Its use can result in changes in the temperature mode, occurrence of
hurricane winds, change in the amount of precipitation, and much more over the last
50 years, various mechanisms of influencing the environment have been developed,
and the effect from their use is complex.
The goal of using climate weapons will be to reduce the agricultural production of
the enemy, hinder food supplies to the population, and disrupt economic programs; as
a result, political and economic changes can be achieved without starting a traditional
war. Climatic weapons will play the key part in large-scale wars over fertile lands
predicted by the futurists. In this case, the existence of the golden billion will be
achieved due to mass losses of population of large regions. Development of various
means of influencing climate was the most intense during the Cold War, while the
strategy of using climatic weapons against USSR was seriously considered in the
USA in the 1970s. The CIA report “The Potential Implications of the Trends in
World Population, Food Production and Climate” published in 1975 is indicative in
this regard. According to the report, artificial climate change in the USSR, China,
and a number of underdeveloped countries “would provide the United States with a
level of power that they had never had before.” One of the peculiarities of climatic
weapons is that, with other conditions being equal, of the two countries that used
them, the country with less climatic and soil potential loses; this may be the reason
why the climatic weapon was never used against either the USSR or the USA.
Technologies of climatic weapons are diverse; the main ones include creation
of chemoacoustic waves, changes in the ionic composition of the atmosphere, and
introduction of special chemical agents in the atmosphere and hydrosphere.
For example, reducing the amount of precipitation is achieved by applying
substances that inhibit evaporation and the formation of cumulus clouds to the water
surface. In this regard, the European part of Russia and Ukraine are very sensitive, since a quarter of the heat supplied here falls on a relatively small area in the
northern part of the Atlantic Ocean. Influencing formation of cloud masses in this
region or their dehydration can lead to a prolonged draught. Spraying of substances
that absorb sunlight (thus reducing the temperature of surface of the Earth) or absorb