ENTC 3020 Technology & Society
Military Technologies

Weapons

• Primarily progressive extensions of one's reach
• Began as simple tools
  e.g., wooden clubs, spears, stone blades, missiles, etc.
• Multiple uses

Basic Goals of Military Efforts

• Further: More Distance
• Faster: Swifter Response
• Fatter: Better Protected

Distance

• Inches: Clubs, knives, shields, sticks and stones
• Feet: Swords, bayonets, spears, and rocks
• Yards: Bows & arrows, missiles, cannon, muskets, & rifles
• Miles: Artillery (fixed v. mobile), rockets
• Continents: Bombers and intercontinental ballistic missiles

Speed-Weapons

• Muscle
  Man, Horse, Catapults
• Simple Machine
  Longbows & Ladders
• Stored Energy
  Crossbow, hot oil, Greek Fire
  Gunpowder-> Pistols, muskets, rifles, cannon shells, grenades
• Complex Machines
  Machine gun, Tanks, airplanes, Ballistic missiles, Cluster bombs, Computers, laser/video guided bombs, & Night vision goggles

Speed-Transportation

• Muscle Powered
  Man, Beast & Ships
• Mechanized
  Steam ships, river gunboats , submarines, railroads
  Trucks, general utility vehicles (Jeeps), Armored personnel carriers
  Aircraft

Speed-Logistics

• Early
  Steal, rape, burn, and pillage
• Roads
• Industrial Revolution
  Mass production & Interchangeable parts (Eli Whitney ?)
  Standardization efforts

Speed-Information

• Early-Days to months
  Couriers, carrier pigeons, ships
• 1800s-Hours to day
  Telegraph, Photographs and newspapers
• 1900s-Seconds to hours
  Radio, television, satellites, Faxes, aircraft

Protection-Armor

• Personal
  Man, beast: Leather-> Chain Mail-> Plate Armor
  Flack Jackets-> Kevlar/Spectra fibers
• Public
  Earthen mounds and wooden walls
  Castles -> Bastions
  Anti-aircraft against air threats-> SDI "Star Wars" anti-ballistic missile defense system

Protection-Organizational

• Greek Phalanx (8 deep)
• Roman 120 man, mobile unit
• European kingdoms and knights
• Swiss pikemen (19 ft pikes)
• Western - institutionalized military
  Routinized, regimented, and hierarchical