The Progress of Military Technology 1991-Present
Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2026 5:36 am
Or rather, what has advanced more than others?
On another place, I was discussing USN developments of the CRAW and generally similar predecessor programmes, such as the Countermeasure Anti-Torpedo Torpedo, with one of my oppos, and as I was writing, I drew back (figuratively) to consider the bigger picture:
"This was delayed for some time, which was due in my view to the absence of a threat based driver for the hegemonic USN between 1991 and the mid 2010s; for the first half of that time, the Soviets/Russians were laying up former boats to use as stationary power supplies, and the Chinese submarine force was largely conventional and regarded fairly derisively, at least in the 1990s. This lead to complacency, in concert with the concentration on low intensity counter insurgency warfare on land in the Middle East from 2001-2015, and stretching out the development cycle in a very familiar pattern. The previous programme was the Countermeasure Anti-Torpedo Torpedo/CAT, which was tested at sea on the then new USS George H. W. Bush in 2013. To utilise gaming terminology, this isn't an invention hard locked to a particular time or dependent on new discoveries, but the combination of Money, Research Points and Focus/Effort. If there hadn't been the Great Big Nap from History of 1991-2001, then it is likely that a weapon system of this type would have entered service initially towards the end of the first decade of the 2000s.
Submarine Warfare and ASW aren't the only categories that were artificially retarded in such fashion - Tanks and Armoured Vehicles, Artillery, Bombers and Strike Aircraft, Air to Air Warfare, Surface to Air Missiles/Air Defence, Naval Air Defence, Surface Warfare, Amphibious Warfare and Logistics/Munitions Production were all impacted by delays, chopping and changing programmes, trendy ideas, competing priorities, the Tyranny of Now and wrong turns. We are likely ahead of where we Most Likely Would Have Been (imagine a graph with an actual line and a predicted one) in relation to Unmanned Air Systems/Drone Technology, Counter Insurgency Tactics and Land Mine Protection."
The caveat for some of those is that I'm taking a broad overview, rather than zooming in on the past year, or since 2022, which might skew the overall outlook of some developments in the light of the Ukraine War.
What areas could be added to that list of "More Advanced in Our Timeline" ?
What areas should be added to the list of "Less Advanced since the End of the Cold War" ?
Am I barking up the right tree, or in the right part of the forest?
On another place, I was discussing USN developments of the CRAW and generally similar predecessor programmes, such as the Countermeasure Anti-Torpedo Torpedo, with one of my oppos, and as I was writing, I drew back (figuratively) to consider the bigger picture:
"This was delayed for some time, which was due in my view to the absence of a threat based driver for the hegemonic USN between 1991 and the mid 2010s; for the first half of that time, the Soviets/Russians were laying up former boats to use as stationary power supplies, and the Chinese submarine force was largely conventional and regarded fairly derisively, at least in the 1990s. This lead to complacency, in concert with the concentration on low intensity counter insurgency warfare on land in the Middle East from 2001-2015, and stretching out the development cycle in a very familiar pattern. The previous programme was the Countermeasure Anti-Torpedo Torpedo/CAT, which was tested at sea on the then new USS George H. W. Bush in 2013. To utilise gaming terminology, this isn't an invention hard locked to a particular time or dependent on new discoveries, but the combination of Money, Research Points and Focus/Effort. If there hadn't been the Great Big Nap from History of 1991-2001, then it is likely that a weapon system of this type would have entered service initially towards the end of the first decade of the 2000s.
Submarine Warfare and ASW aren't the only categories that were artificially retarded in such fashion - Tanks and Armoured Vehicles, Artillery, Bombers and Strike Aircraft, Air to Air Warfare, Surface to Air Missiles/Air Defence, Naval Air Defence, Surface Warfare, Amphibious Warfare and Logistics/Munitions Production were all impacted by delays, chopping and changing programmes, trendy ideas, competing priorities, the Tyranny of Now and wrong turns. We are likely ahead of where we Most Likely Would Have Been (imagine a graph with an actual line and a predicted one) in relation to Unmanned Air Systems/Drone Technology, Counter Insurgency Tactics and Land Mine Protection."
The caveat for some of those is that I'm taking a broad overview, rather than zooming in on the past year, or since 2022, which might skew the overall outlook of some developments in the light of the Ukraine War.
What areas could be added to that list of "More Advanced in Our Timeline" ?
What areas should be added to the list of "Less Advanced since the End of the Cold War" ?
Am I barking up the right tree, or in the right part of the forest?