The Effects of Computer Science on the History of our Nations Wars - Research Paper Example

The Effects of Computer Science on the History of our Nation’s Wars Computer Science and technology has currently modernized the present world. In the era of globalization, most of the operations in the developed country are dependent on the use of information technology. In the earlier years the computers were much simpler and had lesser amount of technologies involved in it in comparison to the present computers. The basic idea for the generation of computers was to solve complex problems and mathematics. Based on the use, the computers did not have any chips built on them. The computers were mostly analog. The use of digital computers eventually happened in the era of 1920’s. After the late 1940, computers evolved as popular digital machines which were capable of handling various calculations. The technological advancement of computer science occurred after the era of 1980’s which led to the emergence of various softwares and multi tasking capability of the computers was introduced. During 1990’s internet revolutionized the modern society and enabled the connectivity of the different parts of the world under a single head and converted the world into a global village. Over the years, there have been many controversies in the recognition of computers as a field of study under the department of science. The proposal was finally accepted by the modern population of the world and has resulted in the tremendous growth over the years. The importance of information technology has become huge in the overall development of the present society. However in the present world a considerable number of disciplines under the field of computer science does not incorporate the study of computers and one of those disciplines includes military science which implements the use of computer technology. Many researchers in the field of science have tried to focus on the connection of the theoretical basis of computer science with that of the execution of the military operations. Researchers have also tried to cite evidence of the operations which were carried out during the era of cold war. Considering the factor of overall development of the society, the security of a country is one of the prime concerns. In order to strengthen the security of the country, the government also takes the use of latest technological up gradation. However the use of computer science has been prominent in the history of the American wars. The paper analyzes the various technological advancements in the overall security system of USA and the use of computer science in the history of American wars. The paper also tries to drive a conclusion regarding the effect of computer system in the American wars. The present limitation of the security system in USA in respect of the computer technology has been identified and suggestions have been recommended. Thesis statement: Computer systems have had a positive effect on the military system of USA at times of war. Literature review: The military operations in USA have undergone massive changes since the beginning of the 20th century. Various scientific researches have been implemented in the military operation and have led to the development of science based military technology. The efforts of incorporating scientific research have not only taken place in USA but also have been subsistence in the strong military forces across various parts of the world. The implication of scientific researches was also evident since the time of first world. The First World War was popularly known as the chemist’s war. In the war many use of chemicals and explosives were undertaken by the nations and the acknowledgment for the development of the explosives and chemicals is owed to the contribution of computers. Technology was also significantly used by the British and Germany in the war of 1915 where they used poisonous gas against the enemies to kill them. Computer science also contributed to the development of aircraft weapons which was used extensively in the Second World War. One of the most significant contributions which computer science has made to facilitate soldiers in the warfare is the use of the wireless radio technology. The wireless radio technology advanced the methods of executing the attacks against the enemies, detecting them and also provided a source of communication within the militaries. The wireless radio technology was one of the prime sources of coordination between the German, British and the American soldiers. Cold War and Computer science: The success of America in the Cold War can be attributed to a wide number of scientific and technological advancement made by the country during that period. The advancement in science and technology also continued throughout the era of the cold war which further strengthened the military and the strategic affairs. One of the latest technologies which evolved during the cold war was that of cybernetics. The collaboration of cybernetics and the system analysis was aimed at imposing order and predict the result of the strategies of the warfare with the help of the collection, processing and the distribution of the information in a much controlled fashion in the right time. The emergence of the process of the command and control undertook a centralized approach and resulted in the overall integration of the US military organization. The cybernetic system used in the US military was characterized by three primary components which comprises of receptors which fetches input from the external environment, a processing unit that records the gathered input and at the same time provide instruction to the system to interact accordingly with the help of the output system. In the context of the uncertainty associated with the cold war, the framework for the cybernetic suited ideally for the overall control and the predictability in the conduct of the military powers. Computers acted as the primary tool for the integration of the overall process of cybernetics and determined the standard of control and monitoring the whole process and also by providing technically rational solutions to the complex problems faced by the military. The technological aspect of the computers also enabled them to undertake large scale stimulation of the whole process, proper analysis of the system and the overall central control (Bousquet, 2008, pp.77-102). Second World War: The help of computer related technologies was taken by the joint collaboration of the American and the British troops during the second world war and they came up with computer supported radar technologies The radar technology incorporated by them enhanced the operation of the military activity under a wide variety of spectrum. The radar technology incorporated by them helped them to locate the ships and the aircrafts of the enemies in much advance and provided them to take precautionary measures and launch attacks against them. The radars provides the exact latitudinal and the longitudinal position of any foreign element and also provides the edge in carrying out operational strategies against the enemy. Operation research was pioneered in 1930 by the British and it was also embraced by the Americans at the time of the Second World War. The application of operation research was evident in the field of air force. The operation research incorporated tackled the system in an offensive or in a defensive manner. The offensive ways incorporated the accuracy in bombing, increased the effectiveness of the weapons and also looked for ways to strengthen the damage of the targets. On the contrary the defensive ways of the operation research includes the ways to increase the defensive formation of the bombers dealing with the damages caused in the battle field. The defensive mechanism also looked after measures to increase the strength of the air. Various studies of cruise control procedures and techniques of maintenance and facilities were also provided under the defensive stream of operational research. The overall process of the technology of operational research was incorporated through the computer based algorithms and the optimization of the models derived from operation research and analysis was implied with the help of computers only. Military operations have always aimed at maintaining order at the time of chaos in the battle field and whenever they receive substantial threats of breakdown from their enemies. Before the invention of computers mechanistic warfare was used to implement control by taking control of the behavior of soldiers. Burt with the gradual passage of time thermodynamic warfare evolved which marked the release of poisonous energy and posed a barrier for the effective communication of order. In order to counter the problem the development and the up gradation of technology were needed which could lead to the establishment of a command system which was centralized. Computerization of information During the Second World War, the leaders of the war started focusing on the concept of information which was passed in the battle field. More priority was provided to distribute information in a proper way and then pass the information in the coded form. Before the onset of the Second World War information was not as significant as it was primarily held as communication of the knowledge and ideas. During the war scientific quantification of information was done with the help of computers and telecommunication technology improved the efficiency of overall communication process. Efforts were made by the leaders to break the codes of information of the rivals as information in the battlefield was sent in the cryptic form and was decrypted only at the receivers end. The encryption and the decryption process were done dedicatedly by the computers and passage of information without any sabotage also increased the overall transparency of the tactics used in the warfare. The abstract communication machine designed by Shanon proved efficient for the transmission of information in the battle field. Use of computer science in warfare in the present generation The use and effect of computers in the modern era has vastly implemented a huge variety. Computers have been functioning to control and manage resources and to conduct the flow of personnel in various areas of operation. It is been used effectively to sort the data from the intelligence and also deployed to improve the all round capabilities of weapons (Diffie, 2008, pp.55-57). In the present generation, the use of computers in the US military has exceeded its overall use. Various ranges of computers of different sizes are used to carry out various tasks. The technology of wireless communications has increased massively over the period of time. The overall standard of the secured communication also has evolved rapidly with the passage of time. The military force in USA tends to prefer the use of transfer of data at a high speed over the secure frequencies which are encrypted so that the confidential data does not leaks among the users of nearby frequencies. The wireless networking devise used in the present era helps to provide links between the systems which would not be possible by any physical means and having an effective command and control over them would have been virtually impossible. The emergence of the portable computers has also provided the facility of carrying them in the place of war and uses them accordingly (Schmitt, et al, 2004) The embedded computers used for the operations of the military are further integrated to provide more application. The integrated computers are allocated fixed functions which are robust and they provide additional capabilities to such equipments. The advancement of the internet technology also has eased the burden of carrying various documents regarding the landscape of areas at times of war. With the availability of the internet in almost every countries and the availability of the satellite images provides all the required information for the militaries at the time of war regarding the facilities and the demographics of a particular area. In the present era, the computer technology also has assisted the functioning of the fighter planes and the rocket propelled missiles. The inventions of these weapons have given the rise of attacks with lesser physical contacts and the attacks are carried out by the help of full computer controlled systems. Such operations mainly take place through the air combats. The computer controlled, rocket propelled missiles have also been efficient in reducing the number of death among the civilians as the distance of the enemy are calculated and set in the computer based system and the projectiles aims accuracy for the desire targets. The remote controlled Predator aircrafts equipped with missiles were used to attack the ground targets in the war against Afghanistan by the Americans. This indeed has avoided the loss of innocent lives but has led to the destruction of property and various government resources. The efficiency of the attacks carried out by the computer systems also helps in the protection of the civilians from such attacks and so the use of computer generated attacks during wars is much supported by various research scholars and this are assumed to be the positive impact on the overall society. The overall up gradation of the technology has endangered the cause of the military forces of other countries as almost every move and strategies adopted by them are monitored. Use of network computers in war: The networked computers introduced in the US military provided much more flexibility in the operation of the US military at the time of war. The use of the technology associated with the networked computers was used by the US military during the operation in Afghanistan. The network computers were trying to fetch data regarding the presence of Al qaeda base. The data and pictures captured through the satellite images were processed using the network computers and orders of task were provided to the military in the battlefield to take subsequent actions. The presence of networked computer enabled a single device to perform various functions all at a same time. The main server in the networked computer acted as a logic machine which could apply various rules and regulations to the data set and modify them according based on the needs. The server machine also provided a control mechanism with the help of the feedback from the information stored. The most important use of the networked computers which appeared in the US military was that, the single device also served the purpose of communication by acting as an electromagnetic device capable of carrying out effective communication. The presence of networked computers also enabled the leaders to carry out effective strategies as they were allowed to access all the information available at the same time and also circulates their orders to different units. The networked computers provided the option of communicating and tracking the militaries with the help of the satellite cameras. The proper positioning of the employees was also made available to the headquarters and they were made alert if possible threat of vengeance or attack was monitored by the servers (Bousquet, 2010, pp.100-102). Cyber warfare: In the start of the 21st century various missions have been taken by the international organizations and from the behalf of the leaders of the developed countries to sustain peace in the world. As a result of this various peacekeeping agreements were passed between hostile countries and efforts were made to stop the prevalence of war (Wilson, 2005, p.5). Because of the external force from the global bodies, various countries have restricted to enter into war and in the last decade the world has only experienced the attack on Afghanistan by the US army after the disaster of 9/11. The difference of ideas still prevails between various countries and they have adopted the use of information technology to exhibit their grievance against each other. With the rapid evolvement of technology almost every sector of the country is supported by the information technology and the countries aim at disrupting the information technology and collapsing the associated infrastructures. In this context cyber warfare has evolved and the countries aims at carrying out cyber attacks which can be as efficient as formal military attacks to bring the operations of a country into halt. In the recent past United States has been a victim of the cyber warfare by China when the Chinese military carried out cyber attacks against the organizations based in America and various governmental agencies. Through the help of the cyberspace the hackers in China tried to target the various divisions of the military. The US government also pointed out that the threat of cyber warfare is much larger than the conventional war as it has got the power to demolish the physical barriers which are used by the military to shield the country from such attacks. The threat full attacks are also technologically monitored by the creation of worms and viruses and spreading in the network of the computers (Levy, 1984, p.33). The cyber attacks mainly arise due to the presence of the vulnerability in the system and because of the erroneous software installed in the computer systems which may copy the data base in the system without the prior notice of the users. Though United States has gained upper hand in the use of technology but the cyber attacks ,which do not leads to loss of life has proved to be a danger for them based on the attacks carried out by China. Other than China, threat of various cyber attacks has been posed from various Islamic terrorist groups and often has disrupted the security system of the country. Thus the computerization of the military system in USA have also raised discomfort in matters of the overall security of the nation and has posed enormous challenges in front of the government to implement secure information technology as any limitation in the security system will provide opportunity for the rival nations to exploit as observed in the incident of 9/11. In order to handle the threat of cyber warfare and cyber terrorism the government has incorporated various policies to strengthen the web service and have asked for various renovations in the information system of the military system and other government agencies. The biggest threat in the security system would arise in the form of disruption of the service of computers and satellites and the termination of providing orders, and the communication between the military units (Arquilla, 2011, pp.58-65). Findings: The literature review conducted on the topic helped to have an in depth study on the use of computer technology. The nature of warfare has changed over the years. The change in arms and ammunitions has been supported by the incorporation of wide range of technologies. As a result the impact of war on the society has been substantial. In case of the United States of America, the technological advancement of the country has always provided considerable edge in respect of the competitors in every sector of their operation including their military operations. The use of computers in their warfare activities has also strengthened the collaboration of various units and has led to the success of the countries in various warfare activities undertaken. The computer system has added much more precision in the attacks and the strategy making is devoid of any loops and holes as it is undertaken by the overall analysis of the system. The overall probabilities of success have been increased by the implementation of information technology and the automation process in the weapons. The sabotages or the intrusion by the enemies have been reduced by the use of secured network computers and modern communication systems. The overall progress in the computer technology for the effective implementation has occurred in a fast pace. The efficiency of the computer system and the information technology in the military system of USA has been successful because changes or the overall modification has been implemented in the right areas which could have reaped the maximum advantage. The adherence to computer technology in almost all the wars encountered so far also reflects the efficiency of the military personnel in proper handling of the technology. Some of the major technologies which have immensely proved favorable for the US military are use of internet technology and the connected computer networks through server, up gradation in the fighting equipment in the form of apache helicopters, remote controlled airplanes equipped with missiles, secured communication system using encryption technology and the use of cybernetics system. The integration of all these systems has increased the overall strength of the security in the country and has provided high resistance to the enemies during times of war. However the automation of overall military system and the excessive dependence on the information technology also have caused some disadvantages for the security system of the country in times of war. As the overall nature and the functioning of the military system are controlled by the information technology, any failure of technology may pose considerable threat to the overall security of the country. The presence of vital data can be accessed by hacking the computer systems which is a very common phenomenon. The information system implemented and the overall technology needs to be error free else mishaps like 9/11 will occur in the future as well. The treat from the cyber attacks has also placed the security system in precarious condition. In spite of the limitations of the computer system spotted in the security system at times of war , still the advantages outweighs them and in the present generation , United States of America needs to focus on ways to eliminate the limitations so that it can gain added benefit in possible warfare in near future. In the era of globalization, technology has been improving considerably and adherence to such measures will indeed provide solutions to the security system of USA. Conclusion and recommendation: The paper tries to analyze the overall effect which the computer technology had on the wars undertaken by America. Studies show that computer technology had a major role to play in the American wars and the present security system of the country is hugely dependent on the computer technology. The overall impact revealed from the study highlights the fact that computer technology has been promoting the cause of the development of the military system of America and more amount of positive results have been gained from its use. It has not only helped the military system in times of war, but also has benefitted the overall society. The incorporation of the modern technology has achieved accuracy in the target and the amount of destruction in the civil areas has lessened significantly. Considering the advent of the computer science in the military technology, the introduction of computerized telecommunication system was an important landmark. It provided the strategic advantage to USA in respect of the rivals. The effective communication system ensured transfer of information in a better manner in a faster pace and helped in the timely implementation of the strategies. Further the quality of the computer driven technology was improved with the onset of the internet technology and using the images from the satellites to locate the enemy base. However the cyber warfare in the present generation has put the military system of USA in trouble and it is recommended to keep the backup of the important data relating to the strategic measures and the security measures used during the warfare. Any harm to this information may put America in the backseat. Measures must be incorporated to monitor the system closely so that no breach of security is undertaken from the parties who want to harm the cause of the solidarity of the country. In future wars, the country also needs to carefully handle the information across the network as it has already been found vulnerable. The military system should incorporate any changes in the information system which they find suitable and strengthens their overall operation. Owing to the overall positive impact of technology in the military system more number of sophisticated powerful weapons should be developed to increase the technological artillery of the country. Besides taking the optimum use of technology the American military force should be tougher enough to carry on the operations effectively and bring success for the country keeping in view of the glorious past and their position as the super power of the world. References Arquilla, J. (2011). From Blitzkrieg to Bitskrieg: The military encounter with computers. Communications of the ACM, 54(10), 58-65 Bousquet, A. (2008). Cyberneticizing the American war machine: Science and computers in the Cold War, Cold War History, 8(1), 77-102 Bousquet, A. (2010). The Scientific Way of Warfare. New York City: Columbia University Press Diffie, W. (2008). Information security: 50 years behind, 50 years ahead, Communications of the ACM, 51(1), 55-57. Levy, S. (1984). Hackers: Heroes of the computer revolution. California: O'Reilly Media, Inc Schmitt, M , N, et al. (2004). COMPUTERS AND WAR: THE LEGAL BATTLESPACE, hpcresearch, retrieved on January 12, 2012, from: http://www.hpcrresearch.org/sites/default/files/publications/schmittetal.pdf Wilson, C. (2005). Computer Attack and Cyber terrorism, state.gov, retrieved on January 12, 2012, from: http://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/45184.pdf Read More