Weapons of Mass Destruction: the Past, Present, and Future

Weapons of Mass Destruction:
The Past, Present, and Future

Outline

I. Intro-Weapons of mass destruction have been a forceful weapon for any country to have and a danger for all on earth.
II. Background Information
a. Development of WMD
b. Uses During WWII And Effects
c. Development From WWII-Present
III. Modern/Future Weapons
a. What We Have Today
b. What We Are Developing
IV. Conclusion

Throughout thousands of years mankind has developed and used different weapons to take out their enemies. Not until the last 100 years though, have these weapons been threats that can kill millions of people in seconds and decimate entire cities. With the development of weapons such as the atomic and hydrogen bombs and chemical and biological warfare, modern warfare has become a destructive force effecting not just one city but whole countries and hundreds of millions of people. With such terrible and destructive power is it possible that in the future weapons many times more dangerous will arise? And the bigger question, who will be in control of such great power and how can we prevent this technology from getting into the hands of others such as terrorist groups? The past has shown what man can do to one another, and the deadly aftermath of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) such as nuclear bombs can pollute an area with radioactive wastes that can last for centuries, such as the bombings of Japan during World War I. All in all weapons of mass destruction have been forceful weapons for those that possess them and a danger for everyone on earth. What are weapons that fall under the category of WMD? Nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons are known as weapons of mass destruction today. Who said WMD only exist today? Wouldn’t it be true to say that ancient civilizations thousands of years ago used weapons of mass destruction? For example the Greek Spartans catapulted disease ridden bodies and feces over the walls of the barricaded city of Athens. They held a siege on the city for months and near the end of the siege most of the population had died of disease, starvation, and lack of sanitation. Couldn’t this be classified as a biological weapon of mass destruction? None the less WMD today are far more advanced and cause a lot more damage than the weapons of the past. The development of one of these WMD, the nuclear bomb, all started in 1942 by the US government and scientists such as Albert Einstein and Vannevar Bush under the Manhattan project. Their goal was to create a weapon of extreme destruction before the Nazi scientists developed one. The first step in creating the atom bomb was to isolate and purify uranium-235, the scientists perfected their uranium ore in Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. They successfully purified the uranium to a grade of 90% compared to the 70% found naturally. They then proposed that if two pieces of uranium-235, which is too small to produce a chain reaction, would collide at a high speed it would release a high energy blast. The scientists were so confident in the success of the weapon that no testing was conducted. Although this weapon worked great, scientist also began studying and developing an easier solution in making the atom bomb at the same time as the bomb using uranium-235. This nuclear bomb would use the fissionable radioisotope, Plutonium-239. The “Plutonium Bomb” wouldn’t need two pieces of an element to collide it could decay and start a chain reaction just by being hit by one neutron. In 1942 the first successful nuclear reactor, using the fissionable plutonium, was made in the University of Chicago. Other reactors were built in Hanford, Washington and the fissionable plutonium created in these reactors from radioactive decay of uranium-239 was shipped to Los Almos, New Mexico to be created into a weapon. After the weapon was successfully produced it was then tested in Alamogordo, New Mexico. It was successful and produced a massive explosion. Both of these devices would later be used in the bombings of Japan (Badash 1, 2 and Manhattan Project 1, 2). The first actual uses of these new nuclear weapons took place in Japan. The first bombing took place at the city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. This was the bomb that used the non-fissionable uranium-235, it was code named “Little Boy”. “Fat Boy”, the plutonium-239 bomb, was dropped on the city of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. Both were dropped by a B-29 Superfortress, one named the “Enola Gay” and the other, “Bock’s Car”. One day later on August 10th the Japanese surrendered and WWII was over. Although the bombs gave the US inevitable victory and saved thousands of American soldiers lives, over 100,000 innocent civilians were instantly killed when the bombs were dropped and more were injured and left homeless. The nuclear bombs didn’t just have immediate effects; it also polluted the cities with immense levels of radiation that stayed deadly for many years. Today there are still reminders located throughout the cities of the terrible event and the Japanese now push for world peace and that nothing like the atomic bombings will ever happen again. This beginning of modern WMD started the race for countries, primarily the US and Russia, to develop the most destructive, versatile, and efficient WMD and the start of the Cold War (Badash 2). Since the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, many new weapons of mass destruction have been developed and perfected. Some of these new weapons include the Hydrogen Bomb, and new forms of chemical and biological weapons including nerve gas and plague. Although the idea of spreading a plague onto your enemy or dosing them with nerve gas sounds good and very effective; there are so many things that can go wrong with chemical and biological attacks. Also, neither is as accurate or as deadly as one may think. For example if you deploy a biological agent onto your enemy how do you know it won’t spread to your own soldiers or innocent civilians of a neutral country. Even if you vaccinate all of your own soldiers is it really worth it compared to the little it would do to the enemy? For these reasons biological warfare is very uncontrollable. Chemical warfare has similar problems due to the fact that the enemy soldiers can wear gas masks and the poisonous gasses would have no effect. That is why nuclear weapons are the dominate weapons when it comes to WMD, they are accurate, deadly, and take only seconds to level entire cities. During the Cold War a new nuclear weapon, the Hydrogen Bomb, was developed and it was a lot more destructive then the traditional atom bomb. This new weapon was powered by fusion, instead of fission which the traditional atom bomb was based on. Nuclear fusion is when two lighter nuclei collide at extremely high speeds forming a heavier and denser nucleus. While fission, on the other hand, is when a neutron traveling at high speeds collides with a uranium nucleus it starts a chain reaction, releasing energy. The hydrogen bomb was now the weapon to have; so the US and Russia went all out trying to build as many of the strongest weapons as they could. This caused many people to fear a global nuclear war and once the Cold War ended, treaties have been formed to keep nuclear weapons under close surveillance and tight restrictions (Card 5, 6). Thankfully there has not been a nuclear bombing since Nagasaki. Yet, as weapons and technology advance there is no telling what we will develop next that might put the world into harm’s way again from global war.
Today the USA has both nuclear, about 5,000 active war heads, and chemical weapons, roughly 5,500 metric tons; and is developing defense systems for biological threats, although they have destroyed all of their offensive biological weapons they still continue to research in the field (Collina 2). Even beyond WMD the US has the most advanced military on earth. As each year progresses the US military continues to get technologically better and bigger. There are advances in small drones that can be deployed and controlled by a single soldier. These drones, some developed by Aeroviernment, are used by the military today to get a bird’s eye view of an area, find enemy targets, and look for objects that might be threats for incoming soldiers. Advancements in robotics have been a major new implementation into the US military. There are hundreds of different robots that are designed to do a specific task almost perfectly and they are getting smarter and more advanced each year (Tutton 1,2). With technology increasing at such a rapid rate, are we able to grow and advance at the same rate as the technology? Even something as small as nanotechnology, which has been rapidly advancing, may have a major and devastating effect, possibly being a weapon of mass destruction in the near future. The future of WMD involves the use of nanotechnology and molecular manufacturing. Molecular manufacturing is the idea, that scientist believe is possible, that one can manufacture objects, such as computer processors, robots, and other electronic devices and parts at the molecular level. Although this doesn’t exactly sound like something that could lead to mass destruction, the capabilities of such technology are almost unbelievable. With the ability to rapidly produce multiple products precisely and cheaply, molecular manufacturing would be able to turn out products that are functioning to the nanometer. This means increased power, efficiency, and abilities of devices such as phones, computers, and a numerous amount more. These functioning parts of devices, such as processors and memory storage, would be able to “shrink almost to the vanishing point” and still have hundreds of times more power than similar parts today. Since the molecular manufacturing would be able to produce the exact same product efficiently, 24/7 and at a low cost, it would be perfect for weapons construction and their related components. This would allow for mass production of weapons much stronger, smaller, and more controllable than present day nuclear weapons. And unlike nuclear weapons they could be built fast and in large numbers. If this technology got into the wrong hands, like in the hands of terrorists, they would be able to produce massive amounts of weapons for a relatively cheap cost. This could start massive terrorist strikes against major cities throughout the world. And like the Cold War another arms race between major powers, like the US, Russia, and even China, might occur to develop the best weapons and produce as many as possible. This could cause the enemy side to set of one of their weapons just because they are afraid the other side will use the same technology on them first, starting a world war. There are so many things that could go wrong with the nanotechnology besides falling into the wrong hands. Another problem with the mass production of these self-replicating nano-particles is that they could continue to recreate themselves out of materials that they find around them, such as computer parts and random metals in their environment. This would allow one nano-device with the slightest defect to start replicating its self and programming all the other nano-devices with the same objective, which could possibly be to kill everything insight instead of the actual target the human creators intended (Phoenix and Treder 4, 5). As nanotechnology gets smarter at begins to have these abilities than the consequences could be terrible and it will “simply eat up everything in its path” (Card 4). These are some of the uncontrollable problems that weapons such as nanotechnology might have in the future.
So all in all, our future existence is in the hands of the country, group, or person that is in control of the WMD, and when and where they detonate them. The past has shown us the terrible things that man can do to one another and no matter who is in control of the next WMD all we know for certain is that when it is released hundreds of thousands will die and, in a worst case scenario, if a full out war involving a WMD, such as nukes, millions, if not billions will die. Man has the ability to overcome the issues caused by the use of weapons of mass destruction, and if we don’t take the proper steps so as to ensure their scarce, proper, and responsible usage, there is a good chance that all will be lost.