According to the US military strategy command, STRATCOM, the US services have evidence of hypersonic weapons tests in Russia and China. According to General Hyten, commander of STRATCOM, within 5 to 10 years, American anti-missile defense systems will not will be more suitable to face the possibilities of strikingof these countries.
This statement is similar to that made by Vladimir Putin, that Russian hypersonic systems, like the Kinjal missile, which reaches Mach 10, cannot be intercepted by modern anti-missile systems, nor are they under development. The budget allocated to DARPA for research on hypersonic weapons will increase from $ 85 million in 2017 to $ 236 million in 2019.
The arrival of hypersonic weapons on modern battlefields will lead to profound changes, particularly with regard to human decision-making. Indeed, the main challenge brought about by hypersonic weapons is the very significant reduction in reaction times, in particular for decision-making and the transmission of orders. Modern means of communication and information sharing have made it possible to create a certain form of comfort and predictability on the battlefield, and the chain of command has adapted to this particular tempo. However, with the arrival of hypersonic weapons, the time available will be so reduced that it will be necessary to completely transform the entire chain of command, so as to reduce current delays.
The reaction time may turn out to be so short that human intervention will be inappropriate, or even impossible, and a significant part of the decision will therefore have to be delegated to forms of Artificial Intelligence, the only one capable of being able to receive the information, process it, decide and communicate within the allotted time frame.
We therefore understand the intimate relationship that exists between the mastery of Artificial Intelligence, and the ability to remain a leading military player in the years to come. The simultaneous arrival of several disruptive technologies, including hypersonic weapons, robotics, directed energy weapons, and bionics, will lead to military and geopolitical upheavals within 10 years which could have the same repercussions as the use of black powder in a weapon, or the first internal combustion engine, and all these technologies rely, directly or indirectly, on AI.
However, where technological developments took several decades, even several centuries, to redraw the geopolitical map, those that are coming could well have a much shorter point of effect. If France, and Europe, still want to be able to count in the direction of the world in 2040, they must invest massively in these technologies now, because in 5 years, it will be too late.