Allen's Weblog

In 1200, war was hand to hand, swords and pikes, and physical strength was paramount.

Then came stand off weapons. The British Longbowman, a STUD with great right-arm muscle.

In the West, the British Longbowman was a long distance killing machine. The Chinese used gunpowder, but the West used the Longbowman, deadly at 200 yards, still scary at 300 yards, and the British Army needed horse-drawn trains of carts to keep the Longbowmen in arrows at 12 arrows a minute per archer.

That was followed quickly by canons, and artillery, requiring much muscle for positioning and loading…

Now men and women in a Las Vegas bunker, fly drones in Afghanistan and kill with missiles. You can be a transgender, 400 pound with no legs and conduct perfect kills…negating the physical aspects of war in the current and distant future.

Drudge reports that the Navy is the fattest service. “Big Deal” in warfare terms, although it isn’t good in PR terms. Like all services, automation is the effort in the Navy, with automation of existing ships, and autonomous ships and submarines already at sea.

Physical attributes will make less and less difference in the future. Of course most of us will always want to fight the last war, but real planning for future wars is important in the real world, and in the real world, physical attributes will be still less important.

They already are, we just won’t acknowledge it.

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