Rear Admiral S Kulshrestha Indian Navy(Retd.)       “Blockchain protocols are a new class of protocols that are extremely resilient to attack ‒ they gain that resiliency by virtue of being decentralized,” Professor Emin Gun Sirer, Cornell University Blockchain technology is fundamentally a mutually trustable storage facility for information of a transaction between multiple users. It is a decentralized and secure way to record, share, store, and redistribute information. There is no central authority controlling the Blockchain, it is run, monitored, and owned by everyone. Anyone can download it free and run it or develop it for new applications/types of transactions, just like an open source code. It enables…

Rear Admiral S Kulshrestha Indian Navy(Retd.)       The US Defense Science Board report of 2013 states that “in a perfect world, DOD operational systems would be able to tell a commander when and if they were compromised, whether the system is still usable in full or degraded mode, identify alternatives to aid the commander in completing the mission, and finally provide the ability to restore the system to a known, trusted state. Today’s technology does not allow that level of fidelity and understanding of systems.” The report brings out that, systems such as automated intrusion detection, automated patch management, status data from each network, and regular network audits are currently…

Rear Admiral S Kulshrestha Indian Navy(Retd.)       “…[t]he main advantage of using drones is precisely that they are unmanned. With the operators safely tucked in air-conditioned rooms far away, there’s no pilot at risk of being killed or maimed in a crash. No pilot to be taken captive by enemy forces. No pilot to cause a diplomatic crisis if shot down in a “friendly country” while bombing or spying without official permission” [1] – Medea Benjamin, 2013  The aim of this article is to look at some of the developments and the technological spinoffs that are likely to have a profound impact upon uninterrupted 24/7 gathering of real…

Rear Admiral S Kulshrestha Indian Navy(Retd.)       “It will fully suppress communications, navigation and target location, and the use of high-precision weapons….The system will be used against cruise missiles and will suppress satellite-based radio location systems. It will actually switch off enemy weapons.” Vladimir Mikheyev, adviser to the Radio-Electronic Technologies Group (KRET), Russia.   Directed energy weapons (DEWs) emit energy in the desired direction and cause damage to the target by transferring energy and generating uneven heat stresses. The DEWs comprise two distinct types of weapons namely, the high-energy lasers (HELs), and the high power microwaves (HPMs). The US Air Force has been funding research and technical programs…

Rear Admiral S Kulshrestha Indian Navy(Retd.)       “They were coming at us like bees”. “We would kill one lot and then more would appear. It was the most amazing thing.” – Lt Col Twitty, Commander 3rd Battalion 15th Infantry, Operation Iraqi Freedom, Iraq, 2003.  Swarms in nature have always intrigued humans because individually the animals or the insects do not appear to have intelligence but in a swarm, they are able to move as a cohesive intelligent formation capable of taking actions befitting an intelligent life form. Some of the world’s largest swarms in animal kingdom include mosquitoes, Argentine Ants, Christmas Island Crabs, krill, springbok, and locusts. Peter Miller, in…

Rear Admiral S Kulshrestha Indian Navy(Retd.)       Passive sensor triggered weapons have been in use for a considerable time by the military. They have been in form of Bangalore Torpedo, anti tank mines or anti personnel mines on land and as ground or moored mines at sea. Passive sensors have been extensively used on land for electronic support measures and at sea for detection of ships by submarines. One of the largest chains of passive sensors in the WWII era was Sound Surveillance System or SOSUS. It was a chain of hydrophone sensors located at various places in the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean. The main aim was locating…

Rear Admiral S Kulshrestha Indian Navy(Retd.)       As long as the United States continues to have nuclear weapons, we must ensure that they remain safe, secure, and effective without the use of underground testing – Don Cook, NNSA Deputy Administrator for Defense Programs[1]   In October 2015, USA completed testing of upgraded Nuclear Earth Penetrating bomb B61-12. The aim was to extend the life of B61 Mod 7 and Mod 11 strategic bombs by 20 years[2]. The upgrades include scalable nuclear yield (The B61 family of weapons can be configured with a wide variety of yields, including 0.3, 1.5, 5, 10, 45, 60, 60, 80, 170, and 340 kilotons),…

Rear Admiral S Kulshrestha Indian Navy(Retd.)       Nanotechnology “could completely change the face of weaponry,” – Andy Oppenheimer, Jane’s Information Group[1] On 11 September 2007, Russians tested Father of All Bombs (FOAB), an Aviation Thermo baric Bomb of Increased Power (ATBIP). It was said to be the most powerful conventional bomb in the world, with a 7-Ton explosive mixture resulting in a devastating effect equivalent to 44 tons of TNT[2]. It was hinted that the FOAB contained a liquid fuel, such as ethylene oxide, mixed with energetic nano-aluminium powder, which was dispersed by a high explosive booster. Some reports speculated that the liquid fuel was purified using nano-filters. What…

Rear Admiral S Kulshrestha Indian Navy(Retd.)       ..And I had an opportunity to grow from the time where we couldn’t make a single silicon transistor to the time where we put 1.7 billion of them on one chip! – Gordon Moore, Cofounder Intel Last year Kris Gopalakrishnan pledged $ 50 mn at IISc and IIT Madras on research that seeks to model next level computing based on the functioning of the Brain.[1] Neuromorphic engineering is an emerging interdisciplinary field that involves designing sophisticated devices based on the complex neural circuits of the brain. It uses principles of the nervous system for engineering applications to achieve a better understanding…