As the troops stormed the beaches, low-flying air support was seen overhead. Gun emplacements garnered the share of victims as the number of fatalities grew.

Meanwhile carpet bombing slaughtered innocents over the populous city and fires raged seemingly everywhere.

Wait, stop, that was wars, battles of the past. Today’s prime video shows more distinct methods of warfare. Missiles launched from thousands of miles away find the pinpoint accuracy down to meters.

Drones, those once-friendly play toys, now sneak up on landscapes and the helpless without the sound of incoming killing machines. 

Now, a trained pilot, with a controller in his hands, no longer sitting in a manned aircraft, can bring death and destruction from the other side of the world without fear of personal injury. Yes, folks, those fly-by-wire arms of war are real and improving by the minute.

Technology is moving so fast and accuracy so precise that warfare is moving by leaps and bounds. Even within the past several months, Ukrainian troops and civilians are seeing hyped up intrusions. Power plants, once protected by some anonymity and distance, have become crucial to making life worse for enemies. Break the power and break the will to fight.

Now nations have taken the fight to space. (See story on Page A4 (Space Force Planning First Ever Military Exercise In Orbit).

Laser beams and militarized microwaves may soon replace bullets and bazookas, as land mines become more prevalent and harder to uncover.

The technology of killing is becoming an art, far beyond gunpowder and lead, and a thousand dollar drone is replacing the multi-million dollar plane. On top of that, we can watch as the mini-aircraft and precise rocket approach and successfully hit their mark, almost as it happens. 

But wait!

The combat drone was once exclusive to military superpowers but no longer. It is used by insurgents and smaller nations  in the changing the nature of battle. Again, cheaper and more efficient that ever before.

During past wars, soldiers often put generic names scribbled on bombs. Now, specific armaments can actually single out a political, or military person with their very own killing device.

No doubt about it, the battlefield has changed. War is becoming more and less personal.

Winning the technological advantage is the prime target in the rapidly shifting landscape of global competition.

All this makes peace and compromise so much more challenging. Why  ask for peace when technology and time have the upper hand?

Oh, sure, there is the perception nations often try to avoid as bad publicity, but with the fast-moving press coverage and changing world topics to replace yesterday’s headline...

Back in the U.S. Civil War, the Confederate submarine CSS H.L. Hunley sank the USS Housatonic in the waters off South Carolina. Move ahead and now the untraceable, unseen submarines carry enough nuclear warheads to obliterate an entire city. 

Stealth aircraft can deliver a punch with sophisticated radar often missing the incoming attack.

Office of the Director of National Intelligence writes:

"During the next two decades, military conflict most likely will be driven by the same factors that have historically prompted wars—ranging from resource protection, economic disparities, and ideological differences to the pursuit of power and influence—but the ways in which war is waged will change as new technologies, applications, and doctrines emerge and as additional actors gain access to these capabilities. The combination of improved sensors, automation, and artificial intelligence (AI) with hypersonics and other advanced technologies will produce more accurate, better connected, faster, longer range, and more destructive weapons, primarily available to the most advanced militaries but some within reach of smaller state and non-state actors. The proliferation and diffusion of these systems over time will make more assets vulnerable, heighten the risk of escalation, and make combat potentially more deadly, though not necessarily more decisive."

Hooray humanity! We are better than ever at war and killing. Progress is our most important product. 

Ah, warfare, it is changing quickly