Military biotechnology development speeds up again

In June 2018, the American Academy of Sciences "Biodefense in the Age of Synthetic Biology" suggested that the US government should pay close attention to the fast-growing field of synthetic biology, just as it paid close attention to chemistry and physics during the Cold War.

 

It is reported that the 60th Anniversary of the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency will also be kicked off. The experts will discuss new concepts such as biological counter-measures, safety biology, and new bio-based sensing systems.

 

It is undeniable that military high-tech and weaponry such as artificial intelligence, unmanned system equipment and hypersonic weapons are important weights of the current international strategic game. At present, the scope of innovation and application of military biotechnology has surpassed the previous health maintenance and war wound treatment, and rapidly spread and integrated into other areas of the national defense science and technology system. We should pay close attention to the frontiers of military biotechnology innovation and continue to examine its strategic impact.

 

There is huge room for innovation and development of military biotechnology. Billions of years of biological evolution provide an "innate" natural blueprint for innovation, and the integration of life sciences and engineering machinery, nanoscience, information science, materials science and other disciplines provides "infinite" for national defense innovation. may. Innovative directions are ingenious, innovative routes are unique, and innovations are constantly emerging in many fields such as molecular biology robots, bio-batteries, biomaterials, biosensing, bio-manufacturing, bio-bionics, bio-computing, bio-ciphers, and brain-computer interfaces.

 

Murphy's Law states that as long as there is an objective danger, the danger will soon become an unsafe state of reality. Biotechnology has the characteristics of naturalness, sociality, sustainability, etc. It can be integrated into the main components of combat forces such as combat subjects, weaponry, battlefield environment, and human-weapon-environment coupling. Biotechnology can be used as a support for the development and logistics of supporting equipment and support. It can also turn war into an invisible cross-domain war by accurately affecting the identity and consciousness of specific participants, the war environment or weakening the performance of weapons and equipment. It can be predicted that one day in the future, wars may start from a certain "corner" of daily natural, ecological and social environments, and carry out "alternative" technological assaults to offset the strategic position of existing mainstream high-tech weapons.

 

At present, the United States and Russia and other countries have stepped up their research and development of military biotechnology. In 2014, the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency announced the establishment of the Biotechnology Office, which proposed the research of synthetic biology, major infectious diseases and neurological functions as the most potential military biotechnology field, and implemented the “Prevention of Engineering Biology Technology Raid” program to evaluate Military applications and potential in this field. The US Department of Defense established the Defense Science Committee's Biology Task Force in 2017, focusing on new biotech technologies that are expected to achieve breakthroughs by 2040. Russia's “Future Defenders” comprehensive project aims to focus on the development of advanced medicine, integrated biological systems and military bionics.

 

It can be said that in the emerging field of military biotechnology, whoever seizes the opportunities and initiative, who can seek the advantages of military technology with greater and longer-term advantages, who can take the initiative in the new pattern of international military competition. .