Analysis of world technological trends in the military sphere

Abstract

Today, the scientific and technological sphere has become the main arena of competition between countries in the world, and the use of new technologies, especially in the field of armaments, is considered as one of the most important levers of geopolitics. Such technologies are a key for expanding the capabilities of the state's defense capabilities and achieving national security goals, priory to military and military-economic, as well as scientific and technological security. Today, the identification of scientific and technological key areas of military development is used to determine the priorities of scientific and technological development and military-technical policy which is crucial for the process of creating promising models of armaments and military equipment. The introduction of the latest technologies in the military is difficult to imagine without the use of computer and other telecommunications equipment, artificial intelligence technology, military robotics, quantum and space technology, 3D printing and biotechnology. Although they all are already used in the military and security spheres, still monitoring innovation and new technologies in the military are important for understanding not only future wars, but also global security. This study reviews global technological trends based on the analysis of publications of foreign consulting agencies, international organizations and forecasting and analytical research conducted by the author's methodology. The data upon perspective directions of development of scientific and technological researches in the military sphere on the basis of the analysis of publishing activity of a DB of Web of Science and a DB of patents of Derwent Innovations is provided. In particular, the range of new directions of technological development of the military sphere has been expanded and clarified not only in general, but also specified by types and kinds of troops. This analysis allowed us to determine that the areas of development claimed by international organizations and consulting agencies correlate with the areas identified by the authors of the study on the basis of scientometric and patent analysis. At the same time, the forecasted promising areas of research, determined by scientometric analysis of Web of Science publications, more or less completely coincide with the forecasts of NATO, RAND Corporation.