Cheap weapons can disable the most expensive military technologies

Evidence

The biggest, most expensive weapon technologies sometimes succumb to sneak attacks. Foot soldiers don’t stand a chance in a direct confrontation with a tank, but a grenade or Molotov cocktail slipped into a hatch can change the odds considerably. Land mines and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) cheat, in the sense that they avoid a direct confrontation and lurk, instead, in the shadows, hidden in rubble or under the soil. These tiny weapons can disable multimillion-dollar tanks and armored vehicles, and subsurface mines can sink billion-dollar battleships. In October 2000, a tiny craft sailed alongside the USS Cole, a five-hundred-foot-long, 900 million guided-missile destroyer. The craft appeared benign, but was, in fact, laden with explosives, blowing a forty-foot hole in the hull of the destroyer, killing seventeen, wounding thirty-nine, and inflicting 150 million in damages. — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 417

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Cheap weapons of mass destruction will erode expensive conventional forces; Modern naval weapons cost billions and thus only wealthy nations can field them — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 396; Cheap asymmetric weapons can topple vastly more expensive military investments. — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 441 (+5 more)

Related

• Cheap weapons of mass destruction will erode expensive conventional forces (similarity 0.94)
• Cheap asymmetric weapons can topple vastly more expensive military investments. (similarity 0.87)
• Cheap long-range weapons eroded the battlefield value of expensive armor. (similarity 0.86)
• Cold War weapons costs multiplied simultaneously across every system category (similarity 0.82)
• Modern naval weapons cost billions and thus only wealthy nations can field them (similarity 0.82)
• A single technological leap can render an entire opposing arsenal obsolete (similarity 0.81)
• The most expensive weapons serve as deterrents by projecting power globally. (similarity 0.81)
• Biological weapons can now be assembled for a few thousand dollars (similarity 0.80)
• Some elaborate animal weapons are astonishingly cheap to produce and carry (similarity 0.80)
• Costly advanced weapons deter rivals just like large animal weapons (similarity 0.80)
• An inexpensive weapon made elaborate armor a deadly liability rather than protection. (similarity 0.80)
• Low-cost bioweapons manufacture destroys the logic of deterrence (similarity 0.80)
• Cheap weapons let untrained commoners overcome heavily armored elites (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Cheap asymmetric weapons can topple vastly more expensive military investments. #corroborates (0.90) — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 441
• Cheap long-range weapons eroded the battlefield value of expensive armor. #exemplifies (0.85) — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 425
• Cheap weapons let untrained commoners overcome heavily armored elites #exemplifies (0.80)
• Mobile resources deny weapons a cost-effective performance advantage #corroborates (0.60) — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 225
• A single technological leap can render an entire opposing arsenal obsolete #qualifies (0.55) — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 562