Cheap weapons of mass destruction will erode expensive conventional forces

Evidence

Whenever a small number of wealthy states invests in exorbitant weapons that nobody else can afford, someone, somewhere, is sure to come up with a cheap way to bring them to their knees, and, every so often, the smallest of weapons manages to topple a Leviathan. Fire ships brought panic and disorder to naval fleets as far back as the fifth century BCE, when the Syracusans took an old merchant vessel, packed it with pitch and pine, set it aflame, and released it to drift downwind into the Athenian navy. — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 441 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

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 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

New types of weapons changed all of this, including the crossbow and, later, the English longbow. Like sneaky males, these new technologies “cheated,” breaking the rules of engagement in ways that eroded the benefits of expensive armor. — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 425 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Cyberattacks may soon cripple the entirety of US military forces; Low-cost bioweapons manufacture destroys the logic of deterrence; Cheap weapons can disable the most expensive military technologies — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 417 (+5 more)

Related

• Cheap weapons can disable the most expensive military technologies (similarity 0.94)
• Cheap asymmetric weapons can topple vastly more expensive military investments. (similarity 0.89)
• Cheap long-range weapons eroded the battlefield value of expensive armor. (similarity 0.87)
• Cold War weapons costs multiplied simultaneously across every system category (similarity 0.82)
• Some elaborate animal weapons are astonishingly cheap to produce and carry (similarity 0.82)
• Low-cost bioweapons manufacture destroys the logic of deterrence (similarity 0.80)
• Modern naval weapons cost billions and thus only wealthy nations can field them (similarity 0.80)
• An inexpensive weapon made elaborate armor a deadly liability rather than protection. (similarity 0.79)
• Biological weapons can now be assembled for a few thousand dollars (similarity 0.79)
• The most expensive weapons serve as deterrents by projecting power globally. (similarity 0.79)
• Costly advanced weapons deter rivals just like large animal weapons (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 weapons can disable the most expensive military technologies #corroborates (0.85) — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 417
• Cheap long-range weapons eroded the battlefield value of expensive armor. #exemplifies (0.75) — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 425