Ethical and strategic challenges of AI weapons: A call for global action

1 Impending prophecy About a decade ago,theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking expressed extreme concern about the development of artificial intelligence(AI),stating that"the development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race.Concurrently,in 2014,entrepreneur Elon Musk expressed similar cautionary sentiments,suggesting that AI might surpass nuclear weapons in terms of danger.Despite these warnings,the prevailing sentiment at the time was largely skeptical.However,only a few years later,on May 30,2023,hundreds of artificial intelligence experts and other notable figures issued a 22-word statement[1]warning against the“risk of extinction.”

Study of relationship between motion of mechanisms in gas operated weapon and its shock absorber

The article deals with the motion of the breech block carrier and the weapon casing of an automatic weapon mounted on a flexible carriage and the base of the weapon.Earlier works,which did not consider the dynamic properties of the base of the weapon,did not allow to reconcile the calculated and experimental results of the weapon casing displacement when shooting from firing rests.For the analysis of the motion of individual parts,the methods of mathematical modelling and firing experiments using a high-speed camera were chosen.Calculations show the best accord with experiment when modelling the system with 4 degrees of freedom.The oscillation of the system regarding the movement of the breech block carrier and the weapon casing was investigated under changed conditions of rate of fire,the use of a muzzle brake and different types of shock absorbers.The velocities and displacements of the weapon casing and the breech block carrier at different values of the impulse of the gases to the breech block carrier were determined.

Resilience-driven cooperative reconfiguration strategy for unmanned weapon system-of-systems

As the unmanned weap system-of systems(UWSoS)becomes complex,the inevitable uncertain interference gradu-ally increases,which leads to a strong emphasis on the resilience of UWSoS.Hence,this paper presents a resilience-driven cooperative reconfiguration strategy to enhance the resilience of UWSoS.First,a unified resilience-driven coopera-tive reconfiguration strategy framework is designed to guide the UWSoS resilience enhancement.Subsequently,a cooperative reconfiguration strategy algorithm is proposed to identify the optimal cooperative reconfiguration sequence,combining the cooperative pair resilience contribution index(CPRCI)and coop-erative pair importance index(CPII).At last,the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed algorithm are demonstrated through various attack scenario simulations that include differ-ent attack modes and intensities.The analysis results can pro-vide a reference for decision-makers to manage UWSoS.

Weapons system portfolio selection based on the contribution rate evaluation of system of systems

The weapons system portfolio selection problem arises at the equipment demonstration stage and deals with the military application requirements.Further,the contribution rate of the system is one of the important indicators to evaluate the role of a system,which can facilitate the weapons system portfolio selection.Therefore,combining the system contribution rate with system portfolio selection is the focus of this study.It also focuses on calculating the contribution rates of multiple equipment systems with various types of capabilities.The contribution rate is measured by establishing a hierarchical multi-criteria value model from three dimensions.Based on the value model,the feasible portfolios are developed under certain cost constraints and the optimal weapons system portfolios are obtained by using the classification optimization selection strategy.Finally,an illustrative example is presented to verify the feasibility of the proposed model.

Weapons equipment portfolios selection based on equipment system contribution rates

Equipment selection is an essential work in the research and development planning of equipment.The scientific and rational development of weapons equipment portfolios is of considerable significance to the optimization of equipment architecture design,the adequate resources allocation,and the joint combat performance.From the system view,this paper proposes a method of weapons equipment portfolios selection(WEPS)based on the contribution rate of weapon systems,providing a new idea for weapon equipment portfolio selection.Firstly,we analyze the WEPS problem and the concept of the contribution rate under the systems background.Secondly,we propose a combat network modeling method for weapon equipment systems based on the function chain.Thirdly,we propose a WEPS method based on the contribution rate,fully considering the correlation relationships between potential weapons and the old weapon systems by the combat network model,under the limitation of capability demands and budget resources,with the objective to maximally increasing the combat ability of weapon systems.Finally,we make a case study with a specific WEPS problem where the whole calculation processes and results are analyzed and exhibited to verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method model.

Weapons Detection for Security and Video Surveillance Using CNN and YOLO-V5s

In recent years,the number of Gun-related incidents has crossed over 250,000 per year and over 85%of the existing 1 billion firearms are in civilian hands,manual monitoring has not proven effective in detecting firearms.which is why an automated weapon detection system is needed.Various automated convolutional neural networks(CNN)weapon detection systems have been proposed in the past to generate good results.However,These techniques have high computation overhead and are slow to provide real-time detection which is essential for the weapon detection system.These models have a high rate of false negatives because they often fail to detect the guns due to the low quality and visibility issues of surveillance videos.This research work aims to minimize the rate of false negatives and false positives in weapon detection while keeping the speed of detection as a key parameter.The proposed framework is based on You Only Look Once(YOLO)and Area of Interest(AOI).Initially,themodels take pre-processed frames where the background is removed by the use of the Gaussian blur algorithm.The proposed architecture will be assessed through various performance parameters such as False Negative,False Positive,precision,recall rate,and F1 score.The results of this research work make it clear that due to YOLO-v5s high recall rate and speed of detection are achieved.Speed reached 0.010 s per frame compared to the 0.17 s of the Faster R-CNN.It is promising to be used in the field of security and weapon detection.

Accurate analysis of limiting human dose of non-lethal laser weapons

In order to maximize the lethality and reversibility of the non-lethal laser weapons(NLLW) at the same time and thus provide a theoretical basis for the R&D of laser weapons in the future,this paper accurately analyzed the limiting biological dose of irreversible damage to human skin caused by the NLLW.Firstly,based on the burn theory in medicine and the actual tactical background,this paper redefines the evaluation criteria of the limiting laser dose of NLLW to the human body.Secondly,on the basis of anatomical knowledge,a 5-layer finite element model(FEM) of superficial skin is proposed,constructed and verified,which can accurately describe the limiting reversible damage.Based on the optimized Pennes bioheat transfer equation,the diffusion approximation theory,the modified Beer-Lambert law,the Arrhenius equation,and combined with dynamic thermophysical parameters,this paper highly restored the temperature distribution and accurately solved the necrotic tissue distribution inside the human skin irradiated by 1064 nm laser.Finally,it is concluded that the maximum human dose of the1064 nm NLLW is 8.93 J/cm^(2),8.29J/cm^(2),and 8.17 J/cm^(2) when the light spots are 5 mm,10 mm and15 mm,respectively,and the corresponding output power of the weapon is 46.74 W,173.72 W and384.77 W.Simultaneously,the temperature and damage distribution in the tissue at the time of ultimate damage are discussed from the axial and radial dimensions,respectively.The conclusions and analysis methods proposed in this paper are of great guiding significance for future research in military,medical and many other related fields.

Mosquito vector management with botanicals-the most effective weapons in controlling mosquito-borne diseases

Dear editor,Mosquito-borne diseases,viz.,malaria,filariasis,dengue hemorrhagic fever,chikungunya,Japanese encephalitis etc.,created huge impact on humans over the world,and the chemical insecticides remain the mainstay of effective control.But,indiscriminate and rampant use of the chemical insecticides in controlling mosquito vectors,in order to prevent diseases vectored by them,has resulted problems related to the adverse environmental effects for their(insecticides)potential toxicity,high operational cost,community acceptance,and the development of insecticide resistance among the vectors.The factors mentioned above prompted the search for new means of control strategies.Currently,the botanicals(viz.,plant extracts,essential oils and phytochemicals)with mosquitocidal potential

Protection of Environment from Damaged Nuclear Station and Transparent Inflatable Blanket for Cities—Protection from Radioactive Dust and Chemical, Biological Weapons

The author, in a series of previous articles, designed the “AB Dome” made of transparent thin film supported by a small additional air overpressure for the purpose of covering a city or other important large installations or sub-regions. In present article the author offers a variation in which a damaged nuclear station can be quickly covered by such a cheap inflatable dome. By containing the radioactive dust from the damaged nuclear station, the danger zone is reduced to about 2 km2 rather than large regions which requires the resettlement of huge masses of people and which stops indus-try in large areas. If there is a big city (as Tokyo) near the nuclear disaster or there is already a dangerous amount of radioactive dust near a city, the city may also be covered by a large inflatable transparent Dome. The building of a gi-gantic inflatable AB Dome over an empty flat surface is not difficult. The cover is spread on a flat surface and a venti-lator (fan system) pumps air under the film cover and lifts the new dome into place but inflation takes many hours. However, to cover a city, garden, forest or other obstacle course in contrast to an empty, mowed field, the thin film cannot be easily deployed over building or trees without risking damage to it by snagging and other complications. This article proposes a new method which solves this problem. The design is a double film blanket filled by light gas such as, methane, hydrogen, or helium - although of these, methane will be the most practical and least likely to leak. Sections of this AB Blanket are lighter than air and will rise in the atmosphere. They can be made on a flat area serving as an as-sembly area and delivered by dirigible or helicopter to station at altitude over the city. Here they connect to the already assembled AB Blanket subassemblies, cover the city in an AB Dome and protect it from bad weather, chemical, bio-logical and radioactive fallout or particulates. After assembly of the dome is completed, the light gas can be replaced by (heavier but cheaper) air. Two projects for Tokyo (Japan) and Moscow (Russia) are used in this paper for sample computation.

Explicit Exact Solution of Damage Probability for Multiple Weapons against a Unitary Target

Abstract We study the damage probability when M weapons are used against a unitary target. We use the Carleton damage function to model the distribution of damage probability caused by each weapon. The deviation of the impact point from the aimpoint is attributed to both the dependent error and independent errors. The dependent error is one random variable affecting M weapons the same way while independent errors are associated with individual weapons and are independent of each other. We consider the case where the dependent error is significant, non-negligible relative to independent errors. We first derive an explicit exact solution for the damage probability caused by M weapons for any M. Based on the exact solution, we find the optimal aimpoint distribution of M weapons to maximize the damage probability in several cases where the aimpoint distribution is constrained geometrically with a few free parameters, including uniform distributions around a circle or around an ellipse. Then, we perform unconstrained optimization to obtain the overall optimal aimpoint distribution and the overall maximum damage probability, which is carried out for different values of M, up to 20 weapons. Finally, we derive a phenomenological approximate expression for the damage probability vs. M, the number of weapons, for the parameters studied here.

How United States Agricultural Herbicides Became Military and Environmental Chemical Weapons: Historical and Residual Effects

Discoveries in Charles Darwin’s laboratory led to modern herbicides. Darwin discovered the internal mechanism that directed plants to grow toward sunlight and sources of water. Scientists in Europe and America later called this mechanism a plant’s hormone response system. Administrators and scientists, including Dr. Ezra J. Kraus, the Head of the Botany Department at the University of Chicago and a plant physiologist, suggested on the eve of WWII that weed killers had significant military value as chemical weapons. Dr. Kraus obtained access to a synthetic chemical, 2,4-D, and found that when the chemical was absorbed through the leaves of plants, it destroyed a plant’s hormones. After exposure, the plant experienced rapid and uncontrolled growth, and then the leaves shriveled, died and fell off. Dr. Kraus obtained funding for his Department of Botany research program from Department of Defense (DOD) during World War II (WWII). Camp Detrick (Biological Weapons Laboratory) scientists later obtained samples of newly created 2,4,5-T which contained unknown amounts of the by-product dioxin TCDD. In the 1950s and 1960s, Fort Detrick military scientists formulated the herbicide Agent Orange, which was a 50 - 50 mixture of 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T. These dual purpose herbicides were used by DOD and USDA. American and European farmers in the 1940s used 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T to eliminate weeds from pastureland and cropland. After WWII, synthetic herbicides (and pesticides) development continued in tandem with production of synthetic fertilizers and breeding of high-yield plant varieties. These new agricultural products were then shipped worldwide to increase crop yields, as part of the Green Revolution. This new system of agricultural technologies was intended to eliminate global starvation and increase food security by increasing field and farm crop yields. In contrast, the goal of military use of herbicides, as chemical weapons, was to defoliate jungle forests and destroy food crops as a strategy to win battles and wars. The primary objective of this research study is to describe how agricultural herbicides became tactical chemical weapons. A current assessment will address the environmental impacts of military and environmental chemical weapons on the United States and Vietnam ecosystems and need for additional dioxin TCDD hotspot clean-up efforts.

A bi-population immune algorithm for weapon transportation support scheduling problem with pickup and delivery on aircraft carrier deck

The weapon transportation support scheduling problem on aircraft carrier deck is the key to restricting the sortie rate and combat capability of carrier-based aircraft.This paper studies the problem and presents a novel solution architecture.Taking the interference of the carrier-based aircraft deck layout on the weapon transportation route and precedence constraint into consideration,a mixed integer formulation is established to minimize the total objective,which is constituted of makespan,load variance and accumulative transfer time of support unit.Solution approach is developed for the model.Firstly,based on modeling the carrier aircraft parked on deck as convex obstacles,the path library of weapon transportation is constructed through visibility graph and Warshall-Floyd methods.We then propose a bi-population immune algorithm in which a population-based forward/backward scheduling technique,local search schemes and a chaotic catastrophe operator are embedded.Besides,the randomkey solution representation and serial scheduling generation scheme are adopted to conveniently obtain a better solution.The Taguchi method is additionally employed to determine key parameters of the algorithm.Finally,on a set of generated realistic instances,we demonstrate that the proposed algorithm outperforms all compared algorithms designed for similar optimization problems and can significantly improve the efficiency,and that the established model and the bi-population immune algorithm can effectively respond to the weapon support requirements of carrier-based aircraft under different sortie missions.

An Air Defense Weapon Target Assignment Method Based on Multi-Objective Artificial Bee Colony Algorithm

With the advancement of combat equipment technology and combat concepts,new requirements have been put forward for air defense operations during a group target attack.To achieve high-efficiency and lowloss defensive operations,a reasonable air defense weapon assignment strategy is a key step.In this paper,a multi-objective and multi-constraints weapon target assignment(WTA)model is established that aims to minimize the defensive resource loss,minimize total weapon consumption,and minimize the target residual effectiveness.An optimization framework of air defense weapon mission scheduling based on the multiobjective artificial bee colony(MOABC)algorithm is proposed.The solution for point-to-point saturated attack targets at different operational scales is achieved by encoding the nectar with real numbers.Simulations are performed for an imagined air defense scenario,where air defense weapons are saturated.The non-dominated solution sets are obtained by the MOABC algorithm to meet the operational demand.In the case where there are more weapons than targets,more diverse assignment schemes can be selected.According to the inverse generation distance(IGD)index,the convergence and diversity for the solutions of the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm III(NSGA-III)algorithm and the MOABC algorithm are compared and analyzed.The results prove that the MOABC algorithm has better convergence and the solutions are more evenly distributed among the solution space.

Mission reliability modeling and evaluation for reconfigurable unmanned weapon system-of-systems based on effective operation loop

The concept of unmanned weapon system-of-systems(UWSoS)involves a collection of various unmanned systems to achieve or accomplish a specific goal or mission.The mission reliability of UWSoS is represented by its ability to finish a required mission above the baselines of a given mission.However,issues with heterogeneity,cooperation between systems,and the emergence of UWSoS cannot be effectively solved by traditional system reliability methods.This study proposes an effective operation-loop-based mission reliability evaluation method for UWSoS by analyzing dynamic reconfiguration.First,we present a new connotation of an effective operation loop by considering the allocation of operational entities and physical resource constraints.Then,we propose an effective operationloop-based mission reliability model for a heterogeneous UWSoS according to the mission baseline.Moreover,a mission reliability evaluation algorithm is proposed under random external shocks and topology reconfiguration,revealing the evolution law of the effective operation loop and mission reliability.Finally,a typical 60-unmanned-aerial-vehicle-swarm is taken as an example to demonstrate the proposed models and methods.The mission reliability is achieved by considering external shocks,which can serve as a reference for evaluating and improving the effectiveness of UWSoS.

Toward a Test Protocol for Conducted Energy Weapons

Conducted Energy Weapons (CEWs), such as those manufactured by TASER International Inc., are seeing increased use by law enforcement agencies as a less lethal force option;but, at the same time, these weapons are also seeing an increased level of concern in terms of their safety of use. In order to enable consistent evaluation of CEW performance, a systematic protocol for testing the electrical output of such weapons is required. In this paper, we propose a test specification for CEWs, designed to calculate the key performance and electrical safety parameters. The weapon is fired into a specified load, and current or voltage data are acquired, from which a set of electrical parameters are calculated and recorded. The protocol is based on experience of testing 6000 CEWs in the labs affiliated with the authors. This test protocol is designed to enable systematic testing, evaluation and research on CEW’s, including identification of weapons which are out of specification, determination of changes in weapon characteristics over time, and evaluation of weapons post-incident. Based on the proposed test protocol, we evaluate and report on electrical output produced by 208 X26TM and128 M26TM TASER? weapons. Results are shown in terms of proposed summary parameters and in terms of manufacturer’s performance specifications.

Laser Weapons： Blinding Laser Weaponry and Its Discontents

In our highly globalized but culturally divided world whereby so-called defense industry is implied as both innovative and progressive, as contemporaneously the international legal doctrine is conceived to be static and conservative. This doubly bound narrative itself is almost as old as international law wherein the most striking contradictory moments happened in the era of, and between two world wars： In such a way that our thinking of legal and other fields owe much more thereto than we realize today. In this study, it is purported to call attention to some key understandings which may be termed as militarist humanitarianism, humanitarian militarism, or, optimist scientism, and pessimist humanitarianism. As such, it is intended to examine international issues pertaining to humanitarianism and militarism through the lens of different perspectives, doctrine-itself and their history as enshrined in the Protocol IV on Blinding Laser Weapons, issues which are almost totally neglected in the mainstream media and academia.

Namebrand Strategy and Economics of Scale-Two Magic Weapons for Blue Ribbon Group

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“New-style” Urban Plans to Protect Rights of Migrants

The State Council, or China＇s cabinet, has called for a middle to long-term plan to pro- mote new-style urbanization, enabling more migrant workers and their families to settle in cities.