Military technology

Military technology is the application of technology for use in warfare. It comprises the kinds of technology that are distinctly military in nature and not civilian in application, usually because they lack useful or legal civilian applications, or are dangerous to use without appropriate military training.

For theories, strategies, concepts and doctrines of warfare, see Military science.

The line is porous; military inventions have been brought into civilian use throughout history, with sometimes minor modification if any, and civilian innovations have similarly been put to military use.^[1]

Military technology is usually researched and developed by scientists and engineers specifically for use in battle by the armed forces. Many new technologies came as a result of the military funding of science.

Armament engineering is the design, development, testing and lifecycle management of military weapons and systems. It draws on the knowledge of several traditional engineering disciplines, including mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, mechatronics, electro-optics, aerospace engineering, materials engineering, and chemical engineering.

List of military vehicles

List of armoured fighting vehicles

List of tanks

List of military inventions

List of emerging military technologies

, late medieval treatise on military technology.

Bellifortis

Materiel

. The Gunpowder Age: China, military innovation, and the rise of the West in world history (Princeton UP, 2016).

Andrade, Tonio

Black, Jeremy. Tools of War (2007) covers 50 major inventions.

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Boot, Max. War made new: technology, warfare, and the course of history, 1500 to today (Penguin, 2006).

, ed. (1911). "Arms and Armour" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 2 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 582–590.

Chisholm, Hugh

'The A-10 saved my ass' (review of Andrew F. Krepinevich Jr., The Origins of Victory: How Disruptive Military Innovation Determines the Fates of Great Powers, Yale, May 2023, 549 pp., ISBN 978 0 300 23409 1), London Review of Books, vol. 46, no.46 (21 March 2024), pp. 39–41. The reviewer gives many examples of the military superiority of granting low-level commanders decision-making initiative, over the most expensive and technologically-advanced weaponry. "Money is lavished on advanced weapons systems whose effectiveness is questionable, and which are vastly expensive to maintain.... At any one time, 40 per cent of the US navy's attack submarines are out of commission for repairs.... Krepinevich... prefers to dwell on the urgent necessity of developing increasingly fantastical programmes: hypersonics, genetic engineering, quantum computing and of course AI.... All the wonders of precision targeting and comprehensive surveillance notwithstanding, the Houthi blockade of the Red Sea is as effectively disruptive as ever." (p. 41.)

Cockburn, Andrew

Dupuy, Trevor N. The evolution of weapons and warfare (1984), 350pp, cover 2000 BC to late 20th century.

Ellis, John. The Social History of the Machine Gun (1986).

Gabriel, Richard A., and Karen S. Metz. From Sumer to Rome: The Military capabilities of ancient armies (ABC-CLIO, 1991).

Hacker, Barton (2005). "The Machines of War: Western Military Technology 1850–2000". History & Technology. 21 (3): 255–300. :10.1080/07341510500198669. S2CID 144113139.

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Levy, Jack S (1984). "The offensive/defensive balance of military technology: A theoretical and historical analysis". International Studies Quarterly. 28 (2): 219–238. :10.2307/2600696. JSTOR 2600696.

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McNeill, William H. The Pursuit of Power: Technology, Armed Force, and Society since A.D. 1000 (1984).

Parker, Geoffrey. The Military Revolution: Military Innovation and the Rise of the West (1988).

Steele, Brett D. and Tamara Dorland. Heirs of Archimedes: Science & the Art of War through the Age of Enlightenment (2005) 397 pp.