Today’s warfare is “High Tech” warfare. Its outcomes are dependent on qualitative superiority in the full spectrum of warfare; but not based on 3:1 quantitative/numerical armed forces superiority of bygone days.
Compelling imperative is to understand the many faces of “High Tech Warfare”, if one wants to sustain enduring peace. For peace promotes progress, prosperity and brotherhood. By contrast, wars result in destruction, poverty and bitter rivalry. The reality of geopolitics of the past and the present are guides to trends for geopolitics of posterity.
Pearls of wisdom! “No permanent friends; but only permanent national interests”; and “Today’s friends can be tomorrow’s enemies” and “today’s enemies can be tomorrow’s friends.”
But mankind’s history is full of wars. The lesson is simple. Even in posterity, outbreaks of war will be a common feature. Bismarck’s remarks, “Fools learn from their own experiences; wise learn from others’ experiences,” is relevant for eternity.
Rational humans prefer peace over war. No sane person will resort to violence and war. By contrast, wars are waged by Id-driven (Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory) and belligerent narcissists, warmongers with self-inflated grandiosity, particularly those heavily driven by their ego and primal survival instincts, and Jingoistic war hawks.
Be that as it may, the grand/military strategy to prepare to wage the full spectrum of “High-Tech” wars needs to be based on deterrence in all spheres; not merely in the armed forces dimension only.
What category of deterrence can nations adopt: General or Immediate?
In Nuclear Strategy, alternatives are available: Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD); Massive Retaliation; and Credible Minimum Deterrence (CMD). And the choices include: Counterforce or Countervalue. The operational postures include: No-First Use (NFU); First-Strike/Pre-emptive Strike; and Launch-on-Warning.
What about strategies to cater to recent shifts in waging war to include Cyber Warfare, Information Warfare, Economic Warfare, and others? Already, “Means and Ways” of waging full-spectrum high-tech warfare have been employed and tested in ongoing wars such as cyber warfare, AI-driven combat systems and robots.
With Unarmed Combat Aerial Vehicles (UCAVs)/Unarmed Combat Ground Vehicles (UCGVs)/Unarmed Underwater Combat Vehicles (UUCVs), the Artificial Intelligence-driven “Robots”, and Satellite/Anti Satellite systems available as “means and ways” to wage wars , preparations to wage “high-Tech” warfare in posterity must undergo appropriate transformations.
To sum up, there are many faces of “High-Tech” warfare evolving with far-reaching fallout. So, nations must “Prepare to wage full-spectrum High-Tech Wars or Perish”. And preparations for high-tech wars mean unaffordable high costs to development and prosperity, particularly in developing countries.
The costs of today’s combat systems are many times more than the cost of combat systems of the 1960s and 1970s. For example, the cost of a MIG-21 in 1965 was 12 to 15 Lakhs and Rs.25 to 30 Lakhs only in 1971. By contrast, the cost of the Dassault Rafale today is approx. Rs.780 Crore to Rs.1,050 Crore. A brand-new Sukhoi Su-30MKI costs approximately Rs.1,125 crore based on India’s most recent procurement contracts.
Furthermore, the costs of various types of missiles include: Astra Mk-1 (BVR) Rs.7 crore to Rs.8 crore per unit; Meteor (Long-Range BVR) Rs. 18.75 crore per unit; MICA (Short/Medium Range) Rs.10 crore to ₹12 crore per unit; R-77 / R-73 (Russian origin) Rs.4 crore to Rs.6 crore per unit; BrahMos (Air-Launched Supersonic Cruise Missile) Rs.30 crore to Rs.40 crore per unit; AASM Hammer (Precision-Guided Munition / Missile) Rs.2 crore to Rs.3 crore per unit; and so on.
More importantly, even waging short-duration high-tech wars not only imposes an unaffordable financial burden even on superpowers but also can cause unprecedented havoc on the economy and human losses.
Let me also recall the costs of the past wars. For example, World War II (1939–1945) was the deadliest conflict in human history, resulting in an estimated 70 million to 85 million fatalities. The conflict also caused unprecedented material and infrastructural destruction, completely altering the geopolitical and economic landscapes of Europe and Asia.
The Soviet Union suffered the worst structural devastation of any nation. More than 1,700 towns, 70,000 villages, and 32,000 factories were destroyed, wiping out decades of industrial growth.
Allied strategic bombing campaigns reduced major cities of Germany like Berlin, Hamburg, and Dresden to rubble, destroying roughly 70% of urban housing and crippling the national transport system.
Poland suffered near-total cultural and physical erasure. Its capital, Warsaw, was systematically razed, leaving over 85% of the city in ruins.
Aerial firebombing campaigns over Japan leveled 40% of Tokyo and dozens of other urban centers, culminating in the complete atomic obliteration of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The German air campaign known as the Blitz damaged or destroyed over 1 million homes in London and other key industrial hubs, alongside critical shipping ports.
Next, the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war has resulted in an estimated 1.7 million to 2 million total military casualties alongside tens of thousands of verified civilian deaths since the February 2022 full-scale invasion. While both nations treat precise military losses as tightly guarded state secrets, independent assessments from Western intelligence, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), and open-source monitoring highlight unprecedented attrition rates.
Independent estimates place Russian military casualties between 1.3 million and 1.5 million. This includes an estimated 400,000 to 500,000 fatalities. Attrition rates spiked, with monthly casualties exceeding 40,000 during intensive frontline offensives.
Ukrainian military casualties are estimated between 525,000 and 625,000. Out of these, approximately 120,000 to 150,000 are estimated as killed in action. In Ukraine, the United Nations has confirmed over 16,000 civilian deaths and 46,000 injuries. The war has also displaced over 11 million people, triggering the largest European refugee crisis since World War II.
The physical and economic destruction is staggering, with Ukraine’s long-term reconstruction needs projected at $588 billion, while Russia grapples with degraded industrial capability, severe worker shortages, and billions in damage to its energy sector. The financial impact of the war extends far beyond the immediate front lines, reshaping the domestic budgets and economic infrastructure of both countries.
Ukraine’s daily military expenditure has risen to $190 million per day (up from $140 million in 2024), severely stretching its national budget. Systematic Russian drone and missile strikes have targeted civilian power generation. There is virtually no major power plant in Ukraine that has escaped damage, knocking out thousands of megawatts of generation capacity. The de facto blockade and localized targeting of Black Sea and Sea of Azov ports have severely hindered Ukraine’s deep-water agricultural and industrial exports, wiping out crucial tax and trade revenues. Toxic contamination from shelling, unexploded ordnance, and destroyed industrial plants has inflicted an estimated $56.4 billion in direct environmental damage. Nearly 30% of Ukrainian territory remains littered with landmines.
Russia has lost an immense amount of capital equipment, including over 12,300 tanks and 25,000 armored combat vehicles, forcing the Kremlin to roll out older, Soviet-era reserves. Strategic Ukrainian long-range drone strikes have knocked out up to 40% of Russia’s refining capacity. This drop pushed Russian refinery runs to a 24-year low, causing domestic gasoline shortages and forced export bans. Massive military spending and sweeping international sanctions have shrunk Russia’s trade surplus dramatically—dropping from $173 billion in 2021 to a projected $68 billion, choking off long-term economic liquidity. The combined drain of military mobilization and the emigration of hundreds of thousands of highly skilled workers has pushed unemployment down to an unhealthy 2.2%, triggering acute labor shortages across non-military sectors.
The Israel–Palestine conflict has resulted in catastrophic human loss and severe economic and infrastructural devastation. A joint UN-EU-World Bank assessment has projected the total recovery and reconstruction costs for the Gaza Strip alone at $71.4 billion, following the near-total collapse of its domestic economy and physical landscape.
The human toll has reached unprecedented levels, primarily impacting civilian populations. While a major ceasefire took effect in October 2025, sporadic violations and deep-seated unrest continue to drive up numbers. According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, the cumulative death toll has surpassed 73,786 fatalities, with over 174,771 people injured. The vast majority of these casualties are women and children. Furthermore, an estimated 1.9 million people—nearly 90% of Gaza’s entire population—remain internally displaced. In Palestine (West Bank), escalating violence, raids, and settler actions have resulted in 1,122 Palestinian fatalities, including at least 246 children, alongside widespread displacement.
The physical layout of the Gaza Strip has been fundamentally altered, with satellite data indicating that 81% of all structures have been damaged or destroyed. Over 92% of Gaza’s housing stock has been reduced to rubble or severely compromised, forcing millions into overcrowded displacement camps. Roughly 90% of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure, including its medical network, has been systematically crippled. Over half of all medical facilities are entirely closed, and those that remain open are only partially functional due to severe shortages of power, fuel, medicine, and critical spare parts. Water, Sanitation, & Energy: Approximately 76% of Gaza’s energy infrastructure and electricity distribution networks have been destroyed. Water insecurity is nearly universal, with over 87% of households experiencing extreme water insecurity due to damaged desalination plants and disrupted well systems.
Over 95% of Gaza’s agricultural land has been destroyed, and all fishing vessels and infrastructure have been wiped out, eliminating the enclave’s capacity to feed itself. The war has effectively erased decades of economic development, plunging both territories into a deep financial crisis.
In Israel, the initial October 7, 2023, attacks led by Hamas resulted in the deaths of approximately 1,195 people, including 815 civilians. Total recorded Israeli fatalities stood at 1,671 (encompassing subsequent military actions, cross-border rocket fire, and security service personnel). In addition, Israel’s Ministry of Defense notes that roughly 1,000 soldiers have been wounded every month throughout the high-intensity phase of the war.
While Israel’s core physical infrastructure remains mostly intact, the prolonged conflict has cost its economy billions in direct military expenditures, labor shortages caused by massive military call-ups, and long-term financial liabilities for thousands of wounded or permanently disabled veterans.
In the ongoing US-Iran war, President Trump has accepted this munitions risk—alongside other tradeoffs like the diversion of forces from the Western Pacific. Prewar inventories were insufficient even for the United States – the Super Power. The diminished munitions stockpiles have created a near-term risk. The levels today will constrain U.S. operations should a future conflict arise. A war against a capable peer competitor like China will consume munitions at greater rates than in this war. Restoring depleted stockpiles and then achieving the desired inventory levels will take many years.
Viewed in the above framework of the costs of waging “Full Spectrum High-Tech” wars, there is no alternative for nations but to prepare for worst contingency scenarios by adopting appropriate deterrence policies/strategies; otherwise perish.
“We the People” in democracies must out rightly reject Jingoistic rhetoric by political loggerheads.
