9781422282984

11

Introduction

Sixteen targets. Sixteen direct hits.The B-2 Stealth bomber, the most technologically and scientifically sophisticated plane in the history of warfare,worked flawlessly. Since then,B-2s have flown in every major military campaign involving the United States, including recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, along with air strikes in Libya and elsewhere. Science andWarfare Science and technology of one sort or another have always led the charge in battle, whether victory was sought to free a people, dispose of a despotic ruler, or to gain or protect territory. Wars have served for centuries as a means for technological change and scientific innovation. Bows and arrows replaced spears and rocks. Swords evolved from knives and daggers. Guns morphed from single-shot muskets to rapid-fire automatic weapons. Scientists, inventors, and engineers still use their talents to solve the problems of warfare. In fact, many countries, including the United States, spendmuch of their treasure developing new and better ways of waging war and protecting soldiers. Science and war have always sung a deadly duet. Perhaps that relationship is best described by John Abbott, who served as Canada’s prime minister in the late 1800s: “War is the science of destruction,” he said.