A different kind of war: the face of modern warfare is changing. In today's age of `Robo-soldier', tank-against-tank, platoon-against-platoon and eyeball-to-eyeball fighting is almost unthinkable, with the thought of Vietnam-era casualties an anathema to the American people. (War).

The days when M1 tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles and 150 millimetre howitzers were ranged against T82 tanks, Soviet BMP personnel carriers and batteries of salvo-firing Katyusha rockets are long gone, US military experts contend, even while declaring that future conflicts will probably be fought on desert terrain, such wide open spaces favouring the US Air Force's superiority. "Should it happen, the up-coming could prove us all wrong," they note as an "with Saddam Hussein having learned his previous lessons well. There, the conflict could move from the wide-open Kuwaiti border to Baghdad's narrow streets and alleyways, and then it could be a different matter altogether."

The US military has developed a quantum leap in firepower during the last 10 years, the age of "robot" wars the new paradigm. Today's American soldiers is far more likely to find himself behind a computer terminal 20 miles back from the front lines, than to find himself directly in the enemy's line-of-fire. "Acceptable" casualties are a thing of the past," US military experts contend, "and the age of unmanned weapons is upon us." The last decade, and particularly since Afghanistan, has seen the US military rush into production of smart bombs with laser-guided GPS targeting systems, pilot-less UAV's (unmanned aerial vehicles) with heavy firepower capabilities, and even a whole slew of new cruise missiles designed to destroy everything from massed enemy personnel to deeply buried command-and-contol bunkers. "Bunker-busters", "Eyes-in-the sky" and "Stealth" are part of the new US military lexicon, with man-on-man warfare a thing of the past. For their part, lacking the sophistication of American technology, potential enemies such as the Iraqi military are reverting back to basics. A grinding, casualty-intensive urban war pitting man against man, Kaleshnikov against M-16 is their only choice, the lessons of Mogadishu having been learned well. Laying plans to suck the US military into the cities and to take them on street-by-street, the Iraqi military is counting on a long-term war such as that now being experienced by the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) in the Palestinian territories, to defeat America. And some military strategists believe that this could even be a decisive factor, especially since America's will to sustain heavy casualties remains untested.

The killing of suspected Al Qaeda chief Qaed Salim Sinan Al Harethi, and five operatives by a hellfire missile launched from an unmanned RQI Predator drone last November in Yemen's Marib area highlights America's new battle tactics. Twenty seven feet long 45 feet wide and able to loiter over the scene of an ambush for up to 16 hours, the Predator is a hundred times more effective than the old fashioned platoon hundred down in ambush. With its TV cameras and infra-red scanners able to scan large swathes of territory for likely targets, the Predator carries an offensive capability of up to six antitank Hellfire missiles, one of which was used to blow up Al Harithi's Toyota SUV vehicle. Launched from Djibouti, or from carriers in the Red Sea, a two-unit of Predators flying 12-hour surveillance shifts kept tabs on Al Harethi's vehicle for up to a week prior to the attack. Finally, when the target was safely out of a densely populated civilian area, they struck; destroying the vehicle with GPS guided precision. This has raised the question as to whether the new warfare is simply "targeted assassination" such as that undertaken by the Israelis, or whether such tactics are legitimate warfare in an age when bat ties are no longer fought as set pieces. US State Department spokesman Richard A. Boucher rejected the comparison. "Targeted killings of Palestinian militants by the IDF bear no comparison to the CIA killing of Al Harithi, a legitimate terrorist target," he stated, while reiterating American government opposition to such Israeli "killings." The United States is far from being the only country to use drones, as the UAV's are more commonly known. Israel is a major producer of `Hunter' and `Searcher' craft, many of which are sold to countries such as India. In June 2002, Pakistan claimed to have shot down such an Indian aircraft while it was undertaking a surveillance mission on the Indo-Pakistan border.

First used by the US in the Balkans in 1999, second-generation American drones like the Global Hawk are highly complex machines. Able to fly at 60,000 feet for up to 24 hours at a time, they have all-weather capability, their infrared and radar detecting electronics able to penetrate even heavy cloud cover. Providing real-time intelligence to commanders situated far from the actual battlefield, these large craft are now being armed with far deadlier armaments then the Hellfire missile, their offensive capability being greatly enhanced with fire-and-forget, computer-guided missile systems with ranges of up to 50 miles.

And the US Navy is also getting in on the act. Last month, a converted US submarine was scheduled to test a large unmanned underwater vehicle, designed to conduct mine reconnaissance and find a safe path to a beach for Navy SEAL special operations forces. Plans are also in hand to convert four Trident nuclear submarines into conventionally guided craft capable of carrying up to 150 Tomahawk cruise missiles and a large contingent of special operations personnel. At the same time as the CIA announced that one of its drones had killed Salim Sinan Al Harethi from afar, the Israeli Defence Force was unveiling its latest Arrow-2 "Homa" or "Barrier" antiballistic missile system. Designed to destroy incoming Scud B and C missiles, particularly those from Iraq, the Arrow system consists of a six shot battery of supersonic missiles linked to a `Green Pine' search and locating radar (500 km range) tied into a `Citron Tree' fire-control system, all designed to destroy an incoming scud at 50-90km away by exploding a warhead within a 40-50 metres radius. Tests indicate that such an explosion would be sufficient to disable an incoming warhead. Based on a scud C's five minute window of flight from launch to impact, the Arrow-2's development costs of over $2bn were largely paid for by the United States (78%), but sales to India, the UK, Turkey and Japan are expected to offset the outlay. How effective the Arrow system will be in war, when multiple incoming scuds are detected, remains to be seen, but the peace of mind generated by "Umbrella Protection" is probably worth the cost, military experts agree.

In addition to the Arrow missile defence system, Israeli Aircraft Industries also manufactures the Ofek and Amos surveillance satellites, the Barak sea-to-sea attack missile and other key weapons systems. Of particular interest to potential purchasers, including India, the surveillance satellites are specifically designed to identify small units of militant infiltrators, while retaining the capability of being re-programmed to cover large areas such as those in western Iraq; from which most of Saddam Hussein's Al Samoud (100 mile range) and Al Hussein (400 mile range) missiles are likely to be fired.

Recent developments in lazar technology--currently being tested at the US military's White Sands testing grounds in New Mexico--are also likely to see action in any upcoming Middle East conflict. On 5 November the US Army successfully shot down an incoming artillery shell in mid-flight with a high-energy laser. According to TRW Inc, the company working on the contract, the laser tracked, locked onto, and then fired a burst of concentrated light energy photons at the speeding shell. "Seconds later, at a point well short of its intended destination, the projectile was destroyed," a spokesman at the Army's Space and Missile Defence Command stated. Adding "tactical high energy lasers have the capacity to change the face of the battlefield," the US military confirmed that although the laser was fired from a static test bed in a carefully controlled programme, they looked forward to producing a truly mobile version in relatively short order.

"This shoot-down shifts the paradigm for defensive capabilities. We have shown that even an artillery projectile hurtling through space at supersonic speed is no match for a defensive laser," Army Lt. General Joseph Cusumano, head of the missile defence command, boasted.

The Mobile Tactical High Energy Laser (MTHEL) used in the White Sands test is being developed by TRW for the US Army and the Israeli defence ministries. Such lasers have been used in the past to shoot down Katyusha rockets similar to those fired at Israel by the militant Hizbullah group operating in southern Lebanon. In earlier 2001 tests, the test-bed laser focused on the Russian made rockets and demonstrated its ability by shooting down 25 Katyushas fired singly, and in salvos. This was of great interest to an IDF faced with recent increases in Hizbullah's capability, since some 3000 of the longer range Katyushas are now believed to be in the Islamic group's arsenal. US military personnel are already equipped with Infrared night scopes for close-in night fighting, but recent developments in miniaturized TV technology are being rushed into production for possible street fighting warfare in Baghdad. Now being delivered, solid state miniaturised TV cameras are being fitted to the latest versions of the standard M16 assault rifle. These will enable troops to see around the corner of a wall without exposing themselves to enemy fire. Such a capability will be invaluable if the war takes the form of grinding street-fights, the ability to shoot around corners without being exposed is certain to have a major impact on US morale.

Miniaturised track-driven robots called Hermes, Professor and Fester are now also being war-tested in Afghanistan's cave complexes. Three foot long by one foot high and operated from a remote-controlled unit worn like a flak jacket, the miniaturised `tunnel rats' can be guided down a street or alleyway via video camera to seek out ambushing troops. Armed with a grenade launcher or 12-gauge shotgun, its armaments can be remotely fired once the operator pinpoints the targets through his viewfinder. As with most of the new fighting vehicles, the concept is that equipment can be replaced, the life of a single soldier being of far more value.

The expected Iraqi war is only weeks away, experts believe. Fought almost entirely by American troops, with a smattering of British support, some 200,000 to 250,000 troops are expected to be involved and stealth technology is expected to play a big part. In the opening air campaign, reported to last some 30 days, US B-1 and B-2 stealth bombers carrying 16 and 24 one-ton satellite-guided bombs respectively, would attack a range of targets from military headquarters to air defences. How much the new technology has changed the face of war can be gauged by the fact that over 60% of bombs to be dropped will be precision-guided munitions, as opposed to only 9% during the previous Gulf War. "This will allow more effective bombing with fewer aircraft," US military officials claim. Special Forces with sophisticated night vision and communications equipment will also be used to seize strategic targets prior to the bulk of US forces engaging the enemy. The upcoming `mother of all battles' will prove whether such hi-tech electronic gadgetry is capable of swinging the tide in favour of the US military in heavy street-by-street fighting. The question many military experts are asking themselves is whether all the electronic wizardry will help, or hinder, in the fast-moving scenario of vicious house-to-house fighting where the will of the individual soldier has always been the overriding criteria? Even more important: will such modern equipment minimise Iraqi civilian casualties? With the stark pictures of dead Palestinian women and children slaughtered in the Jenin refugee camp still fresh, is the world ready for even more pictures of murder and mayhem from the Middle East? Iraqi president Saddam Hussein has said the battle for Baghdad will prove to be America's graveyard.

With modern war technology taking a quantum leap in the years between the first Gulf War and the looming combat, it will be interesting to see whether American hi-tech will have the decisive effect expected, particularly when the fighting gets `down and dirty'. At the end of the day, casualties are casualties, no matter whether their wounds are inflicted from close-up, or afar.