Take this with at least a grain of salt, probably more, and recognize that you're reading an English translation from Spanish of news items taken from Russian media and translated from Russian into Spanish.
Still, after all those caveats, and remembering the penchant of Russian leaders for hyperbole, this report has an ominous ring to it:
The Russian Military Complex (RMC)successfully applies nanotechnology in the production of weapons andwar materials, informed the government vice president, Serguei Ivanov.
Ivanov added that this field ofscience can radically change the character of war and added that theworks of RMC will be completely financed.
Recently the director of theNanotechnology Center of the Energy Institute of Moscow AndreiAlexeyenko affirmed that the specialty can "intelligently" destroymobile targets, including combat tanks.
Alexeyenko explained that devices less than one millimeter can be used to form a cloud of any size and power of destruction.
Moscow is investing over 1.1billion dollars on the rapid development of nanotechnology to achieveleadership in the world market, added Russia television channel.
Over the years, we have written extensively on this blog and elsewhere about the realistic expectation that Russia will invest heavily in nanotech, putting much of that effort into military aims, and quite possibly starting a serious program to develop molecular manufacturing.
The same could be said for the United States, China, India, and perhaps several other countries. What does all this mean for the future of warfare and for the cause of peace and tranquility? Only time will tell, but the early indicators do not look promising.
[Hat tip: Nanotechnology Now]
Mike Treder
IEET Blog