The price of precision bombing and missiles in the urban domain is immense for regional citizens. The United Nations has substantiated this by reporting that in Ukraine the Russian military has killed approximately 12,300 civilians and injured 27,800, since 2022 alone.
Approaching the quarter of a century marker, it is evident that “… the number of people 10 determined men can kill before they are put down themselves… [is] going up.” Maja Zehfuss notes this urban warfare trend in “Targeting: Precision and the production of ethics,” claiming “50 percent — of [precision] weapons fired… will [miss the target].” In other words, if drone operators were playing a game of darts, at the neighborhood pub, half their throws would miss the target board entirely. However, unlike in a game of darts, when an unmanned aerial vehicle is off target urban residents pay the price in bloodshed.
Throughout the next 75 years of the 21st Century, nations following liberal war principles might focus on correcting the meta-narrative of precision in the urban domain. Similar to America’s 1993 transition to drones, following the Battle of Mogadishu, modern technological advances in pharmaceuticals and machinery have the potential to open the gateway to the advent of super soldiers.
Pharmaceuticals and machinery will reinvent urban warfare through advanced soldiering in the next century and a half. This futuristic urban fighter approach might seem like science fiction at the moment; however, the dawn of the super soldier age presents the unique possibility of ensuring troop protection while also protecting innocent non-combatants from the effects of moral distance in the urban domain.
The enhancement of the pharmaceutical soldier is envisioned in Marvel Comics’ Captain America. While dramatized for theaters, the concept of the right Jan or John Doe being physically enhanced is the backbone of bodily pharmaceutical enhancement in the 21st Century.
This is evident in the implementation of “anabolic-androgenic steroids,” by the Australian government, as they pursue the concept of a “Gladiator Model” soldier.
Developing technologies, such as CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing, while ethically and morally questionable, could also open the door to pharmaceutically enhanced soldiers from birth. This is a pandora’s box that should arguably be kept closed for militaries. However, while questionable, governments playing God is not necessarily outside the realm of possibility in the 21st Century.
Studies into telomeres and aging could also play a pivotal role in the pharmaceutical soldier. By positively “[affecting] how quickly cells age,” a soldier’s prime combat years might last longer. Thus, telomere advancement might also increase super soldiers’ combat longevity and grant them more urban domain experience.
The idea of the pharmaceutical soldier stretches beyond brawn though. Cognitive enhancers, adapted for the screen, in the television series Limitless, can also add dynamic complexities to how pharmaceutical super soldiers are tactically employed in the urban domain. With mental medical advancements formulated, French General Bernard Barrera expounded that enhanced battlefield perception, increased endurance, and amplified reaction time are all impacts that cognitive enhancers could have on new-aged pharmaceutical soldiers. In moving forward with pharmaceutical developments, ethical considerations must pave the way as scientists work with militaries to make the urban domain safer for all.
While revolutionary in itself, the advent of the super soldier is likely to encompass more than solely pharmaceuticals. As depicted in Edge of Tomorrow, exoskeleton mechanical advancements have been ongoing for decades. Lockheed Martin’s technological developments in “Onyx Exoskeleton” substantiate that America is knee-deep in exoskeleton armor research.
In addition to Lockheed Martin’s exoskeleton; innovations in nanotechnology by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, smart glasses by Atlas and Apple, jet engine body suits by Gravity’s Daedalus, and artificial intelligence by big-tech companies might signal the dawn of the Iron Man exoskeleton age by the end of the 21st Century.
Pharmaceutical soldiers and exoskeleton armor are arguably the most likely avenues for super soldier innovation. However, neural link technology, cyborgs, and clones cannot be ruled out for new-era urban warfare combat. If successfully implemented, Elon Musk’s neural link would theoretically enhance soldiers’ mental capabilities by invasively infusing computer technology into the human brain. While ethically questionable, Musk’s concept would potentially make soldiers super intelligent through cyborg mental implants. Through noninvasive means, Johns Hopkins University’s brain-computer interface would also revolutionize the human body’s relationship with technology in warfare, specifically with weaponry prosthetics. In this concept, an arm could be mechanized for super strength or projectile capabilities.
With such dynamic options on the horizon, the most transformational technological evolution to secure the urban domain might be the emergence of cyborg-esk clones. With the advent of cloned dogs, the concept of clone soldiers, depicted in the Star Wars film series, is not inconceivable within the next 75 years.
Creating deep and impactful ethical dilemmas, clones raised to fight for us in the place of natural humans, that are infused with pharmaceutical and technological implants, might be the most advanced step in the super soldier process.
In conclusion, the advent of the super soldier provides a multidimensional approach to stopping indiscriminate violence against civilians in the urban domain. However, while an outside-the-box approach to a devastating issue, the super soldier concept is Pandora’s box. By pursuing this path, super soldiers may emerge as highly advanced and difficult for enemies to kill, while also providing true precision in combat. On the flip side, this advancement comes at a human cost for soldiers about to be technologically adapted.
Many questions emerge in this field of inquiry. Such questions include, but are not limited to; is it ethical to mutate people into weapons? Will pharmaceutically and technologically advanced super soldiers be allowed to return home autonomously? Should humans be playing God with genetics? Is there a way to detach the technology from the super soldier? Is cloning and cloning to create instruments of war ethical? Are we losing what it means to be human for the illusion of total security? Will super soldiers help or hurt the urban domain? Is it wise to send advanced soldiers into a foreign populous given the historical abuses armies can unleash on the local citizenry? What if AI cyborg super soldiers turned on humanity?
With these factors in mind, it is evident that humanity is on the precipice of entering a brave new world in the decades to come. As humanity tinkers with this horizon, ethics must lead the conversation of any debate. As the world explores this wild-west, humanity must maintain what it means to be human in pursuit of a safer world.
I am a Gettysburg College student double majoring in IDS Emerging Threats in National Security and Political Science. I am also a double minor in History and Peace & Justice Studies. Working with the Potomac Institute for Public Policy’s International Center for Terrorism Studies, I am an Executive Intern.