Part 6
Implications for
Defence
The quest for advantage over adversaries has been the driver for the development of
military platforms and technologies. The Biotech age, with human augmentation as a key
component, will see focus on the human platform grow to match that of the machine.
Part 6 uses the Defence capability framework of prepare, project, engage, sustain, direct,
protect and inform to discuss what human augmentation could mean for Defence out to
2050.
Prepare
Civil-military collaboration will be vital. Relationships with industry and academia will
be key to understanding how emerging human augmentation technologies could
be repurposed or developed for Defence. Although not necessarily a model that
Western defence organisations would wish to replicate, China’s human augmentation
experimentation is being led by the People’s Liberation Army Academy of Military Science.
The United States Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) prominent
role in the ‘innovation ecosystem’ is another example of how Defence organisations could
foster more mutually supportive links with industry. Early civil-military cooperation will
enable Defence to stay at the forefront in this rapidly evolving field.
Human augmentation is bringing about a securitisation of the life sciences, a field
which has relied on a culture of openness and collaboration. Unlike nuclear physics or
cryptography, human augmentation-related sciences have relatively little experience of
classified research and its links with national security apparatus are less developed. The
relationship between Defence and the life sciences will need to be revised as the dual-use
of emerging human augmentation technologies becomes clear. Governments will need to
work with the scientific community to establish a framework that safeguards and supports
national security without undermining collaboration. This will also apply to relationships
with other government departments responsible for health and social care, who are
beginning to gather data and use technologies that may be the target of malign actors.^42
Recruiting. Entry standards and screening processes will need to account for an
expected increase in the use of human augmentation within society. This could be as
simple as a declaration but trying to determine which human augmentation interventions
have implications for a Service career is likely to be complicated. Defence will need
increasingly skilled personnel and recruiting them will be difficult. Although, as human
augmentation technology improves, it could enable more people to join the military,
widening the pool of potential recruits.
42 See BBC Radio 4 Analysis, (2020), ‘The NHS, AI and Our Data’. This podcast discusses how medical
data may be accessed or stolen by potential adversaries seeking to understand more about the biology of
the UK population.