>total wars between powers with strong industrial/technological capability and >crazy weaponized computer security exploits and rushed autonomous weapon platf

>total wars between powers with strong industrial/technological capability and >crazy weaponized computer security exploits and rushed autonomous weapon platforms deployed within weeks or months. I think that's what GP is alluding to. We have seen plenty of conflict, but not the kind that drives the most significant innovation in weapons technology. In the unfortunate event of total war between great powers today, I'm sorry, but I wouldn't count on your country's weapons research programs having "weeks" or "months" to come up with new devices. Days is more likely. Unless you're dealing with hot headed leaders who don't use the natural pauses to deescalate. In which case you would have maybe hours if you're lucky. I'll go ahead and make the disclaimer that I am ex-military, but this is not American military bravado talking. This is just the reality of total war by any other great nation on the United States Military. The same truth holds for total war on the militaries of the EU, or of Russia, or of China. Nowadays, total war between great powers will drive a great deal of change, but it's not likely to drive a whole lot of high tech weapons innovation. This is just the environment we live in today. Total war is generally, (assuming you're not insane), out of the question. Proxy, Cold, and Information wars are about all you can really do while protecting our current way of life.