Impact of emerging technologies on the future of SSBNs*

The conference, hosted by British Pugwash, BASIC and Leicester University, brought together experts from the science, technology, academic, defence and security communities, civil society and industry to explore the nature and potency of evolving new technologies, how they may shape future warfare, particularly for the undersea battle space, what strategic challenges they will present and how might they be countered. The conference built on the British Pugwash Workshop held in May 2016. The workshop included seventeen scientists, technical experts and academics from the US and UK who assessed current and emerging undersea technologies, their likely future direction of travel, and the implications of developments in sensing, computing and communications for the undersea battle space. The workshop concluded that: 'It is clear that the trend is towards increasing transparency in the undersea environment. The goal of those developing marine robotics, sensing and communications techniques is to be able to map and to be able to sense the entire ocean in the next five to ten years. This ability will impact very significantly on the ability of submarines to maintain the advantage of stealth. However, we do not know how long it will be before this advantage is fully compromised, who will get there first and whether effective and deployable countermeasures can be developed.' The conference looked at this in further detail and at the wider impact on the international security environment.