How has radar and sonar impacted world history?

Answer 1

Radar and sonar have radically altered the way that wars are fought. War seems to be the first arena where new technologies are tried. Casualties in the Civil War were so horrific because that conflict was largely fought with rifles using Minie balls, instead of smoothbore muskets. They had the range and accuracy of a rifle, and were almost as fast to reload as the old smoothbore musket, which was pretty much a gamble as far as hitting a target on purpose. The tactics, however, didn't change. So, you had men marching in large groups across open fields while being shot to pieces by rifleman. That war changed how wars were fought, or should have. Radar has made it nearly impossible for an enemy to perpetrate a sneak air raid on our soil. It also makes it possible to track and direct large numbers of warplanes, or civilian air traffic. The air war during the Gulf War was probably the largest air traffic control problem in history. If not for radar, the density of aircraft in the sky would have led to many crashes. Sonar makes it possible to detect enemy submarines or ships without exposing the craft that is doing the listening. This makes targeting and evasive action much more likely to be successful. By influencing which military force prevails, these technologies have had a large influence on contemporary history. And that's not even counting how sonar has helped bats and whales for centuries.