Military uses of superhumans?

So I've seen discussion on the realistic application of a lot of other sci fi technology but never superhumans.

A world currently working on has a lot of transhumanism going on and I wondered exactly how useful these sort of individuals would be. What factors would affect their use and what sort of uses could they have?

Assuming they aren't prohibitively expensive but are too unreliable to mass produce, and can have a variety of abilities do they have any realistic uses? What powerlevel would they have to reach to compensate for their difficulty in production and limited number and what abilities would be worth going to that effort to produce?

My current thought is that they would be almost useless in direct warfare where increased numbers of enemies would counter any advantage they had (unless they were incredibly powerful) however maybe they could useful in specialist roles, or alongside traditional military. If used in a special forces role or as spies/ assassins they might have uses.

See Darker Than Black in regards to that last statement. It's already been done.

edited 31st Mar '14 5:23:33 PM by shiro_okami

It would very likely be on a case by case basis. It would depend on the individual super humans powers and how potent those powers are. It would also depend on the situation for which they may be used.

Hmm, this topic reminded me of a part of the background info of my own story.

So in my story there is an empire based off of ancient China that has banned a specific form of magic.

The reason for this apparently relates to a major civil war fought between a rebellion consisting of warmages and the majority of the non-Magic empire. The fast forward to current day where the only military application of magic is in improving the strength and stamina in military personnel.

Text documents teaching one to manipulate nature (e.g. to generate fire from one's palm) are mostly destroyed save for a few copies in government archives. People with such knowledge in their memory have to be registered with the state and have their careers closely monitored so as to prevent other potential magic users from learning such knowledge.

So yeah, this faction's military places a ceiling on how powerful a person can be. If one is too powerful, the person shouldn't be taught how to fight lest that person go rogue.

They don't even have to have spectacular superpowers to be extremely effective. The fact that they'd be tested, trained and indoctrinated practically from birth would be a major advantage to any military willing to go that far (or able to go that far without a massive shitstorm breaking loose, killing a lot of careers and probably sending a few people into prison too).

Well that's the problem that happened in my story.

The warmages were raised from a very young age to fight wars using magic that altered nature. It is when one of them realized that all of them have no future outside of war and that individual started a mutiny that eventually turned into a fullblown rebellion.

The practice was discontinued after the rebellion was quelled. Magic users who can altered their environment were no longer allowed in the armed services.

edited 31st Mar '14 8:48:23 PM by Worlder

In my world, magic users are usually prohibited from joining kingdom vs. kingdom conflicts. The possibility of starting a full-blown battle between the gods is just too terrifying.

On the other hand, when they are allowed to join, they tend to take roles based on their patron deity. Isska's few human clergy are oftentimes about the rank of a lieutenant colonel, being used as battlefield officers and support troops, specializing in combat magic to augment their physical abilities. Karisza's folowers (goddess of archery) and Blaize's followers (teleportation, though they're mostly goblins) are used for infiltration and wetwork. Yahainan's (Nature, followers can sometimes shapeshift) followers are in great demand as scouts. Nevin and Arley's clergy are the only ones suited for what we usually think of as battle magic, since they are the gods of the earth and fire, respectively.

I think the Metal Gear Solid series shows how this would play out. (The Last Days Of Foxhound as well, in a more mundane setting. You have to ask, how do these superhumans prank each other?) There's also Pumpkin Scissors and, for a certain value of 'superhuman', the Artificial Newtypes from Mobile Suit Gundam and After War Gundam X...

It's kind of a bad idea to pin tactics to any one or other soldier - that soldier dies, then the whole plan falls apart. The whole point of a standard, non-guerrilla military is interoperability; you want a certain redundancy. Also, unless they're carbon copies of each other with 'off' switches, I don't really see them working well in a firefight.

On the other hand, superhuman intellect and long-range psychic powers - anything that's 'non-direct' - are useful anywhere. The question then becomes, what is the military offering them that they can't get as private contractors? It certainly ain't good pay.

Ignoring this, it depends on how much cheaper it is to build, train, and pay a stealth agent than it is to build a half-dozen cruise missiles. You save something in being able to reuse the asset, but what kind of person ends up being on the payroll, who can function as something more powerful on their own than several cruise missiles.

But justifying all this is your job, as a storymaker. In a setting where there are no Weapons Of Mass Destruction, then superpowers would be unbelievably useful. Imagine the (US, since I don't know where you're from) Revolutionary War being fought by a lightning-powered Ben Franklin against a hydro-kinetic Cornwallis - the rank-and-file really shouldn't show up, so what do you do with them?

A lot of the points you have made are very relevant to the world I'm building. Without going into too much detail the world is split between a number of groups of corporations with a light cyberpunk feel. Although large weapons of mass destruction don't exist war could lead to devastation on both sides(just slower than with nukes)so there is a cold war like scenario.

The corporations have created everything from standard super soldiers to pschics. Although there are a lot of incentives to cooperate (and most who become superhumans are volunteers) there isn't really a choice. They aren't expensive to make but most of the tech is unreliable and could kill the volunteer if it fails so the corps don't want to waste good soldiers. Only the most skilled and psychologically suited people are even considered.

There is no such thing as an average superhuman, the process and abilities can vary and so do the individual's personalities. They are intended to work in small groups (3/4) and not to fight where they might be outnumbered by a real military. Most don't start out as particularly powerful but each faction has a number of superhumans whose purpose is to hunt others so those that survive have the skill and personality to back up their abilities- I guess the closest comparison in terms of power would be mid range superheroes.

Their unpredictable abilities are considered a positive. They are hard to detect and have a lot of potential abilities so it keeps the enemy on their feet. No one really knows the full capabilities of the other side although they have a rough idea from the superhumans they have seen. Many aren't secret as the corps like to present the more charismatic ones as heroes to inspire their unhappy populations- of course this often involves the individual putting up a front, being a living weapon isn't as glamorous as it sounds.

edited 1st Apr '14 5:55:24 PM by aoide12

Do you have an upper limit in mind for these superpowers, or how many an individual can have, or if Required Secondary Powers counts towards that? A Flying Brick with flight and durability, but otherwise normal strength, for example. Useful for scouting and maybe sniping, or just plain ol' minesweeping. Someone who Talks To Animals or commands squirrels would be that world's Nick Fury... Given the setting, I suggest not going above the 'Metal Gear Solid threshold', where a single team of Plusnoids can take and hold a single area the size of a base, but not in the face of a concentrated effort.

Did you have a reason lined up for why there aren't any nukes? Were they made and disposed of (a Superman 4 situation wouldn't hurt), or was the tech to do so never followed up on in this world (in which case you'd have to explain what power source is taking the place of nuclear).

I'm not aware of the capabilities of metal gear soldiers but from your description it sounds about right. A group of 4/5 could probably take small outposts or a medium sized warship, but they couldn't hold either position against anything but light resistance. Their capacity heavily depends on there environment- in an open fire fight they aren't much more useful than normal soldiers, in a situation where they can take on the enemy in smaller groups they improve. Aside from the generic super soldiers who are just a bit better at everything most are very specialised, one might be super strong but beyond that he is just a normal soldier (albeit very well equipped and trained). If they were to ever be used in real war it would be as specialists with normal military back up such as a telepath accompanying normal soldiers in an attack. I'm also considering making it that most have some kind of enhanced healing factor (most probably nanotech) which makes them heal much faster- they still die just as easily but anything which doesn't kill them is healed much faster and nothing short of cutting something off has any permanent effect.

Most are either specialists at one role with a number of low level abilities tailored to suit it (e.g. extensive cybernetics granting improved strength, reflexes and toughness) or have one major ability with the bare minimum of secondary powers to make it work, such as being able to shapeshift into anything humanoid.

Nuclear technology exists and is very common as a power source but it was discovered in a very different situation. The world has only experienced one world war which occurred much more recently and technology was much further ahead. Nuclear power was discovered long before this and its consequences fully understood before the war even started, the knowledge of how nuclear power worked spread before the idea of weaponising it was even considered. The theory of how to create nukes is known but it is generally considered a bad idea and all the factions are keen to ensure no one tries it. Biological and chemical weapons, which have become advanced to fill the gap, (although they can't produce the same instant destruction of a nuke) rendered large areas uninhabitable due to their use in the world war which is still a major problem today so no one is keen to add radiation to problem.

edited 3rd Apr '14 1:48:00 PM by aoide12

It's kind of a bad idea to pin tactics to any one or other soldier - that soldier dies, then the whole plan falls apart. The whole point of a standard, non-guerrilla military is interoperability; you want a certain redundancy. Also, unless they're carbon copies of each other with 'off' switches, I don't really see them working well in a firefight.

The Yangban in Worm solved that problem by getting someone whose power was to pool other powers among multiple people, thus letting every soldier get a small share of every power.

Oh, that's a good way to do it. Cloud computing, but with superpowers. No one's so powerful that they will rely on it, necessarily forcing a plan B or C when that one Spreader is disabled.

Aoide 12 - I'm going to sound like I'm backpedaling here, but I wouldn't completely remove nukes from the equation, unless the Plusnoid Initiative specifically grew from a desire to avoid making them. The reasoning you give is too sound and logical to coexist with human nature, if that makes any sense, and brings up the question of why the other weapons get used at all.

The advantage of 'conventional' weapons is their precision, at least compared to Atomic, Bio, and Chemical weapons (as we currently know them). I think the same would be true for the Plusnoids.

The origin of the superhumans is as a way of deal a significant amount of incredibly precise damage. They are much more controllable than nuclear weapons but unlike conventional weapons (drones, missiles, ect..) they can't be easily stopped by defense systems and they are able to do a range of tasks.

I can see where you are coming from. I feel the extremely logical approach isn't too out of place because the factions involved are all continent sized supercorporations rather than traditional countries. They aren't ruled by ideological leaders but by rich elites, who have much more to lose if nuclear war breaks out. Nuking the enemy at this point is really pointless because the only reason they are fighting is over each others land. No one has enough of an advantage to scare the others into rash behaviour and if they nuke the enemy they make their territory useless. Nukes could foreseeably appear if one faction starts losing but right if any faction developed nuclear weapons all the others would gang up on them (currently there are loose agreements but really everyone is ready to betray everyone else). The difference between chemical/bio weapons and nukes is that the former are basically harmless to the rulers. Even a direct attack on one of their cities from a chemical or bioweapon is unlikely to penetrate the elites' bunkers, it might kill some citizens but the guys in charge aren't too concerned about that. On the other hand nuking a city will kill everyone since their nuclear technology is enough to make any kind of bunker obsolete.

edited 7th Apr '14 3:51:02 PM by aoide12

How would they not profit from a massive or total war, is the next question I think. You go into war because you either have something to gain by fighting, or too much to lose through not fighting, and the problem with a cyberpunk world is that these still apply to corporations. So there's another reason why they don't go to war, some other justification that is neither moral nor monetary.

('Neither Moral Nor Monetary' would make a pretty good band name, I think. )

So here's what I think - there's another power working behind the scenes. The human world is just dancing in its palm, to borrow a phrase. That power allows the corporations and people and militaries to go about their merry business, but doesn't like the idea of ABC weapons being used. I'm not thinking a god or anything, but more along the lines of a Skynet-type entity.

...which is all kinda silly, and doesn't explain more than 'the Plusnoids are more useful and reusable' would.

Now that I have had some time to think about it. Perhaps the best way this could work is if they could consistently give folks certain powers within certain useful ranges.

This way they can be more generally useful if they can more accurately produce certain varieties of powers.

edited 10th Apr '14 4:30:57 PM by TuefelHundenIV

My justification for not having the war is simply the risk of losing. No group is powerful enough to give them a significantly higher chance of victory and while there is big financial gain to be had if they win, if they start to lose they risk the others turning on them. If one faction becomes weak enough to be engulfed by one or multiple others it would be completely destroyed. They don't trust or value each other enough to form long term alliances so they are all manoeuvring around each other trying to do the maximum amount of damage without extending themselves too far.

And besides, to a certain point of view, it's not a war so much as an extremely aggressive merger.

Stepping away momentarily from military uses superhumans, I'd like to bring up the Giant Robo OVA. There, the 'Experts' are a police force and crime syndicate, and even the lowliest of mooks tend to have some sort of wire-fu style superpower. However, these powers all have a clear upper limit that necessitates the use of giant robots (Super Robot Wars Alpha and its 'Angel vs. Alberto the Shockwave' aside). Off the top of my head it's about the best depiction of how a world like what we've been discussing would work, outside of Cyberpunk.

I'm gonna give my two cents here, as this is a topic that actually is very important to my story, and thus I've invested in a lot of thought and research into it. As I'm not in the military, and I'm not well versed in anything military or tactical, I went to the Military and Tactical adviser for the SCP Foundation, and he gave me a LOT of valuable advice for my story. Mind, this is all coming from some random internet user, so take it with a grain of salt.

What I'll be elaborating in this post answers the OP's question in the context of modern warfare. If you're looking for something before World War One, or your story's style of warfare doesn't really match the criteria of modern warfare, I can't help you.

How would they be recruited?
Same as any other soldier that got suckered in by their recruiter. In other words, a mage's reasons for enlisting would probably be the same as any other muggle. The military may not pay as well as other jobs, but you have to understand that the military is a job, and a very prestigious one at that. If that still doesn't convince you, think of all the benefits that military service comes with: medicare, food, shelter, camaraderie, guns, along with the benefits that you get after you EAS, such as your Post 9/11 G.I. Bill, where the government practically pays you to go to school, or the fact that your military service looks really good on a resume, giving you a huge advantage when you're looking for a job, something that is crucial in the Post-Recession world. The military is very good at convincing people to sign on. Getting superhumans to enlist shouldn't be a problem. Hell, considering what my next point/section-of-this-post is, the military would devote huge amounts of resources to get them to sign up.

If your story's superpowers means that children need to be tested and trained at a young age, that's another place where the military can step in. How? A 'reverse' G.I. Bill, where the government would offer federal aid to a young superhuman in return for say, 8 years of active duty. All you need to do is sign the dotted line. What they learn depends on how your magical education is structured, but what I can say is that as they grow older, their education will become more and more military oriented, depending on their MOS. Although this will depend on your story, once they reach the level of a muggle high school education, along with finishing their magical studies, they would be shipped off to boot camp, probably at the age of 16-17.

As for the question of conscripting superhuman children...No. Going down that direction is the direction of mustache twirling. Parents would be utterly beside themselves at the idea of their young children being forced to join the military without any hope of any other future. Maybe even be ticked off enough to rebel against such a law. Conscription of children would probably wouldn't be tolerated in countries that do have mandatory conscription. Either way, it's something that wouldn't be tolerated, both by voters and the international community (If your story's international community is anything like Real life).

What is the utility of magic in warfare?
Let's take the most common example of the Combat Mage's magical combat ability: casting the fireball, and put it in the context of modern warfare.

Can your wizard cast a fireball? Probably, or he wouldn't be here in the first place. Now, can that wizard cast fireballs...constantly, never stopping, for over 24 hours? Even outside the context for my story, probably not, as that would make the plot too easy to resolve. Now think about how long it would take to train that wizard to chuck fireballs. And think about this: I could be taught how to use artillery in about two weeks, and be roughly at par with other artillerymen, not to mention be able to constantly rain down shells upon my enemy as long as my orders dictate that I do so. (Or until I run out of ammo.)

No. The superhuman's utility is not at being a human cannon or replacing the role of the artillery or tanks or the infantry. Those roles could be filled by regular people much more efficiently with technology and their own training. The role and the utility of the superhuman is in support.

A mage who can conjure up a telekinetic shield to protect his soldiers from bullets and fragments radically increases the survivability of the squad. A corpsman who can heal a sucking chest wound and get that soldier up on his feet pronto means that the squad doesn't have to call in a medevac. A soldier who can cast huge exploding fireballs at the enemy means that the squad doesn't have to radio in artillery fire or an air strike. Magic provides independence to the squad/section, making them more capable to take care of their own and complete the mission without the need of calling in additional help, especially in situations where doing so would be risky.

But this doesn't have to stop at the infantry. For example, a convoy cannot bring welding equipment with them because there isn't enough room for it...but good thing they have the mage around. She can just use her magic schtick if they need something welded. A person can be easily carried in a convoy, so now they have someone who can fix their shit. (If at a slower pace, but that's the drawback you get for having the ability to weld anything at all.) Everyone's happy.

This application of magical power, while generally being useful, is most useful if your story's warfare is similar to the one seen in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars: offensive operations done by soldiers heading "outside the wire" looking for the enemy. However, once you go past the squad-level tactics and into the huge battles involving entire battalions of soldiers on each side, the usefulness of the individual superpowered soldier diminishes, as they've just become another number to add to the hailstorm of bullets, shells and mortar fire. To go into detail: a single soldier's contribution in a small team means much more than a single soldier among a sea of soldiers.

Would there be superhuman officers?
While I guess you could, it would be a waste of power. Officers, especially the higher up the ladder you go, don't involve themselves outside the wire. Instead, they would be found behind a desk, and you don't need magic to type on a keyboard. Nay, the place where superhumans would have their biggest use would be in the ranks of the lower enlisted: the junior enlisted Lance Corporals, the NC Os. The guys who worry about if they're gonna be ambushed, the guys who have to take orders, and follow them, the guys who's job is to shoot the enemy, those are the people where you're gonna find superhumans doing their jobs.

If this explanation isn't adequate enough, then I highly suggest you research how the chain of command actually works, both in theory and in practice.

What about superhuamsn as spies/assassins/special forces?
...Nehh. In reality, stuff like James Bond doesn't exist. Instead, James Bond would be a desk jockeys, analyzing information behind computer screens, or some clerk in a distant country who is secretly emailing information to his handler. No, superhumans in the military would be infantry, tank crewmen, engineers, Explosive Ordinance Disposal, alongside scout snipers, Rangers, Navy SEALS, Recon, and Special Forces. Note that I say alongside, because superhumans, despite the 'super' moniker, are human. Not everyone has the guts, the physical aptitude, the skill, the mental fortitude and the experience to become a "spec ops mofo". As I have explained before, superpowers do not replace training or experience or the ability to qualify with your rifle at 500 meters. While yes, you would have the biggest, superpowered badasses in those groups, but not everyone will be. People will wash out, or not be able to become part of it for some reason. That happens, which is why you'd still have superhumans in the ranks of the normal infantry/whatever.

What about magic/super-abilities being flat-out banned for military use?
Well, while that's a possibility, you have to consider that the sheer amount of utility in magic would make any military practically trip over its heels in trying to implement and use such power, not to mention that governments (Especially ones such as America, Russia and China) would use all of their power and influence to make sure such ordinances do not pass within whatever higher international power/Fantasy United Nations your story has. Single countries banning the military use of magic would cripple and hinder their ability for the country to project their own power against other nations that do use magic.
This of course, wouldn't count if the magic in your story happens to be either the equivalent of nuclear weapons, or is a general Bad Idea, either because Magic Is Evil, or because the magic in your story causes Cthulhu to awake from his slumber and tear reality apart.

...This took way too time to type up. >_<

edited 27th Apr '14 6:45:33 AM by Tehpillowstar

A while back I wrote this nifty little post in response to a similar query. The post itself goes into much more detail, but the basic gist is that pretty much all military planning can be boiled down to common essential elements, and that different types of weapons only really ever change the variables you plug into the equations, not the equations themselves.

Most military operations are planned with a specific goal in mind, and the "top brass" typically assign special equipment and resources according to the operation's needs. (This is not to say that said plans are always perfect, of course...) To give a mundane "real world" example, having someone lugging along a big, bulky, difficult-to-conceal heavy machine gun is usually a bit counterproductive if the mission is supposed to be a quick, quiet, and stealthy recon mission to gather intelligence; it's better if you assign that machine gun to support the platoon that's going to assault the enemy defensive line on top of that nice big hill with the commanding view of the surrounding countryside.

edited 14th May '14 9:15:36 PM by Specialist290

Ooh Military/Magic sounds pretty cool. Project (Chaos Soldier) WW3 ;D