Mr. Greer reviews the very sporadic appearance of new weapons of war during the first three millennia of recorded military history. He contrasts this with the increasing frequency of new weapons in the most recent two centuries and the short time generally taken to develop those later weapons. The increased pace of technology improvement in several important categories of weapons is discussed and the sequence is concluded by a review of an extremely long development period of a recent weapon, the Osprey.

Mr. Greer reviews the very sporadic appearance of new weapons of war during the first three millennia of recorded military history. He contrasts this with the increasing frequency of new weapons in the most recent two centuries and the short time generally taken to develop those later weapons. The increased pace of technology improvement in several important categories of weapons is discussed and the sequence is concluded by a review of an extremely long development period of a recent weapon, the Osprey.