'The thing that's amazing to me is this was 3D-printed': Pentagon's SciTech supremo describes future of warfare where projectiles are made up of coconut husks and coffee grounds

• Pentagon science advisor Joseph Jewell weighs in on the Ukraine war and integrating AI and biotech mark a paradigm shift in how the US military sees future conflicts
• Marines recently 3D-printed shaped charges from coconut husks and coffee grounds that beat conventional explosives by 25%
• Department of Defense is also trying to speed up innovation in the industry by offering as many as 500 patents free of charge to private companies

The Russia-Ukraine war has been devastating in its impact for those directly affected by the conflict, which has now entered its fifth year as both sides trade blows in what many feel is a prolonged stalemate stemming in part from a lack of manpower.

The conflict, or rather its asymmetrical nature, however, has many modern militaries keeping a sharp eye on events as they showcase what the future of combat might look like between two warring nations.

The US Assistant Secretary of War for Science and Technology, Joseph S. Jewell, recently spoke at length during the Defense One tech summit about how information from the conflict and inroads in AI and biotechnology continue to shape modern warfare as we know it.

Production inroads, AI integration and a focus on biotechnology

The summit saw the Assistant Secretary address a host of topics, including insights into how the Russia-Ukraine conflict is playing out and the lessons the US must learn from the ongoing war.

He addressed the fact Ukraine essentially willed its entire drone industry into existence because it was key to its survival while essentially keeping Russia's navy at bay for most of the conflict despite not having a similarly equipped fighting force at sea.

The line that carries from him, however, might be about Marines repurposing coffee grounds and coconut husks to make 3D-printed shape charges for the battlefield.

This underscores an important change that has already taken place on the modern battlefield, as researchers and military personnel increasingly push the boundaries to find the best way to resupply and rearm while also making advances in lethality in some cases.

Coffee grounds and coconut husks were only the tip of the iceberg; the Marines also attempted the same with plastic water bottles and even crushed volcanic rock, noting that the latter worked best.

Jewell said the field-made charge had cut the time to point-of-use by 99%, because it could be produced on the spot from materials "endemic in the Indo-Pacific," and even more interestingly, it showed "25% better focusing characteristics than conventionally manufactured high explosives."

The underlying story isn't just about how field-made charges are saving an enormous amount of time and money on future battlefields, but how military doctrine has changed to include 'patent holidays' to increase access to tech and foster innovation, for better or worse, at least on the Pentagon's end over the last few years.

While his focus was on Ukraine, similar lessons have been learned by the US in its on-again, off-again conflict with Iran, where the latter has resorted to using low-cost but high-volume weapons, including drones and missiles, to effectively force a stalemate over the Strait of Hormuz, indicating that a paradigm shift is in order where the side with the best, or most 'efficient' weapons does not necessarily win.