Hypothetical Future War Scenario: The Cascade Conflict of 2034

Editor's note: In the mid-2030s, escalating tensions between major rival countries, call them the "Atlantic Alliance" and the "Eurasian Compact", erupt into open conventional conflict after a series of cyber intrusions and proxy clashes. A proxy clash like with what we are seeing with Britain's proxy war on Russia using Ukraine where drone and robotic technology are being experimented on and tested out. Neither side seeks full on kinetic escalation; both instead turn to swarms of AI-driven autonomous systems designed for precision infrastructure warfare.

Within the first 72 hours, each coalition deploys large numbers of long-range, low-observable drones and ground-based robotic platforms guided by real-time AI targeting networks. These systems do not require constant human control. They receive high-level objectives (disable enemy command-and-control capacity, degrade economic resilience, sever digital logistics) and then autonomously select and prosecute targets using satellite feeds, electronic intelligence, and on-board sensors.

Surface data centers become priority targets. They are highly visible, generate distinctive thermal and electromagnetic signatures, and serve as the backbone for everything from financial clearing systems and military logistics software to civilian cloud services and AI model inference. AI planners on both sides rank them alongside power substations, fiber-optic hubs, and water treatment plants.

In the opening phase, hypersonic glide vehicles and loitering munitions strike several large commercial and government data centers located in industrial parks and suburban campuses. Follow-on waves of smaller, cheaper AI-coordinated drone swarms exploit the resulting gaps: some drones carry kinetic payloads that puncture roofs and cooling infrastructure; others deploy directed-energy or electromagnetic effects that overheat server halls or scramble unshielded electronics. Robotic ground units, once corridors are cleared, move in to cut backup power lines, destroy generators, and sabotage remaining fiber links. The effects cascade rapidly. Banking systems freeze, military logistics networks lose real-time visibility, civilian communications degrade, and AI training clusters that rely on continuous high-bandwidth connectivity go offline. Because many of these facilities were built for efficiency and cooling rather than ballistic or swarm resilience, even partial hits render them unusable for weeks or months. Secondary fires and flooding from damaged cooling systems compound the damage.

After the initial exchanges, warring sides observe that surface and lightly hardened facilities cannot reliably survive sustained autonomous attack. Military and commercial planners draw the same conclusion: critical digital infrastructure must be moved underground or into deeply hardened subterranean complexes. New designs emphasize multi-story bunkers beneath existing buildings or purpose-built facilities dozens of meters below ground, with independent power, filtered air, electromagnetic shielding, and redundant fiber routed through protected conduits. The goal is continuity of service even under direct kinetic or electronic assault, exactly the logic already visible in earlier real-world underground cloud deployments built to survive rocket and missile threats.

In this hypothetical, the shift is not driven by abstract future-proofing but by the demonstrated vulnerability of above-ground data centers to AI-orchestrated, multi-domain strikes. Once the first wave of surface facilities are destroyed, the strategic premium on depth, physical resilience, and geographic dispersal becomes immediate and lasting.
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Oracle opens Israeli Cloud region in Jerusalem

Company becomes first hyperscaler to open a region in Israel, despite losing out on Nimbus contract

October 13, 2021 | By Dan Swinhoe

Oracle has opened a Cloud region in Israel.

The company has opened an underground data center in Jerusalem, and become the first hyperscale company to open a Cloud region in the country.

"Organizations and government bodies need to make a rapid transition to the cloud, and Oracle's new underground cloud area in Jerusalem allows that to happen," said Oracle CEO Safra Katz. "Israel is already today, not next month or next year."

Constructed by Bynet Data Communications, Oracle's Jerusalem data center is an underground facility inside a 14,000 sq m (460,000 sq ft) bunker located below five parking levels and a 17-story building in the city’s Har Hotzvim tech hub. The data center extends over four floors at a depth of 50 meters (160 feet) below ground level.

Oracle said the new Cloud area is housed in a "highly secure underground facility" that can provide security against physical attacks such as a missile attack.

"This facility ... can withstand a rocket direct hit, a missile direct hit, or even a car bomb, and the services will keep running with customers not even knowing that something so horrible has happened," Eran Feigenbaum, Oracle's Israel country manager, told Reuters.

This week Oracle said it plans to have at least 44 cloud regions by the end of 2022, including a second Israel region, but hasn’t confirmed where in the country. The company has said the facility will be another underground bunker data center.

"Oracle's plans to open a second Cloud area reflect our ongoing commitment to the State of Israel," said Eran Feigenbaum, CEO of Oracle Israel. "We have worked to provide Israel with the first Cloud from a large Cloud provider, and we will probably be the first cloud provider to have a second cloud area.”

Israeli data center regions have been announced by all the major US cloud players but Oracle was the first to announce plans for a local facility and the first to actually open one.

Please go to DCD to continue reading.

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As the weaponization of AI continues will these planned data centers on US military installations be constructed underground as the future of AI-driven drones and robots war on each other's "critical infrastructure" meaning data centers running the AI?

Pentagon Plans AI Data Centers at Military Bases Across Multiple Branches

Ah yes, that special alliance:

EXCLUSIVE: CIA Assessment Details Israel's Race to Make the U.S.-Israel Alliance Irreversible

The privatization of war:

'Order from Amazon': How tech giants are storing mass data for Israel's war

Oracle maintains deep, public ties to Israel through its Israeli-American leadership, underground data centers in Jerusalem, and repeated statements of support, while private equity firm Silver Lake shows only limited historical interest in Israel and more recent activity with UAE entities. Abu Dhabi-based MGX is a major AI and hyperscale investor that has poured capital into data centers and related infrastructure, creating indirect overlap with Amazon Web Services (AWS) facilities hosted in the Gulf. The Abraham Accords opened channels for UAE-Israel commercial and technology cooperation. Together these connections reflect genuine business and geopolitical alignments in regional cloud and AI infrastructure rather than a single coordinated effort, underscoring both the strategic value and physical vulnerability of surface data centers:

Satellite imagery reveals Amazon's data center was once again targeted by missiles from Iran.

Oracle CEO: "Some of the best people in the world are here in Israel, and there's no question about that"

Oracle's second data center in Israel will be nine floors below ground

TikTok investor: 'Embed the love and respect for Israel' in the US

More:

Powering up to 945 TWh by 2030

Hypothetical scenario: Fully autonomous pre-programmed AI algorithms running robots sent in to destroy and sabotage above ground critical infrastructure:

Good question: What exactly does Oracle do?