interesting weapon
- Thread starter Al Wohlstrom
- Start date
Pete McCluskey.
Lifetime Supporter
I think you are on the money there Larry
Must be one hell of a sonic boom when this is fired.
Very interesting.. I had read about the rail gun earlier and see that it has promise.
But in my opinion, it may only be truly effective against stationary targets or targets that are manned. Many of today's missles have avoidance guidance built into them which would make a real chore for an uncontrollable missle like this to knock down.
They did say that it would be the end of the decade before it could be deployed. That seems an awfully long time to me and surely Russia will come up with some active defense means that they can/will sell to the Taliban, et al by then..
But in my opinion, it may only be truly effective against stationary targets or targets that are manned. Many of today's missles have avoidance guidance built into them which would make a real chore for an uncontrollable missle like this to knock down.
They did say that it would be the end of the decade before it could be deployed. That seems an awfully long time to me and surely Russia will come up with some active defense means that they can/will sell to the Taliban, et al by then..
Couldn't open the video but I'm getting that it's possibly very bulky with a high power requirement. I found it odd that the question of cost was prime argument and for the 'opposition' too. I figured that was the last thought going through anyone's mind when there was a job to be done - count the cost at the end so to speak...
Howard Jones
Supporter
Imagine attacking a Navy ship with modern fighters and have them shoot your wingman out of the sky and then start shooting at you with projectiles that are traveling at 5000 miles per hour far beyond your weapons standoff range. Then while you try to avoid them the Navy shoots a radar guided missile at you for good measure.
As somebody once said when discussing fighter tactics "ultimately, speed is everything" especially if the numbers of the faster opposing force are vastly larger. The Romans invented Calvary for just this reason. Force multiplication at lower cost is the holy grail of war planning.
The key to this system will be rate of fire. You can bet that it is the number one goal of the system design team once they knew the basic technology worked.
Cost is always in the equation. The Japanese general staff was prepared to expend millions of troupes and civilians lives in trade for 100's of thousands of US forces lives in order to repel an American invasion the 1945-46. This was the model that Stalin used to defeat the Germans. What do you think they though of that plan when they realized that the millions of lives that represented their war assets could be bought with a few US aircrews.
If that's too long ago just remember Star Wars. The Russians had something like 80% of their warheads on big rockets that when they delivered the warhead it was on a ballistic trajectory and although moving very fast could be intercepted given the technology. No one including them seriously believed the US couldn't achieve the necessary ability.
You can bet that the discussion in the kremlin very quickly landed on the COST of changing 20 years of ballistic missile development and deployment.
As somebody once said when discussing fighter tactics "ultimately, speed is everything" especially if the numbers of the faster opposing force are vastly larger. The Romans invented Calvary for just this reason. Force multiplication at lower cost is the holy grail of war planning.
The key to this system will be rate of fire. You can bet that it is the number one goal of the system design team once they knew the basic technology worked.
Cost is always in the equation. The Japanese general staff was prepared to expend millions of troupes and civilians lives in trade for 100's of thousands of US forces lives in order to repel an American invasion the 1945-46. This was the model that Stalin used to defeat the Germans. What do you think they though of that plan when they realized that the millions of lives that represented their war assets could be bought with a few US aircrews.
If that's too long ago just remember Star Wars. The Russians had something like 80% of their warheads on big rockets that when they delivered the warhead it was on a ballistic trajectory and although moving very fast could be intercepted given the technology. No one including them seriously believed the US couldn't achieve the necessary ability.
You can bet that the discussion in the kremlin very quickly landed on the COST of changing 20 years of ballistic missile development and deployment.
