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Subject: What's the next uber destructive weapon?
HYPOCENTER    1/2/2007 9:57:06 PM
The nuclear bomb is soooooooo last millennium. What kind of new wonder weapons are on the drawing board? What will be the next uber weapon? I know this is like asking someone to try and envision the nuclear bomb in 1919...because weapon designs are limited by the limitations of human knowledge. ... no one in 1919 had any idea or could comprehend. Still, it's in interesting question... I believe the next "uber weapon" will be one of two things: A 100% electronic-based bomb. A weapon which destroys all electronics it comes into contact with. It would have almost zero "blast" effects. In other words, it can detonate next door and wouldn't hurt me.... but it would fry the outta everything electronic in my town. A bomb as powerful as a nuclear bomb, but not "nuclear" and not based on conventional explosives. Something which is able to create the destructive pressure waves given by a nuclear blast.
 
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Herald1234       1/3/2007 3:39:04 PM
Gravitation is 1/100,000 of the electromagnetic influence. Why would you try to modulate it for anything besides detection asnd propulsion?

The influences you want to master for bombmaking are the strong and weak nuclear influences. master those and matter disintegrates with either a big boom or no boom at all.

Herald

 
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DarthAmerica       1/3/2007 4:24:17 PM
Anyone envision a DEP (Directed Energy Weapon), that sits in Earths orbit and can, with pinpoint accuracy -- kill a target?
I could write the specificationn right now. Trouble is we don't have the technology yet to build one and won't for at least twenty years.
For instance.... we're tracking a group of men in a city..... we want to kill one of them. Imagine a laser beam instantly striking him for no longer than a second and is able to burn a hole through his chest -- killing him instantly. Something like that would be like having the power of God.
You won't have that kind of precision, ever. As for being godlike? No thank you. Being a reasonably moral human being is hard enough.
What kind of effect would lasers/DEP have on the ozone? I imagine there'd be some difficulty there... and I wonder if they would burn holes into the ozone?
Temporary reinforcement of the layer actually.



Herald






20 years? My best guess is more like 5 to 10 years and that assumes we don't have something in the black world that could already do it. I don't mean targeting a specific person. But to send a beam up then relay it back down to a specific point on Earth. Thats already been done.


DA



Done to the moon and back, DA, a long time ago. But nobody has weaponized it yet for good reasons. That we covered elsewhere.
 

Herald


Herald,

I agree with your points(99%). Where I see slight differences in our opinions is in how long it would take before we could field operational weapons systems. I freely admit to being an optimist and sometimes overly so. From our discussion I gather your estimate to be in the 20+ year range while I see it "within 20 years" and possibly sooner. Its a minor point of disagreement considering that could, would and funding probably meet somewhere around the ~20 year mark. In my previous post I only wanted to point out that the capability has been demonstrated in the test environment. Whether or not its practical in an operational sense is a different matter.


DA
 
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kensohaski       1/3/2007 4:32:38 PM
Darth,
 
DEW weapons require a boatload of power? That seems to be a major stumbling block.  How in the world will this be solved?  Just a question of course.
 
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DarthAmerica       1/3/2007 4:46:24 PM

Darth,

DEW weapons require a boatload of power? That seems to be a major stumbling block.  How in the world will this be solved?  Just a question of course.

Actually, some of the power issues for the "less spectacular" suggestions have been resolved. Take a look at THEL, Zeus, Vigilant Eagle and Active Denial. Heck, go to wickedlasers.com and see some subscale lasers do their magic! Killing missiles, planes, rockets and artillery are already possible in lab/experimental environments. Current R&D suggest power levels are capable of being scaled up many times. The problem is doing these things at operationally useful ranges reliably. Issues such as blooming and jitter ect. still present challenges.  Today, we have bullets, rockets and bombs who's technology is mature and much more effective across the board. But give it time to mature and you will see longer ranged more destructive DEWs.

DA
 
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Herald1234       1/3/2007 5:28:49 PM
Actually if we could produce an explosive magnetic flux compression generated round  that we use like a artillery shell we could fire a laser pulse or a particle bolt from a useful emitter that would behave like a auto cannon in its basic feed and discard ammunition function. For example a ECFC MASER of 10e12 joules shot could very well generate the artillery level effects we want out of our DEW weapons today. The big problem is making a round that would, be cheap enough, powerful in its explosively compressed flux capacitance effect, and NOT destroy either the ECFC shell or the rather large cannon barrel equipped with final focus and alignement magnets into which we feed it.

Once the ECFC shell is ejected, we would like to repack it with more explosive and install another explosively compressed flux capacitor.

Our objective I can see in twenty years is something the size of a 20L200centimeter-sized ECFCshell. That would be USEFUL.

And that is the route that is logical for us to pursue for a very high-powered sustained-fire DEW beam/bolt weapon.

Herald

 
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rockymtnclimber    No ABM required!   1/3/2007 5:39:52 PM
 
I want to add one thing to my reply to you. While I feel that we COULD DO a laser weapon similar to the one described within 5 to 10 years. Whether we WOULD DO it due to funding priorities and perceived need is not on the same time line.

DA

We would not need missles in Alaska then would we? Just smoke those inbounds with a beam. Should we be spending more in that direction?
 
Check Six
 
Rocky
 
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DarthAmerica    Rocky Reply...   1/3/2007 6:26:28 PM

 

I want to add one thing to my reply to you. While I feel that we COULD DO a laser weapon similar to the one described within 5 to 10 years. Whether we WOULD DO it due to funding priorities and perceived need is not on the same time line.

DA

We would not need missles in Alaska then would we? Just smoke those inbounds with a beam. Should we be spending more in that direction?

Check Six

Rocky

Ideally we want a layered defense. Assuming the lasers would even work as the evidence suggest once the technical difficulties are overcome. Lasers would give us the ability to shoot down missiles in the boost phase and possible even on the ground in enemy territory with a high probability of success. The current GBI missiles would still be viable for terminal phase intercepts of leakers which adds redundancy. I suspect that considerable funding is being applied to DEWs and most of that is probably classified. As you know the USA and other nations have hidden weapons and technology programs so as not to tip off a potential threat of our actual capability. One potential flaw with any space based weapon in inaccessibility. It takes considerable effort and cost to make repairs and/or modifications on a system in orbit. If we had a SBL and its operational characteristics were understood enough for an enemy to develop effective counter measures. We could face a serious risk during the time it took for our side to counter the counter measures. A weapon(SBL and other DEWs) like this are still new or in development and we would not want to risk a compromise at this stage. Also the reality of cost means that the first systems may be limited in scope.

Sort of like the F-117. Small, operationally limited, kinda short legged and rather puny armament. But its secrecy and high technology put it out of reach for even the most sophisticated opponents such that it had disproportionate affects on the battlefield when used. As stealth technology has become more main stream and somewhat available to less capable militaries we are starting to see some countermeasures appear. Those countermeasures are still relatively limited and ineffective. But thats only because of the careful attention to operational security imposed by the DoD. Also, now that countermeasures have appeared newer more modern stealth techniques are entering operational service thus keeping our edge. We should follow the same strategy with our DEWs especially since they readily lend themselves to stealthy operational use.

Having said all that the GBI will be an important redundant capability against limited ballistic missile threats that we would be be likely to face well into the future.


DA
 
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Jeff_F_F       1/14/2007 12:42:02 AM
In the fantasy weapon realm (not so much because of technical impossibility, but more the unliklihood of such a weapon being implemented), I like the concept of kenetic reentry weapons, sort of like a satelite-launched version of a hypervelocity rocket. A solid penetrator would be useful against tanks and hardened targets. A rocket that fragments into a cloud of flechettes would work against soft targets, and with the right control and targeting capability, even against aircraft.
 
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Herald1234    Already tested.   1/14/2007 2:44:34 AM
Not found useful, yet.
 
GOOGLE Rods from God.
 
Herald
 
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andyf    weapon   1/16/2007 3:09:40 PM
place an EMP weapon inside an internally half silvered balloon<deflated>.unload this at altutude over the target area. as the balloon falls a small gas cartridge inflates the globe so it has the correct curvature, clear side down. some method of accurate aiming would be needed, (perhaps gyroscopic).
maybe have the thing targeted via GPS , feed it the coords,it fires
EMP blast, focused by the silvered dish, say goodnight electronics. I dont know what range it would have , maybe line of sight . wonder what it would do to men?
 
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