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The World's Spookiest Weapons
Popular Science ^ | 5-16-08 | Matt Ransford

Posted on 05/16/2008 6:50:26 PM PDT by DesScorp

Atom bombs are just the beginning. In the last half-century, the greatest military minds on Earth have developed an arsenal of weapons to make mutually assured destruction seem tame.

Whether these masterpieces of destruction come from miles above Earth or millimeters below the skin, they have one thing in common: they're spooky as hell.

Can turning animals into cyborgs ever end well? Should lasers really be strapped to planes? Is dispersing humans with the worst smell ever created a better alternative to doing it by burning their skin? You be the judge. Launch our gallery of the world's spookiest weapons—some decades away and others already implemented—and marvel over what humans can create when they work apart.

(Excerpt) Read more at popsci.com ...


TOPICS: Military/Veterans; Miscellaneous; Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS: military; secret; weapons
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Some are truly awe inspiring, and some are just funny unintentionally. Military naming conventions can do that. They developed a frisbee with a bomb in it. What did they call it? The "Modular Disc-Wing Urban Cruise Munition."
1 posted on 05/16/2008 6:50:26 PM PDT by DesScorp
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To: DesScorp

In military acronym-speak, theat would be the “modwucm.”


2 posted on 05/16/2008 6:56:38 PM PDT by Ken522
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To: DesScorp
Should lasers really be strapped to planes?
No. They should be built in, not strapped on. They should be an integral part of the planes target acquisition and weapons system, not a jury-rigged add-on.

And our lasers should be better than their lasers, always.

3 posted on 05/16/2008 6:58:44 PM PDT by samtheman
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To: DesScorp
arsenal of weapons to make mutually assured destruction seem tame.

My instant thought was of Obama and Hillary. Mutually assured destruction.

4 posted on 05/16/2008 6:59:30 PM PDT by mountn man (The pleasure you get from life, is equal to the attitude you put into it.)
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To: samtheman

I have always been rather partial to napalm.


5 posted on 05/16/2008 7:02:00 PM PDT by Ouderkirk (DemocRATS....the party of Slavery, Segregation, Secularism, and Sedition)
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To: Ouderkirk

I always like a radio. It always made things disappear.


6 posted on 05/16/2008 7:13:17 PM PDT by Dick Vomer (liberals suck....... but it depends on what your definition of the word "suck" is.,)
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To: Ouderkirk
"I have always been rather partial to napalm."

I rather liked the "Rods from God" myself... giant, orbital lawn-darts, baby...


7 posted on 05/16/2008 7:17:25 PM PDT by DesScorp
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To: DesScorp
Tsar Bomba

Image and video hosting by TinyPic

8 posted on 05/16/2008 7:24:28 PM PDT by Sax
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To: samtheman

The obligatory "Shark with Frikkin Laser Beam"...

9 posted on 05/16/2008 7:27:31 PM PDT by rlmorel (Clinging bitterly to Guns and God in Massachusetts...:)
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To: DesScorp

I think the spookiest ones are those damned robotic bugs.


10 posted on 05/16/2008 7:28:34 PM PDT by rlmorel (Clinging bitterly to Guns and God in Massachusetts...:)
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To: DesScorp
Should lasers really be strapped to planes?

Or to frikin' dolphins?

11 posted on 05/16/2008 7:29:21 PM PDT by Onelifetogive (Simple-minded conservative...)
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To: DesScorp
"...Modular Disc-Wing Urban Cruise Munition..."

Hey. That works for me...:)

12 posted on 05/16/2008 7:30:10 PM PDT by rlmorel (Clinging bitterly to Guns and God in Massachusetts...:)
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To: All
"...Modular Disc-Wing Urban Cruise Munition..."

Pronounced "midwhack". Has a ring to it.

13 posted on 05/16/2008 7:31:53 PM PDT by rlmorel (Clinging bitterly to Guns and God in Massachusetts...:)
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To: DesScorp

They left out the parachuting lawyers.

14 posted on 05/16/2008 7:33:27 PM PDT by P.O.E. (Thank God for every morning.)
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To: DesScorp

How would you like to be the researcher working on the stink bomb? Blarf!

I don’t see how the robotic moths would be that effective as surveillance tools. Judging by the erratic way that moths fly, it seems like you’d need some industrial-strength image stabilization technology on that thing. And even then, despite the fact that you can “steer” the moth, it seems like the images would be pretty random.

The rods from God look cool, but I sure hope they have a good way to vaporize it in space if the satellite had a problem and started losing its orbit or something. Yikes.


15 posted on 05/16/2008 7:35:15 PM PDT by RepublitarianRoger2
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To: P.O.E.

Hehe, that made me actually laugh out loud...:)


16 posted on 05/16/2008 7:38:02 PM PDT by rlmorel (Clinging bitterly to Guns and God in Massachusetts...:)
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To: RepublitarianRoger2
No...their strength is not that they can take pictures as they fly, but that they can fly to where they need to be to watch an area with their eyes. Video captures the area and gets transmitted HR via satellite. Maybe visual, maybe IR, or whatever.

Gives ME the creeps.

17 posted on 05/16/2008 7:41:18 PM PDT by rlmorel (Clinging bitterly to Guns and God in Massachusetts...:)
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To: DesScorp

I truly believe that “Dancing with the Stars” is the most terrifying and repulsive Psy-Ops package ever invented. It is lower even then “Doogie Howser, M.D.” and that’s saying a lot! I’m glad my TV died two years ago!

[8-o)


18 posted on 05/16/2008 7:52:08 PM PDT by Frank Sheed (Fr. V. R. Capodanno, Lt, USN, Catholic Chaplain. 3rd/5th, 1st Marine Div., FMF. MOH, posthumously.)
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To: rlmorel

Yeah, I thought about that; they would only be effective if the bug is sitting still and is facing whatever it’s supposed to be taking a picture of. Maybe they can guide the moth that precisely, telling it when to fly and not to fly, and what direction to face. That would be pretty remarkable (although I almost feel sorry for the unwitting robo-bug. Well, almost...)


19 posted on 05/16/2008 7:52:46 PM PDT by RepublitarianRoger2
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To: DesScorp

Entertaining. Thanks for posting.


20 posted on 05/16/2008 7:54:17 PM PDT by The_Republican (Ovaries of the World Unite! Rush, Laura, Ann, Greta - Time for the Ovulation!)
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