Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Battleship Earth: Does the Pentagon have the right weapons to fight off an alien invasion?
Foreign Policy ^ | May 30, 2012 | Cara Parks and Joshua E. Keating

Posted on 06/05/2012 9:15:26 AM PDT by C19fan

As summer blockbuster season kicks into high gear, big-budget action movies like The Avengers, Battleship, and Prometheus remind us that there's one thing that unites Americans: Our shared fear of an alien attack. They also remind us that when the invading space fleet arrives, humanity is not going to surrender without a fight to our intergalactic invaders. Instead, we will band together to fight off their incredibly advanced weaponry with our ... well, with what, exactly? Are we really ready to battle our would-be alien overlords?

Luckily, the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, better known as DARPA, as well as some of the world's largest weapons manufacturers, are dreaming up the weapons of the future today. With the help of everything from lasers on jets to hypersonic planes to invisibility cloaks, we just might be able to make the battle for Earth a fair fight. You may think we're joking, but why else would NASA be uploading The Avengers to the International Space Station if not as a training manual? Here's a look at some of the most space-worthy inventions being cooked up now.

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


TOPICS: Military/Veterans; Science; UFO's
KEYWORDS: aliens; invasion
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-93 next last
Keep it simple. Get the Ruskie design for the 50 MT Tsar Bomba, hee hee.
1 posted on 06/05/2012 9:15:32 AM PDT by C19fan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: C19fan
More fantasy scenarios from the unbelievers.

Romans 8:19-23 . . .
2 posted on 06/05/2012 9:20:04 AM PDT by Olog-hai
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: C19fan
Don't worry ...


3 posted on 06/05/2012 9:21:48 AM PDT by Malone LaVeigh
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: C19fan

If aliens have the ability to travel far enough to get to Earth from anywhere else, we better hope they are friendly. That kind of technology will probably include some pretty awesome death rays.


4 posted on 06/05/2012 9:22:22 AM PDT by USNBandit (sarcasm engaged at all times)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

“Does the Pentagon have the right weapons to fight off an alien invasion?”

Hummmm...but we can’t keep our borders safe....

Does anybody see the irony in that?


5 posted on 06/05/2012 9:23:31 AM PDT by PrairieLady2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: C19fan

Any aliens intent upon invasion and technologically able to cross the vast gulf of space between where they were and where we are would presumably be of sufficient technological advancement that we wouldn’t stand a chance.

I for one welcome our new alien overlords./s

It is a scenario so unlikely - and one in which any action we take at this time would almost certainly be futile - I wouldn’t waste more than a minute contemplating or planning for such.


6 posted on 06/05/2012 9:24:13 AM PDT by allmendream (Tea Party did not send GOP to D.C. to negotiate the terms of our surrender to socialism)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: C19fan
If any alien life form is advanced enough to fly millions of light years to reach Earth, I figure we're cooked already.

I, for one, will welcome our new overlords....


7 posted on 06/05/2012 9:24:20 AM PDT by PGR88
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: C19fan

We’re gonna defeat them....riiiiiiiight.

To cross interstellar space, they have access to energies far beyond our capabilities.

Their technology compared to ours is akin to Einstein’s brain compared to the Obamadork.


8 posted on 06/05/2012 9:24:41 AM PDT by Da Coyote
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: C19fan
”Image
9 posted on 06/05/2012 9:25:37 AM PDT by AlmaKing
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: C19fan

One thing which all such scifi flicks have wrong... The cost of interstellar travel would dwarf the value of anything you could hope to take or steal from another star system. The ONLY rational motives there could be for interstellar travel would be knowledge, or escape.


10 posted on 06/05/2012 9:26:51 AM PDT by varmintman
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: C19fan

We have the right weapons, we just need a working delivery system to their home planet.

Politicians and lawyers.

QED.


11 posted on 06/05/2012 9:27:43 AM PDT by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: C19fan

Hard to take a thread like this seriously, are you poking at us?

There can be no ‘alien’ that is not subject to God’s will.
.


12 posted on 06/05/2012 9:28:02 AM PDT by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they were.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: C19fan

How would they cross the vastness of interstellar space? Alpha Centauri is 40 trillion kilometers away from us.


13 posted on 06/05/2012 9:30:03 AM PDT by moonshot925
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: C19fan
Does the Pentagon have the right weapons to fight off an alien invasion?

It...is...too...late...Hello McFly.

14 posted on 06/05/2012 9:30:33 AM PDT by VRW Conspirator (Article 58)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: C19fan
Does the Pentagon have the right weapons to fight off an alien invasion?

I'm sure it does, but they have to be deployed at the borders to be effective, and that isn't happening.

15 posted on 06/05/2012 9:30:59 AM PDT by Maceman
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: C19fan

Of all the things....how about we focus on defeating the earthbound twin threats of Communism and Islamofacism first.


16 posted on 06/05/2012 9:32:29 AM PDT by BenLurkin (This is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion or satire; or both)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: varmintman

Food or living space come to mind.


17 posted on 06/05/2012 9:33:00 AM PDT by Ingtar ("As the light begins to fade in the city on the hill")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: editor-surveyor
"There can be no ‘alien’ that is not subject to God’s will."

Yet there have been Christan nations invaded by non-christians. I'm not sure what your point is here.

18 posted on 06/05/2012 9:33:44 AM PDT by Durus (You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality. Ayn Rand)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: USNBandit
If aliens have the ability to travel far enough to get to Earth from anywhere else, we better hope they are friendly. That kind of technology will probably include some pretty awesome death rays.

Hopefully interstellar travel is pretty simple like in Harry Turtledove's The Road Not Taken. Otherwise we would be about like the Aztecs and Incas standing up to the Spanish.

19 posted on 06/05/2012 9:37:29 AM PDT by KarlInOhio (You only have three billion heartbeats in a lifetime.How many does the government claim as its own?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: BenLurkin

I picture the aliens landing, saying howdy to us and ask us why we never made contact with them.

When told that we have satellites and space craft that have been sending signals for the last 50 years, they tell us L Ron Hubbard was their contact here on earth and why didn’t we listen.


20 posted on 06/05/2012 9:37:41 AM PDT by EQAndyBuzz (ABO 2012)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-93 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson