Posted on 10/18/2024 10:49:26 AM PDT by Red Badger
Thermal Defense Solutions has been 3-D printing inconel suppressors for some years now (and they are DA SCHIZ!).
And No. 22 Bicycle Company is making 3-D printed titanium bicycle frames.
https://thermalsuppressors.com/
https://22bicycles.com/
About 20 years ago I was watching a Predator feed of a Muhammadan Splodybot in Somewhereistan being disintegrated by a UAV-launched Hellfire, and two thoughts struck me.
No. 1, we need smaller missiles for anti-personnel work, because a 20-lb warhead is overkill (no pun intended). And No. 2, Unmanned combat vehicles of every sort will become the new Atomic Weapons Race because they can render mass casualties, but they're worse because the technology and the materials needed to make them are readily available.
It won't be long before someone puts together a kamikaze drone with facial recognition. Upload a digital image of your victim and it flies around looking for him. If it doesn't find him it either can strike any target of opportunity or self-destruct to limit the spread of the technology.
We've got Luddites on this forum constantly espousing that systems like the B-21 are a technological bridge to far, but high-tech is the new coin of the combat realm. There is no question but that we're very soon to see wars won by the side with the best robots.
What metal printer is 150 lb per hour ?
this outfit claims to be the largest and it is 1/10 of that
https://www.sciaky.com/largest-metal-3d-printer-available
as usual, this is technofool “comb our hair with ray guns” BS
this isnt new. People were testing AM 20+ years ago. No-one has explained how this is superior to just cutting the part out of a billet. The 3d metal properties are almost always worse.
Tom Eagar from MIT has done plenty of experimental AM, but when it is too expensive for the US Navy, no-one else is going to use it except in limited applications which he explains here.
https://youtu.be/01D4_i5L5gk?list=PLCgPBt05jaJ4MIGrgqnIWIuvpSV_E3xa5&t=2341
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