Speed Kills, Military Wants More

wired.com ^ | 11-20-2003 | noah shachtman

[em2vn]

Hey, 550 miles per hour is just too slow. And a 1,500-mile range just isn't big enough.

The Tomahawk cruise missile may seem fast and far-reaching. But Pentagon planners want more. Late last week, they handed out contracts to 10 firms to start designing a hypersonic missile that can outrun the now-retired Concorde, and can hit a terrorist nest in Europe from the East Coast.

[em2vn]

Bigger, faster, better.

[BlueLancer]

" Late last week, they handed out contracts to 10 firms to start designing a hypersonic missile that can outrun the now-retired Concorde, and can hit a terrorist nest in Europe from the East Coast."

Okay, folks, ya heard it here first ...

We're going to nuke Paris!

[Constitution Day]

Out-freaking-STANDING!

[danneskjold]

"When Osama's bad brother Larry shows up suddenly in Niger, this is something we can target him with immediately," said Daniel Goure, a military analyst at the Lexington Institute, a think tank in Arlington, Virginia.

Yeah, that Larry is a pretty nasty character, but he pales in comparison to his other brothers, Moe and Curly...

[Poohbah]

Let's drop the big one, and see what happens...

[em2vn]

I think the manure bomb is the one designated for the current French leadership.

[elfman2]

"The Pentagon wants the drone carrier in service by 2025. "

Hillary’s probably already accepting Chinese campaign contributions for the technology.

[dighton]

Warm 'n' Fuzzy Post of the Day.

[Bon mots]

and can hit a terrorist nest in Europe from the East Coast.

YES!!

Frere Jacques, Jacques Chirac!!! Ou vas tu? Trou de coule...

[eeman]

"We're going to nuke Paris!"

More likely, some future democrat president will use it bomb another Sudanese aspirin factory really quickly.

[Gritty]

$5 million dollar missiles are nice and probably have a place once in a while.

But, we shouldn't let technology cause us to forget the $.25 bullet or we'll go broke trying to get rid of these terrorists!

[stylin_geek]

Mass into near earth orbit, it would really suck if something got in the way when the weapon was inbound...especially for the something.

[GluteusMax]

$5 million dollar missiles are nice and probably have a place once in a while.

That's $5 million just to get the new cruise missle close to its target. They forgot to mention the part about how much these cruise missles cost themselves. The other interesting part buried here is:

By 2010, the Pentagon wants to begin launching 20 SLVs a year for 10 years, to deliver the weapons and low-earth-orbit satellites.

So DARPA wants to put 200 low earth orbiting satellites up between 2010 and 2025. Hmmn.

[WhiskeyPapa]

Bigger, faster, better.

Too bad we're bankrupt.

Walt

[budanski]

The euro-PEONS are interested too.

http://www.defense-aerospace.com/cgi-bin/client/modele.pl?session=dae.2271657.1069366930&modele=jdc_34

[Onelifetogive]

I don't really get it...

Why do we need to send them from here...Don't we have subs or surface ships ALL over the globe at any given time?

[RightWhale]

Remember the sci-fi story where there was finally enough rocket power available to orbit earth under power all the way and daredevils were racing to orbit earth quicker and quicker? They got so they would pull 10 gees all the way, and of course they would also travel to Mars and back in days, but gee forces pinned you to the couch the whole way, and that could get uncomfortable.

[Straight Vermonter]

Badda ping.