Posted on 01/31/2008 12:59:13 PM PST by Froufrou
Aim it at the U. S. / mexico border.
We have already asserted claim to the entire visible universe and are close to asserting claim to the invisible universe as well.
I’ve always thought, and I’m sure it’s in the works,
that an unmanned fighter/bomber could be run by 3-6 videogame jocks back in a bunker.
It could perform maneuvers that a pilot couldn’t withstand, and not have to employ the weight required to accomodate a pilot.
Plus, you have all of the individuals in charge of different aspects of air battle, each able to concentrate instead of getting distracted by other aspects of battle, and fear of getting tagged.
I don't imagine this will be quite ready for the first Zumwalt destroyer, but these babies were designed to be able to take advantage of this technology when it does become available.
The handheld version’s only drawback is the back-pack sized quick-discharge capacitor. Only weighs in at 500lbs, though.
if I did my math right rather quickly just now, that’s 1.5 miles per second.
Yes, but wouldn’t it eliminate fallout?
Test it on Imanutjob. See if we can shoot a BB up his butt and out his ear.
Imagine the fish you could catch by shocking them with that.
WOW! Just look at that! Firing up and over the hill?
This will be a great incentive to get more women to enlist. It’s so far away, it takes out the “ewwww” factor we ladies don’t like.
“Suzy, I didn’t even break a nail!”
Given that an anti-matter/matter explosion would probably be in the hundreds of megaton range with a 5 inch shell, it might not be necessary to be too precise with targeting.
Give or take a mile or so would do it for even hard targets, I think.
~snorrfle!~ I’m loving that!
“Here, mussy, mussy, mussy...”
You’re funny... I like that!
I don’t think it will be “silent”. The amount of electrical energy that is discharged to fire the magnetics will most LIKELY make some powerful popping sounds. And... there will be a sonic boom from the projectile (of course if you heard it, it’s too late for someone already up ahead and they won’t be hearing the projectile at all)
With over ten megajoules behind it, I don't think that the vacuum from a few feet of barrel length would make that much difference overall.
Not really. E=1/2 mass X velocity squared
Expect a 40 foot crater.
The beautiful thing is that the firing ship can carry twice to three times as much ammo in the same space and has no explosive, damage control worries. Well, that and hitting something 200 miles away with a suborbital, guided munition travelling 5-10 times faster than the fastest bullets.
OK...
F=ma
a = zero to mach 7 divided by time it takes to travel the barrel
m = mass of the projectile
F = tear your shoulder clean off
The laser guns and beam cannons are equally limited by their power source. While a projectile would be far slower than a wavefront, it would be unwise to underestimate kinetic energy.
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