The Future of Warfare: America’s High-Tech Arsenal (Excellent Weapons Read)

Christian Broadcast Network ^ | March 5, 2003 | Dale Hurd

[Don'tMessWithTexas]

If Hoover produces 2Gigawatts in an hour, it is distributed along a power grid that seves thousands of sqaure miles. If one of these bombs releases 2Gigawatts in a fraction of a second, I would call that pretty impressive, especially since that much juice is released so quickly in a relatively small area.

[Physicist]

You're not understanding it. It doesn't make sense to say "produces 2 GigaWatts in an hour". It would make sense to say, "produces 2 GigaWatts for an hour", because that would be a measure of energy. Watts are a rate.

Let's suppose you drop a dollar coin in a slot machine and win $100. Sweet! But look: that only took a second. For that one second, you were making money at a rate of three billion dollars per year!! Holy crap, that's like what Bill Gates rakes in! You, a lowly schmoe with a buck, is suddenly Bill Gates!

Well, not quite. Once that second expires, the gravy train stops. But for that one second, you were the Chairman of Microsoft. Impressive? It's all in how you look at it.

(The HPM may very well be impressive--we may get to see--but its energy output is not a useful figure of merit.)

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

ping!

[glorgau]

Doesn't sound as impressive, does it?

Well, we're just gonna have to keep them going off all day long. :-)

[oyez]

I'm sure then next Democratic president will waste no time marketing these wares to our potential enemies.

[paul544]

After reading this article, just imagine Hitlery in the WH. Then try and imagine our military 8 years later.

[griffin]

Ok...so this power/energy thing....it's kinda like how those smart Japanese fellers got all those itty, bitty musicians in those tiny radio boxes?? ;-)

[Lancey Howard]

bttt

[Captainpaintball]

I wish I could agree with you, but THIS administration doesn't come out smelling like roses, either...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/855573/posts

[Captainpaintball]

They could have tried to stop it. Get some lawyers to somehow make it a violation of LABOR laws to move the factory and displace the workers. Yeah, get Elaine CHAO, head of the labor department (and FRIEND of Jiang Zhemin) to do...something...

...

...

...Oh, forget it!

[MHGinTN]

There's much praise for the GPS guided munitions to be used in Iraq. The Russians have a strong interest in helping Iraq defeat this system, so look for very limited success and a fair amount of unanticipated civilian collateral damage with these weapons.

[MississippiMan]

Maybe we need something like a really large drone bomber to loiter over an army?

Like Clancy foresaw in The Bear and the Dragon?

MM