E-bombs, and I don't mean virii or email....

[Dr Mordrid]

This one is scary;

http://popularmechanics.com/science/military/2001/9/e-bomb/print.phtml

Now....they state that we are testing ours next year, but then go on to state that we tested in the 80's. What's the diff? The new ones are the ones using high-temp superconductors.

Of course Popular Mechanics just had to all but publish directions on how to build one

Dr. Mordrid

[ayoub_ibrahim]

man that is real scary stuff!

[Jorden]

I've watched Discovery Europe yesterday while I was a bit bored, and they spoke about non-lethal weapons. These included foam, sounds, pepper spray and the usual rubbers that were shot at people, rubber rings, rubber packages, but not rubber bullets, as the can kill...

And they talked about localized EMP bombs. Usefull against people holding many people 'hostage' in a building. These EMP bombs only work within a radius of about 200 meters, killing all light, computers and anything electrical with their first bomb, then the second will go off about 15 minutes later, when the emergency power is on, killing that.

Most of the weapons in the program were thought of in the 1960's/70's and 80's ... only these days people are thinking about it again. And it's cheaper to build them, plus more usefull.

Maybe terrorists can use them, but what about the world using them against the terrorists first?

It wouldn't help much against bin Laden in Afghanistan, for the Taliban/Taleban there have ruled that no-one in their country can use computers anymore, nor cell-phones, nor anything else hightech (but for their wepons and rockets ofcourse... )

Jord.

[Admiral]

They might not have much technological stuff to use it on (in Afghanistan), but they could alway use ultrasounds, microwaves or other methods to incapacitate the fighters themselves.
Equip one of them radar planes with such a weapon, give it a fighter escort and while it's doing the job send ground troops to finnish it.

[Dr Mordrid]

Discovery channel 'eh?

If it's the same program I saw......what did you think of the part on metamorphic adaptive camoflage? (think: Predator) Now THAT would be handy....

Also another set of interesting weapons are on the horizon (if not already here as black projects); Robot Swarm and guided bullets.

Guided bullets follow the IR pattern or a laser painted on the target.

Robot Swarm consists of a remote control delivery vehicle which can dispense hundreds of small robots. They have group behaviours that can be programmed by a single soldier or they can act as independent sensor guided devices. Robot Swarms can be used to either find and trigger mines or as attack devices using explosives, stun devices, flashbangs, poison or gas.

I don't know about you, but if faced with a Robot Swarm I'd bail in a heardbeat.

YES, Robot Swarms really exist. I found some declassified DARPA testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee that mentioned part of it and gleeded the rest elsewhere.

Anyone ever see the old Tom Sellick movie "Runaway"? Both seem to have been predicted in it.

Another gadget in that movie was a hovering ducted fan surveillance device. That's already here too.

Dr. Mordrid

[spoogenet]

As technology becomes more pervasive throughout our society, we grow more dependent upon it. As we grow more dependent upon it, we run a greater risk of loss due to its failure. Problem is, it's too easy to make things fail these days.

There is something to be said for "old" "low-tech" weapons. For instance, at one point in military history (don't remember when) there was an anti-aircraft battery developed that was too fast to shoot down some of the "low-tech" planes that eventually went against it. It was designed to handle the faster jets and be capable of tracking them, but couldn't move slowly enough to track other aircraft. Imagine that.

When electronics fail, and we have no more GPS etc., many of our weapons become useless. Not to mention we can't sell groceries because the cashiers can't add.....

Our genius has brought us the technological marvels we see today, and it has also brought us the destructive power to neutrallize or all-out destroy those very marvels.

Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.

b