A Rail gun is in the works!!

[Dr Mordrid]

Yup....GPS guided the shells are indeed. Gives a whole new meaning to the idea of "nowhere to hide"

Then you also have the project where they want to put tungsten projectiles in orbit to be GPS guided. No explosives necessary since they'll also be impacting hypersonically just using their re-entry velocities. Might be the ultimate bunker-busters.

Dr. Mordrid

[schmosef]

Tungsten? As in the metal used for filaments in light bulbs? I remember seeing a documentary in school which said that at the current rate of consumption, known worldwide tungsten reserves would be exhausted by something like the year 2030. Now I saw that video about 15 years ago. Has something changed?

[DGhost]

hmm, dunno. might be a bit sooner, as the military *loves* its tungsten carbide armor piercing rounds. mmm, warm fuzzies...

[spadnos]

Originally posted by schmosef
Tungsten? As in the metal used for filaments in light bulbs? I remember seeing a documentary in school which said that at the current rate of consumption, known worldwide tungsten reserves would be exhausted by something like the year 2030. Now I saw that video about 15 years ago. Has something changed?

Who knows how much is left? It probably doesn't matter if there's a military use for it. (it's hard and dense, so perfect for a high speed projectile)

- Steve

edit: sorry - forgot to mention the extremely high melting point - hence its use as light bulb filaments.

[Dr Mordrid]

And that hardness and high melting point would allow the projectile to penetrate further before vaporizing.

Dr. Mordrid