Military developments regularly serve as one of the main engines of scientific and technological progress. States are inventing more and more devices for causing damage to their opponents, if not even for their destruction. True, sometimes they bluff at the same time …
Railgun as a new type of "scam"
In recent weeks, a promising American development has made a lot of information noise - an electromagnetic rail gun, or a railgun. The principle of its operation is to accelerate a conductive projectile along two rail-tires in the barrel bore, to which a powerful energy source is connected. The current induces a magnetic field, it creates pressure, which pushes the projectile. It is assumed that at the exit from the "rail trunk" it will have a speed of up to 9 thousand km / h and can fly almost 200 km.
Railgun BAE Systems.
In fact, the Pentagon has been working on the supergun since 2005, tests began in 2007, and it is planned to put this gadget into service sometime in 2025. Why did this topic begin to be discussed right now, halfway to the goal? The trials don't seem to have been all that successful. Back in 2012, BAE Systems presented a full-size sample of an electromagnetic gun with impressive tactical and technical characteristics (projectile kinetic energy - 32 MJ, speed - 2.5 km / s, range - 90-160 km). His shot was certainly appreciated by the Pentagon experts (having recalculated the spent kilowatts into dollars). But the destroyer Zumvolt, which was designed specifically for the railgun, for some reason they are armed with ordinary 155-mm cannons (albeit with an outlandish rocket homing projectile that hits 100 km). And they somehow keep quiet about the fate of the railgun model. What's the matter?
And the point, apparently, is that Washington does not need a miracle cannon for shooting. It's just that the US military machine is beginning to lose its dominance in the information space. Too often, Russia and China become newsmakers in the field of military developments and achievements: they, as a rule, do not make revolutions in military equipment, but simply improve and replicate advanced models (the Triumph air defense system, the Alligator helicopter, the Dongfeng missiles, etc. etc.). The international community may get the undesirable impression that at least these two countries have already surpassed the United States in the technical equipment of their armed forces. This cannot be allowed in any way, which means that it is necessary to periodically throw in information about the miracle weapon, even if this miracle has not (yet) taken place. What, in fact, is the Pentagon doing.
SAM S-400 "Triumph".
Promotional video:
In fact, the railgun is still terribly far from being put into service. Its main problem is energy supply. After all, in order to quickly generate the energy necessary for an electromagnetic shot, no batteries and diesel engines will help - you need to have a small nuclear power plant somewhere nearby. And this is already a problem: after all, a portable nuclear power plant 160 km from the enemy is the number one target for his missiles: if you hit it, you don't need to drop an atomic bomb! Speaking of missiles: they are deadly for a railgun not only in combat, but also in an economic sense: a simple, time-tested Tomahawk costs some $ 1.5 million, while the development of Railgun has already taken $ 1.5 billion and how much still need - is unknown. And it will still be necessary to organize the production of mobile power plants! In addition, a cruise missile flies not 160, but 1600 km,moreover, along a winding trajectory (which makes it difficult to combat it), it itself precisely aims at the target and detonates it with four hundred kilograms of TNT. The railgun shoots with a simple uncontrollable blank, since no explosive substances and mechanisms can withstand the overloads that it experiences in the bore. And the question is, is such a game worth the candle?
By the way, in the USSR, the development of an electromagnetic gun was carried out back in the 60s of the last century, and a railgun was created, capable of literally evaporating a steel plate with a 3-gram projectile. However, then the project was curtailed, apparently due to the difficulties of practical application and high cost. But to maintain the authority of the American army, Railgun is quite suitable, and one and a half billion is not a pity.
Laser like Luke Skywalker
Traditionally, one of the first places in the list of military innovations is occupied by lasers. And for the last thirty years, no less. However, the hyperboloid of engineer Garin “is still there”, but in practice the matter did not go much further than the laser pointer. Nevertheless, “about to do” statements appear with enviable regularity. So, in the spring of this year, the Center for Technology and Research of the US Army announced that field tests of shock and defense lasers have already been carried out and in the not too distant future (sometime by 2023) these devices will enter service.
The ATHENA laser and the car burned out by it.
They really have already passed field tests more than once: they were put, for example, on the American Bradley BMPs. But until now, it has not reached serial production. And it is not surprising, because the main problems of the laser - high energy consumption and beam scattering - were not solved. Relatively speaking, it is possible to "burn through" an enemy tank with a laser, having nearby energy sources available in the field, only from a very short distance. From one on which this tank will smash your laser much faster from a conventional cannon. Shooting down intercontinental missiles with a laser is also, as it turned out, a crazy idea, for the same reasons: the beam has to cover too great distances.
Last year, Lockheed Martin's 30kW ATHENA laser was able to burn a hole in a car from about 2 km away. And this is a record for a laser. But from such a distance it is much easier and cheaper to penetrate a car with a large-caliber sniper rifle!
Modern lasers are much better and more efficient at coping with another task - to blind the enemy and disable his devices. And in this, by the way, Russia is not lagging behind the United States.
Only robots go into battle …
The time is approaching when cars will fight for people. This is very humane, because the losses in manpower should be significantly reduced (and we will not recall the "Terminator" scenario!). Flying robots - unmanned aerial vehicles - are already playing a very prominent role in military operations. They are used not only for reconnaissance, but also for delivering pinpoint strikes against the enemy. The Americans especially succeeded in this: their UAVs Predator, Reaper, Gray Eagle have already distinguished themselves more than once, destroying Taliban * and ISIS * militants (sometimes, however, inflicting mistaken strikes on civilians or allies). Among the new products here, it should be noted the American Aurora Excalibur - a vertical take-off turbojet unit capable of speeds up to 800 km / h, armed with Hellfire anti-tank missiles.
Ground combat robots are also being improved. For example, iRobot makes not only smart vacuum cleaners, but also mechanical fighters for the US Army. Their range includes the PackBot mini-ATVs, the Valley-like SUGVs, and the larger and more powerful Warriors, which have proven themselves in Afghanistan and Iraq. The latter can move multi-ton loads, conduct reconnaissance, demining, carry out the wounded from the battlefield, and even move up stairs. In addition, they are sometimes equipped with the Metal Storm super-fast machine gun and grenade launcher system. In Israel, the Guardium combat robots-buggies are in service, developing speeds of up to 80 km / h and capable of carrying up to 300 kg of payload. Russia has developed unmanned versions of the Armata tank and the Tiger military off-road vehicle. Moreover, according to Israeli sources,in Syria, Russia has successfully deployed combat robots RBTK "Argo" and "Platform M".
iRobot SUGV.
Unlike simple radio-controlled mechanisms, modern combat robots are increasingly endowed with the rudiments of artificial intelligence: for example, the Warrior, if it loses contact with the command post, can independently return to base. Work is underway to endow the robotic units with a kind of collective intelligence that works on the same principles as the insect communities (for example, ants). That is, the goal is again to ensure the adequacy of the actions of these machines in the absence of communication with the command.
… or beetles
Biotechnology is not lagging behind. Recently, for example, a division of the American Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) has begun to create cyborg beetles by implanting mechanical devices in ordinary insects at an early stage of development. These bugs can be controlled, for example, sent to reconnaissance with a micro-camera, to commit sabotage with their help. However, these developments are still far from complete, and the beetles will apparently enter service with the American army not soon.
DARPA cyborg beetles.
DARPA also has a completely fantastic (yet) project of creating a "synthetic organism" - a super-soldier, resistant to injuries, capable of regeneration and psychologically stable due to the "gene of devotion" embedded in the DNA. In general, hello, Terminator!
Exoskeleton in the closet
The strange prefix "exo" means "external." Yes, we are talking about an outer frame that helps a person to become stronger and more enduring. Exoskeletons have been around for a long time, but it wasn't until about five years ago that Lockheed Martin managed to do something really useful in combat. This is HULC (Human Universal Load Carrier), which echoes its acronym for "The Incredible Hulk", the green monster from the comics. However, the "exochalk" is its complete opposite: it is a compact, lightweight and almost invisible "suit" from the outside, but it allows you to significantly increase the physical strength and capabilities of the person wearing it: for example, to lift extra 70 kg, run 20 km without straining …
A soldier in a HULC exoskeleton.
Invisible weapon
However, all these wonderful guns and killer robots are toys compared to new types of weapons, which the leading world powers are gradually mastering and gradually beginning to use. It is scary already because its use is practically not amenable to fixation, the very fact of its existence is difficult to prove. We are talking about climatic and geophysical weapons.
The most "harmless" types were used by the Americans even during the Vietnam War. These are chemicals sprayed into the atmosphere to artificially form or, conversely, disperse clouds. For example, silver iodide: "sowed" the clouds with it - and a tropical downpour fell on the enemy. But we are not even talking about them, this, again, is just childish pranks in comparison with installations capable of influencing the Earth's ionosphere.
The existence of such facilities, for example HAARP (High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program), is not a secret. But what they are actually doing is a big secret. The official version of the mission of HAARP - the study of the aurora - sounds, to put it mildly, unconvincing, given that the facility is under the jurisdiction of the US Air Force Space Technology Center. The use of the ionosphere for military purposes is what this installation is for. And it is not unique in its kind. In the United States, there are at least two more like it - one also in Alaska, the other in Puerto Rico. Two of these are located in Norway, one in Peru. There are similar units on the territory of the former USSR, for example, in the Nizhny Novgorod region (SURA), the Kharkov region of Ukraine ("Uran-1"),Tajikistan ("Horizon"). True, all of them are seriously inferior to HAARP both in power and in the variety of equipment used.
HAARP antenna field.
However, the principle of their work is the same: it was first tested more than a hundred years ago by the unrecognized (more precisely, secretly at the time) genius physicist Nikola Tesla. To put it simply, HAARP installations excite the ionosphere with their high-frequency action, and it sends back a much more powerful stream of charged particles. It can disable enemy equipment, cause atmospheric and even tectonic cataclysms, and finally, produce an explosion no worse than an atomic one. You just need to correctly calculate the direction of impact.
And I must say, people are already very successful in this. For example, in 2010, the devastating earthquake in Haiti surprisingly affected only the half of the island where the Republic of Haiti is located, and did not affect the Dominican Republic, where Americans like to rest. And after this cataclysm, the sea began to throw ashore whole shoals of dead, slightly fried fish, as if it had been in a microwave oven … Another example: in 2008, a few minutes before the terrible earthquake in Sichuan (China), a strange glow was observed in the sky above this place, and exactly the same was noted at this time in Alaska, over HAARP.
There is no direct evidence, but the cases are more than strange. In principle, the tricks of HAARP can explain a lot of atmospheric anomalies in recent years in our country: the heat and fires of 2010, the flood in Krymsk in 2012, freezing rains, etc. Unsuccessful missile launches can be attributed to the radio-electronic interference created by the Americans. and satellites: for example, it is known that HAARP was actively working at the time of the fall of our Bulava missiles and the loss of the Phobos-Grunt interplanetary station. If we accept this version of events, we will have to admit that the United States has indeed gained colossal military superiority over the whole world and we are dealing with weapons of mass destruction, from which there is no protection at all. Not yet. And maybe that is why the United States and its allies are so eagerly spreading their "new faith" around the world - the theory of climate warming,explaining the more frequent natural anomalies by the increased emission of carbon dioxide due to human economic activity. Although this hypothesis is by no means proven by science, rather, on the contrary, it is refuted. But the apologists of the warming theory are deliberately directing the world community on the wrong track - they say, everything to the fight against carbon dioxide! Then the real reason for the frequent natural anomalies and climate imbalances - the use of climate weapons - will remain unnoticed. Then the real reason for the frequent natural anomalies and climate imbalances - the use of climate weapons - will remain unnoticed. Then the real reason for the frequent natural anomalies and climate imbalances - the use of climate weapons - will remain unnoticed.
* terrorist organizations banned in Russia
Author: Andrey Milovzorov
