this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2024
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technology

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[–] miz@hexbear.net 62 points 1 month ago

US sowing imperialism: Haha fuck yeah!!! Yes!!

US reaping blowback: Well this fucking sucks. What the fuck.

[–] Awoo@hexbear.net 57 points 1 month ago (6 children)

The solution is shotguns with a rate of fire akin to a minigun. If you saturate the air and everything around it in a wall of bullets it's not getting through that.

But it's gonna cost ya.

[–] nat_turner_overdrive@hexbear.net 56 points 1 month ago (2 children)
[–] Crucible@hexbear.net 40 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Sorry best I can do is spend another 200 trillion on railguns instead

[–] GrouchyGrouse@hexbear.net 20 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Using the monkey's paw to wish for more rail but its the USA so we just get railguns

[–] ProletarianDictator@hexbear.net 11 points 1 month ago

Outspending China on maglev, but its only for terrorizing minority urban populations, ultimately going unused because they're less reliable than 150 year old handgun designs.

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[–] huf@hexbear.net 45 points 1 month ago (2 children)

hear me out. a mountain. on rails. so you can quickly yank it in front of you when the missile is coming.

[–] HotAtForty@hexbear.net 19 points 1 month ago (1 children)

A mountain on wheels which is actually more profound than it sounds

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[–] miz@hexbear.net 19 points 1 month ago

if the mountain won't go to Mohammed, then Mohammed must— hang on, I'm being handed a note

[–] knightly@hexbear.net 38 points 1 month ago

Against hypersonics, this isn't really a solution.

The missiles are designed to force their way through thousands of pounds of air per second. Adding a few ounces of lead and/or hardened steel in the last few milliseconds before impact won't do much.

[–] SoyViking@hexbear.net 30 points 1 month ago (1 children)

How to defend against hypersonic missiles:

  • A giant net to catch the missile in
  • Put lipstick and false eyelashes on an other missile. This will make the hypersonic missile go "oh la lala!" and make it's eyes pop. It will then chase after the girl missile, forgetting everything about where it was going.
  • The iron dome but for real. We encapsulate the entire west in a giant iron tank and the missile will just boink right off it.

I will need 600 billion dollars to maybe possibly build this.

[–] Dessa@hexbear.net 17 points 1 month ago

Paint a fake picture of a military base on a brick wall to fool it

[–] Greenleaf@hexbear.net 13 points 1 month ago (1 children)

What about defensive zeppelins?

[–] Thordros@hexbear.net 14 points 1 month ago

Maybe if they were filled with lead.

[–] LocalOaf@hexbear.net 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Didn't they basically try that already with the Metalstorm project for naval CIWS trials? I thought that got dropped for some reason

[–] Black_Mald_Futures@hexbear.net 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I thought that got retooled into a fire suppressant system that never made the news again

[–] LocalOaf@hexbear.net 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

Ngl, a version of Metalstorm that shoots those firefighting grenades that Thailand developed would be sick. Or convert old A-10s and load up their rotary cannons with them and use them to strafe forest fires and give them some sick red firetruck livery and call it Operation Extinguisher or something. In conclusion, government give me money for my cool ideas.

[–] Black_Mald_Futures@hexbear.net 7 points 1 month ago

It looks like the company went into administrative bankruptcy and all they've done in 10 years is sell exploding drones to Australia, who sent them to Ukraine

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[–] Evilphd666@hexbear.net 48 points 1 month ago

did-someone Things that survive a red hot plasma envelope aren't cooked by "laser"

[–] MolotovHalfEmpty@hexbear.net 40 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

Is that header picture even one if thr US systems? I could swear I've seen that exact image before and it was the UK hyping their DragonFire tests.

Edit: yup, they pictured the wrong system

[–] BobDole@hexbear.net 34 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Well, the US would need to have a workable system for there to be pictures

[–] MolotovHalfEmpty@hexbear.net 18 points 1 month ago
[–] O__O@hexbear.net 9 points 1 month ago

UK spent more time on the cool name than working out whether it would even work

[–] Frank@hexbear.net 36 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Us hardware can't perform any relevant tasks? Shocked pikachu.

[–] miz@hexbear.net 32 points 1 month ago

no tasks, only profit only-throw

[–] Philosophosphorous@hexbear.net 35 points 1 month ago (2 children)

yea turns out lasers aren't magical lightsaber blades that immediately cut through anything, and actually need time to heat the surface of their target while having issues with penetrating thick or dense materials.

[–] iridaniotter@hexbear.net 16 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Just increase the power. Use a nuke to pump the laser or something very-smart

[–] Philosophosphorous@hexbear.net 10 points 1 month ago (2 children)

still less penetration less quick than if u used the nuke to propel a solid projectile real fast. photons have like negligible/arguably nonexistent mass, the real fun with lasers (as weapons) is using them to target enemy optics (mechanical or biological). one relatively weak but rapidly spinning laser array could permanently blind an entire unit or crowd of people nearly instantly if they don't have specialized protective equipment like high-quality mirror goggles (implausible) or camera/sensor helmets with replaceable/redundant sensors (likely doable in the future but impractical currently).

[–] Abracadaniel@hexbear.net 10 points 1 month ago

photons have like negligible/arguably nonexistent mass

funny enough they actually do have zero mass, but non-zero momentum.

[–] Tomorrow_Farewell@hexbear.net 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] Philosophosphorous@hexbear.net 13 points 1 month ago

like many other war crimes, it only counts if you do it to a 'uniformed combatant' of a country recognized by NATO

[–] barrbaric@hexbear.net 13 points 1 month ago

Ah, so we just need to make lightsabers, got it, that'll be $400B.

[–] Thordros@hexbear.net 31 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Why don't they just use the Death Star laser? George Lucas built it in 1977. Are they stupid?

[–] Frank@hexbear.net 15 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It's actually a cleverly constructed miniature and is mostly only good for grilling.

[–] ShimmeringKoi@hexbear.net 29 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Wait, they were seriously looking into lasers for this? Because I, a non-technical person could've told you it's way cheaper to make missiles that spin, not to mention the ratio of power consumption per interception/number of cheap missiles to intercept

[–] yogthos@lemmy.ml 30 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yeah, you don't have to be an expert to realize this was never going to work. Just another grift by the US military industrial complex.

[–] Frank@hexbear.net 15 points 1 month ago (1 children)

My non-expert opinion is there's no way you could keep a laser painted on a target manuevering at mach 13 long enough to actually melt it. How long do they even have between detection and impact? DEWs are appealing because they travel at light speed and don't need to carry ammo. ___ but you have to hold your flash light on the target until it heats up enough to fail. That's fine if you've got a cruise missile puttering along at a stately pace, but not a terminally manueverable hypersonic vehicle.

[–] knightly@hexbear.net 5 points 1 month ago (2 children)

How long do they even have between detection and impact?

Depends!

Carrier groups usually have an AWACS plane on standby, and wikipedia suggests modern systems have a 400km detection range. Assuming the missile has a steady speed of Mach 13, that's about 90 seconds of warning.

It's more complicated than this, though, because (afaik) these missiles cruise at a much lower speed and only reach maximum velocity when accelerating in their terminal guidance phase.

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[–] RyanGosling@hexbear.net 28 points 1 month ago

Why doesn’t the US military simply excavate the Ark of Covenant buried deep beneath Antarctica? Are they stupid?

[–] TankieTanuki@hexbear.net 25 points 1 month ago (3 children)

It can, however, reliably pop balloons, which renders Xi's cutting-edge attack balloons useless!

[–] RION@hexbear.net 9 points 1 month ago

xi-plz send the Mother of All Balloons

[–] neo@hexbear.net 7 points 1 month ago

Remember: when the usa accuses you of something it's actually confessing to that very thing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Genetrix

[–] Wheaties@hexbear.net 5 points 1 month ago

pictured: secret Chinese superweapon

[–] SkingradGuard@hexbear.net 12 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Why would they even work in the first place. Clown military

[–] ElChapoDeChapo@hexbear.net 13 points 1 month ago

"But it worked in Star Wars" wojak-nooo

[–] yogthos@lemmy.ml 10 points 1 month ago

Hey now, they worked great as a tool for getting a bunch of taxes allocated to research the fact that they can't work as a weapon. :)

[–] ProletarianDictator@hexbear.net 7 points 1 month ago

But they can absolutely free an entry-level consumer DJI drone operated by a local anarchist cell!...at least until they mount mirrors on the bottom.

[–] pumpchilienthusiast@hexbear.net 7 points 1 month ago

haha carrier go glug

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