On the Path to Autonomous, Insect Sized Hunter Killers

More 23 July 2012: Brian Wang Looks at Mini Drones and Autonomous Micro Air Vehicles

via NBF

Raytheon's small, 2 foot laser guided bomb is virtually ready to roll out.

The drone war could be shrinking faster than anyone expected. Raytheon’s teeny, tiny drone bomb might be ready to arm a small drone within months, the defense giant says.

...That would open new worlds of possibility for the U.S. drone arsenal. There are a lot more small drones than there are Preds and Reapers. The small-fry robots are used as flying spies, since they’re too lightweight to arm — until now. The Small Tactical Munition is supposed to arm the Shadow, a drone that’s only 12 feet long. The U.S. fleet of killer drones would significantly increase.

...having an armed Shadow to launch would be a big asset to a commando team in, say, East Africa. Smaller also means cheaper, and easier to deploy. _Wired

Special forces recon and strike teams could easily pack a small squadron of mini-drones behind enemy lines, for either reconnaissance or lethal attack missions. Armed with either laser guided mini-bombs or mini-missiles, such teams would have expanded reach for superior real-time intelligence-gathering and target destruction.

Earlier article on Raytheon's Small Tactical Munition

Here are more plans for mini-drones and munitions being developed for special operations:

The petite, 13-foot Tigershark drone, already used for surveillance and reconnaissance, will be outfitted with an even smaller drone — developed by Air Force researchers under the Precision Acquisition and Weaponized System program — that doubles as a warhead. The baby drone would detach from its Tigershark mother and relay real-time video to ground support as it was directed toward a target and then detonated on impact.

...Several military branches and drone companies are working on teeny-tiny robotic killers. The Acturus drone, which is the aerial equivalent of a compact car and carries a 10-pound missile, is currently undergoing military tests, and earlier this year the Army doled out $4.9 million for “rapid fielding” of AeroVironment’s Switchblade suicide drone, essentially a tiny flying robot with a death wish.

The logic behind these teenier missiles and self-detonating drones (sometimes inside bigger drones!) is simple: A smaller boom and a more targeted explosion — right through the car windshield, for example — keeps unnecessary damage to a minimum. _Wired

The size of these tiny killer-drones is quickly shrinking, so that it will not be long before lethal drone packages can be delivered under stealth in the form of birds, bats, or insects -- right in the lap of an enemy base or command and control centre.

It has become clear to militaries that remote controlled drones are subject to being hacked, hijacked, or having their communications jammed. Consequently, there is a rush to develop semi-autonomous or fully-autonomous drones capable of carrying out a mission after communications is lost.

Unmanned Systems Integrated Roadmap 2011 (PDF) describes some of the US' future plans for unmanned military robots and drones.

China is also hard at work developing sophisticated drone weapons systems:

New Scientist reports that the Chinese are developing what they call “genetic algorithms” that will be used in their pilot-less drones to teach them to “think.” According to the report: “A genetic algorithm is one that works much like natural evolution. It narrows down search results, weeding out the weaker, off-topic responses, and recombining the ‘stronger’ returned values into a better hybridized result.”

These Chinese drones, which will be used to hunt submarines, will be programmed to hunt to some degree on their own by responding and adapting to such things as changing weather patterns, fuel consumption and sonar readings. —— _AFP

So, when should we expect stealthy bird-like or insect-like killer drones?

Why do you ask? Do you have a guilty conscience?

Heh! Just kidding. The simplest and most credible answer is that they are already here, but they are not yet autonomous. And once autonomous, there is no guarantee that they will ever be trusted with more than simple reconnaissance. It seems to me that tiny, undetectable spies should be quite enough, without also making them autonomous killers.

But, perhaps I am being a bit naive.

US Navy Railgun Survives Budget Process, Moves to Testing Phase

Railguns use high-current electrical pulses able to accelerate a conductive armature to as much as 5,600 mph (more than 9,000 km/h). The ONA says the railgun will be suitable for naval surface fire support, land strikes, cruise and ballistic missile defense, and surface warfare. _Register

It could take up to a decade to find its way into shipboard systems - and the budget for the final weapon is now in some doubt.

The energy level has jumped from 0.5 megajoules to 1.5 megajoules. Even at one megajoule, the projectiles hit with the force of a one-ton car striking a wall at 100mph. _DailyMail

DailyMail

The Navy began pursuing the railgun in 2005, and for now, there are only lab prototypes of the weapon. But already the Navy has set a world record (see video below) for muzzle energy used in a weapon--33 megajoules. According to Defense Market, a shot of that magnitude could potentially reach "extended ranges with Mach 5 velocity."

Ellis said, the Navy has awarded contracts to BAE and General Atomics to build prototypes that "are more tactical in nature."...when the railgun is finally deployed, it is likely to be used--or at least be ready for action--in several different kinds of missions. First, Ellis explained, it could be used from a ship to fire inland in support of marines as they come ashore.

At the same time, because the weapon's range is so long, it could allow a Naval ship that features the railgun to defend itself from sea-borne threats long before it can itself be attacked, or from missiles fired from land or sea.

Now it's on to the next phase of the project. According to Ellis, that phase includes demonstrating that it's possible to fire a railgun at a rate of 10 rounds per minute _CBS

9 Second Clip of Record Setting Naval Rail Gun Shot

To supply it, Raytheon’s building a “Pulse Forming Network” or PFN. That's a large power system that stores up electrical power and then converts it to a pulse that is directed into the gun's barrel, John Cochran, the railgun program manager in Raytheon's Advanced Technology Group, told CNET’s News.com. _FoxNews

The US Navy desperately wants to put this gun onboard its attack ships, but it is not clear whether the railgun will be used by land forces or sea forces, if it ever does make it through all the levels of financing and final approval.

This electromagnetic catapult weapon may be a glimpse into the future of medium distance ballistic weaponry, particularly if it can achieve pinpoint accuracy over hundreds of miles distance. Providing the massive amounts of electricity required over a sustained attack might well require a nuclear reactor, along with Raytheon's pulse-forming network.

Adapted from an earlier article at Al Fin Potpourri

Micro-Brewed Explosives: The Renewable Choice in Demolition

The techniques that make synthetic biology such a powerful tool for positive innovation may be also used for destruction. The military’s new search for biologically brewed explosives threatens to reopen an avenue of research that has been closed for 37 years: biotechnology developed for use in war...Because explosives-producing microbes in themselves would not be weapons, they would not appear to violate the convention [Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention]. _Slate

It is nice to see that under President Obama, even state sponsored violence is becoming greener and more natural. But already, President Obama's enemies are questioning his wisdom by conjuring up the wicked spirit of proliferation:

The quality that makes microbes so powerful will also make them difficult to contain: A single microscopic cell, acquired by a criminal or enemy, could in principle multiply to fill a vat within a few days. _Slate

Microbial genes can be programmed to produce a wide range of products that are useful to humans. From antiquity, humans have used microbes in the production of foods and beverages. More recently, microbes are being programmed for a wider array of synthetic products.

In 2000, when Weiss gave talks in MIT's biology department, the weirdness of this biology/engineering synthesis was apparent. “When I spoke of circuits that could turn genes on and off, some probably thought I had fallen out of space,” he says. “Those days, we did not speak the same language. Now we have developed a hybrid vocabulary.”

... Weiss's goal was to build a plasmid, a custom-made DNA sequence that can be replicated easily. Knight, an electrical engineer, aimed to pare down the genome and repurpose the cell to produce things it was not originally designed to make -- plastics, say, or fuels. _Science

Weiss and Knight developed a Registry of Standard Biological Parts to assist researchers in designing programmable genetic circuits, for the custom designing of microbes. The idea is to take synthetic biology, and "put it on steroids."

Most people like the idea of using microbes to produce insulin and other life-saving drugs. Few people object to the idea of using microbes to produce fuels, plastics, and high value chemicals for industry. But die-hard enemies of President Obama cannot seem to accept his ingenious ideas for micro-brewing explosives with convenient and prolific microbes!

Picture, if you will, bombs and cruise missiles which when they reach their targets do not explode. Instead, they release a fine mist of microbes in nutrient suspension, which coat the surfaces of everything in the vicinity of the target. These microbes can then proceed to proliferate wildly, in exponential fashion. They grow. And grow. And grow.

What do these "weaponised" microbes become? Whatever you want! They could become food -- cheese or wine, for example. Or they could become biofuels if you'd rather. New age weapons designers would have their pick of a wide array of breeds of microbe.

Very wicked weapons designers might send microbial colonies capable of assembling and detonating a nuclear weapon out of soil, rock, and junk parts. Such micro-weapon nukes may very well violate a treaty or convention. But what about microbe colonies that first disperse and grow to cover an entire city, then synthesise enough conventional explosives to destroy the entire metropolis in one fell swoosh? Military lawyers may wish to burn the midnight oil before signing off on those plans.

Regardless of eventual application, micro-brewed weapons certainly represent a new dawn in renewable military applications. Mr. Obama can be forgiven many of his more questionable decisions in the light of his enlightened choice for the Pentagon to go renewable.

A Declining America Under Obama: Dealing With the Aftermath

Not so long ago, a high-ranking Chinese official, who obviously had concluded that America's decline and China's rise were both inevitable, noted in a burst of candor to a senior U.S. official: "But, please, let America not decline too quickly." Although the inevitability of the Chinese leader's expectation is still far from certain, he was right to be cautious when looking forward to America's demise.

For if America falters, the world is unlikely to be dominated by a single preeminent successor -- not even China. International uncertainty, increased tension among global competitors, and even outright chaos would be far more likely outcomes. _FP

The accelerating decline of America under Obama is not coincidental. It is an active process originating in the White House, working its way down the federal bureaucracy to impair virtually every function of the US economy and private sector, starting with energy.

“For the first time in U.S. history, net coal capacity is in decline. On top of 38 gigawatts of generation that is already being run below normal levels or slated for early retirement, NERC predicts another 36 to 59 gigawatts will come offline by 2018, depending on the ‘scope and timing’ of EPA demands. That could mean nearly a quarter of all coal-fired capacity.”

It is coal-fired plants that currently provide fifty percent of all the electricity generated in America! The EPA is feverishly trying to force a quarter of that capacity offline. Why? Because the EPA claims that these plants are “polluting” the air. The air in America has never been cleaner. _CFP

Besides shutting down the coal industry, Obama has blocked offshore oil drilling, blocked the Keystone pipeline for Canadian oilsands, threatened to abort the shale oil & gas bonanza, impeded development of safer, more advanced nuclear power, and shunted billions of dollars of funding to political cronies who are backing unreliable and exorbitantly expensive big wind and big solar projects.

As a result, the cost of energy in America is getting set to rise at the same time that the availability of energy is set to decline. Added to all the other economic burdens under Obama, and the US private sector will have good reason to cry.

When America's energy declines, American industry and commerce will also decline. As economic conditions at the grass roots level continue to degenerate under Obama, incidents of civil disorder and disobedience are likely to occur in multiple locations, manifesting in multiple ways.

The re-election of Obama in 2012 would allow a further accelerated decline in the quality and reliability of US energy and electrical power infrastructure. Obama's wholesale attack against the US private sector would be amplified, in order to remove the source of funding for the opposition to the political power elite. With a further breakdown in the private sector economy, conditions leading to civil disorder would be expanded to more parts of the country.

Living in an urban setting would become even more hazardous, as the decline of "the commons" accelerates. The dividing line between public employees and private citizens will grow more stark, as public sector union pensions and benefits create a new elite, at the expense of a shrinking group of private taxpayers. This will lead to a growing antipathy toward government and government employees at all levels -- a very dangerous and unstable situation. (see pensiontsunami.com) The longer that President Obama remains in office, the longer it will take to come to grips with this "under the radar" problem.

US military and law enforcement have devoted a good deal of thought to how they will deal with widespread outbreaks of civil disorder in the US. The development of "non-lethal" weaponry is one response to the growing threat, under Obama. This PDF download (h/t Wired) is a report on some of the latest types of non-lethal weapons, which has been released to US government agencies for discussion and planning. While these weapons are nominally considered "non-lethal," in practise a certain number of deaths and disability injuries are likely.

Of course, as the US government continues its decline under Obama, weapons which were meant for the exclusive use of official US government agencies, will eventually fall into the hands of other groups, organisations, and individuals. That means that a wide range of criminal and quasi-criminal groups are likely to obtain powerful weapons of both lethal and "non-lethal" varieties -- although the non-lethal variety would likely be easier to obtain. Possessing both types of weapons would allow groups a wider latitude of strategies and tactics.

If President Obama remains in office for much longer, he may need to withdraw all overseas US troops just to deal with the growing civil disorder within US borders. Mr. Obama is not likely to be bothered by petty issues of posse comitatus or the like, if he sees his power base coming under threat.

Mr. Obama has taken a bad situation -- decades in the making -- and made it incalculably worse. And he will continue making it worse as long as US voters allow him to. The aftermath is likely to be explosive -- not only for America.

Another consequence of American decline could be a corrosion of the generally cooperative management of the global commons -- shared interests such as sea lanes, space, cyberspace, and the environment, whose protection is imperative to the long-term growth of the global economy and the continuation of basic geopolitical stability. In almost every case, the potential absence of a constructive and influential U.S. role would fatally undermine the essential communality of the global commons because the superiority and ubiquity of American power creates order where there would normally be conflict. _FP

The accelerating decline of America under Obama is likely to result in civil disorder within the US, and global war outside the US.

Elections have consequences.

Making Your Own Gunpowder for Fun and Fireworks

...all the ingredients for gunpowder are readily available side by side, no questions asked, in any garden center or home-improvement store. Charcoal is sold for grilling, and sulfur comes in bags that say “sulfur” in big letters (nice old ladies use it for dusting roses). But the key secret I never figured out back then is that most brands of stump remover are little more than pure saltpeter.


... I always ground the ingredients separately with a mortar and pestle and then mixed them gently without further grinding. This results in a powder that burns energetically but slowly: perfect, it turns out, for making sparkler cones. _PopSci

Making your own fireworks might be fun. Displaying your pyrotechnic skills would certainly impress family members, friends, and co-workers. If you decide to give it a try, be careful.

There may be other reasons for some people to learn to make gunpowder. Sales of guns and ammunition have been on the upswing in the US ever since it became apparent that Senator Obama was likely to become US President. That trend continues, and many gun aficiandos have complained about high prices and limited availability for many types of firearm and ammunition. Mr. Obama favours a stricter control of firearms, and holds the "bitter clingers to their guns" in high disdain.

The day may come in the US when a person will need to know how to fabricate his own weapons, and cook up his own gunpowder. Well, probably not. But if it ever happens, knowing how to build weapons and cook gunpowder and primer material might be a valuable commercial skill.

WARNING! Creating and igniting pyrotechnic mixtures of any kind, including gunpowder, is inherently dangerous and is illegal in some places. Harmless experimentation, especially by kids, can be taken very seriously by the authorities, so an adult must always be present and take full responsibility.
_PopSci

How to make smokeless gunpowder

US Navy's Free Electron Super-Laser Energy Weapon ++

H/T BrianWang
The US Navy plans to equip its nuclear ships with powerful, tunable, free electron lasers which can serve as powerful energy weapons as well as serve several other functions. The Chinese military is developing a lethal "carrier killer" missile, meant to neutralise the power of the US aircraft carrier groups which may intervene in a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. The US Navy wants to neutralise this threat in turn, as well as accomplishing many other weapons and non-weapons capabilities with the new, powerful laser.

All lasers require some kind of medium to turn light into high-energy beams--solid state lasers use crystals, while chemical lasers use (you guessed it) a stew of unfriendly chemicals. Both of those versions have their pros and cons, but neither is extraordinarily versatile; they generally power their lasers up to a certain wavelength and that’s that.

Free electron lasers, on the other hand, use a stream of supercharged electrons to power the laser at varying wavelengths. This versatility is why the Navy has referred to FELs as the Holy Grail of laser tech and why it has embarked on a $163 million quest to develop a working weapons system, $26 million of which is currently facilitating a development program at Boeing that’s due for delivery in 2012. _PopSci

Sure, everyone wants a “death ray,” as the Navy’s chief of research, Rear Admiral Nevin Carr, put it yesterday. But the program manager at the Office of Naval Research for the Free Electron Laser, Quentin Saulter, tells Danger Room that the Navy is looking at “multiple uses, not a single use” for its “Holy Grail” of lasers. And that might lighten the laser’s energy burden.

What would the laser do when it’s not trying to blast a missile out of the sky? “It can be used as a sensor,” Saulter says in an interview during the Office of Naval Research’s science and technology conference in Virginia. “It can be used as a tracker… It can enable kinetic kill systems to be more precise. It can be used for location, time-of-flight location, information exchange, can be used for communications, it can be used for target designation, it can be used for disruption.” _Wired_via_BrianWang

The US is involved in something of a new "arms race" with China, similar to an earlier arms race with the now-defunct USSR. But the US military will not be able to out-spend China the way it did the Soviets. And keeping a technological lead over the Chinese will be difficult when US corporations and labs are teeming with corporate and overseas spies -- and when US corporations themselves are vying with each other to transfer advanced technology to the Chinese, and to build huge new state of the art tech fabs and factories on the Chinese mainland.

The Chinese, in other words, will have the blueprints to the new weapons long before they are built. While Chinese infrastructure may be lagging in many areas of high technology, eventually they will be able to build and/or counteract whatever US labs invent and develop. That is something the US military must keep in mind when it spends big money on advanced weapons.

Homemade High Voltage Coilgun: When Timeout Is Not Enough

Raising a bright and willful child is not always easy. For the times when a timeout does not convince the little tyke to conform to the plan, a shock from a high voltage coil will often do the trick. And if not? A rubber-tipped metallic projectile fired from this homemade coilgun will almost certainly induce compliance. Particularly if you emphasise that the rubber tip can always be removed. ;-)

Oh, about the unconventional child-rearing practises above? Just kidding. I have always been more of a Montessori custodian myself.

From Makezine via Popsci

Sonic Disruptor Technology Comes to Earth

Unlike conventional lead bullets, sound bullets can travel through air, liquid and solids alike, carrying devastating energy along as they go. If weaponized, a sound bullet system could create waves to blast holes in submarines or reach into underground bunkers with devastating shock waves. _PopSci

ImageSource
Scientists at Cal Tech in Pasadena have developed amazingly effective new methods of focusing sonic energy. The new techniques are likely to play important future roles in medical therapies for treating tumours, in weapons technologies, and in advanced communications.

The new acoustic lens is made of a metamaterial and uses the Newton’s cradle principle, which is familiar to many people from a toy with identical metal balls suspended on strings, designed to demonstrate the conservation of energy. When the ball at one end is pulled out and released, the ball at the other end swings out at the same speed. The metamaterial comprises 21 parallel chains, each containing 21 stainless steel spheres, but instead of channeling motion, the balls channel sound waves, which are converted to a shock wave called a “solitary wave”. The energy leaving the lens does not bounce back through the chains because of the length of the chains, and instead is focused on a spot a few centimeters in front of it. _Physorg

Brian Wang has much more on this development, with supplementary links and materials.

You need Flash installed to watch this ideo

Stress waves traveling in a nonlinear acoustic lens and sound bullet formation in the adjacent fluid medium (numerical results). In the lens, the sphere colors are proportional to the contact-force amplitude. Waves emitted by the nonlinear acoustic lens reach the host medium (via an elastic interface), where they generate compact spherical pressure waves. The pressure waves coalesce in the host medium and form a sound bullet. The color bar on the right represents the scale of pressure intensity (Pa) in the host medium.

The system is still under development and has not yet been tested on living cells. It is likely to be some years before it is available for medical or other applications.
VidSource: Physorg

Energy Weapons In Air and Missile Defense

The US military, along with various defense contractors, is busy developing better ways of defending against attacks from the air. High energy lasers have proven themselves against planes and missiles, and now Boeing has a low-energy laser it is proving on testing grounds.

Last month, a small robotic plane flew into the skies over New Mexico's White Sands Missile Range. Tracking the drone was an experimental Humvee, equipped with a laser. The real-life ray gun then took aim at the drone, and began blasting. Soon, the drone had a hole burnt through it -- and was crashing down to the desert....what makes this test, held last month, a little different is that the laser was small, and low-powered. Which makes the ray gun, at least in theory, fairly easy to fit into an existing combat vehicle.

...The laser-equipped Humvee is a modified version of the Army's Avenger air defense system. It uses more traditional means -- eight missiles -- to take out low-flying targets. So why use the ray gun? "Laser Avenger, unlike a conventional weapon, can fire its laser beam without creating missile exhaust or gun flashes that would reveal its position," Boeing's Gary Fitzmire contends. "As a result, Laser Avenger can neutralize these UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle] threats while keeping our troops safe." Wired

Combine various energy weapons with advanced robotic weapons, smart bombs, and nano-weapons, and the battlefield of the future will begin to seem very strange to contemporary minds. On top of all that, the eye in the sky sees all.

What happens to the peace-loving populations of the Earth when a new Fuhrer takes control of these advanced weapons systems? We may find out soon.

A Duel To The Pain

To the pain means the first thing you will lose will be your feet below the ankles. Then your hands at the wrists. Next your nose....The next thing you will lose will be your left eye followed by your right....Your ears you keep and I'll tell you why. So that every shriek of every child at seeing your hideousness will be yours to cherish. Every babe that weeps at your approach, every woman who cries out, "Dear God! What is that thing," will echo in your perfect ears. That is what to the pain means. It means I leave you in anguish, wallowing in freakish misery forever. _PrincessBride

The US Justice Department has its own ideas of what "to the pain" might mean. In order to use pain as a non-lethal weapon against crime, the US DOJ research labs are developing a "pain beam" weapon for use by its agents of the law.

The research arm of the US Department of Justice is working on two portable non-lethal weapons that inflict pain from a distance using beams of laser light or microwaves, with the intention of putting them into the hands of police to subdue suspects.

The two devices under development by the civilian National Institute of Justice both build on knowledge gained from the Pentagon's controversial Active Denial System (ADS) - first demonstrated in public last year, which uses a 2-metre beam of short microwaves to heat up the outer layer of a person's skin and cause pain.
'Reduced injuries'

Like the ADS, the new portable devices will also heat the skin, but will have beams only a few centimetres across. They are designed to elicit what the Pentagon calls a "repel response" - a strong urge to escape from the beam.

A spokesperson for the National Institute for Justice likens the effect of the new devices to that of "blunt trauma" weapons such as rubber bullets, "But unlike blunt trauma devices, the injury should not be present. This research is looking to reduce the injuries to suspects," they say. _NewScientist

Only two cases of second-degree burns have been recorded from thousands of experimental uses of the pain beam. I have had worse from an afternoon in the sun, as have many of my readers, no doubt.

We all know, however, that such weapons always find their way outside of official channels, in the hands of well to do criminals who have a flair for organisation and bribery. Thieves and rapists are already using Tasers to bring their victims to submission. What sort of uses will criminals find for pain beam devices?

Sure, you may see this new P-beamer as a torture weapon, in line for use at Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo, or perhaps for the secret dungeons under the White House. But what about using it as a proper dueling weapon, for the satisfaction of matters of honour? Is it possible that the fear of pain might encourage better manners among the teeming and worthless generations of psychological neotenates and the academically lobotomised? Could such P-beam devices find a use in today's high schools and universities, as a way of encouraging learning and discouraging delinquency and boorishness? Perhaps, perhaps, and thanks for suggesting it.

Because here at the top secret government labs, we are just the same as all branches of government. We're here to help you. And the bigger and more powerful we grow, the better equipped we will be to provide assistance. Don't worry. Just be good, and we will make sure you are happy. Or, we will at least not beam you.

Airborne Anti-ICBM Lasers w/ UAV Relay Fleets

The US remains the powerhouse of world science and technology R&D. It is also the world economic and military hegemon. Such a world power is able to develop technologies that "also-rans" must try to imitate or steal. One developing technology that can change the global strategic balance, is the airborne laser, capable of shooting down an ICBM along with its nuclear warheads.

The flying laser cannon could be accompanied by a fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) fitted with mirrors. These relay UAVs would be harder to spot and more disposable than a 747, and could bounce the high-energy beam onto targets that might otherwise be out of range, or out of the plane's line-of-sight. With multiple flying drones, a single ABL could cover an exponentially wider area. It would be an entirely new combination of lasers and robots­—and it may be the answer to critics aiming to dismantle ABL before it ever flies.

Originally commissioned by the United States Air Force, this flying laser is now touted as a mobile missile defense platform, designed to shoot down ballistic missiles before they escape the atmosphere. If North Korea or some other hostile nation were on the verge of launching a strike against the United States or its allies, a small fleet of ABLs would be deployed to the region. They would loiter at altitudes as high as 40,000 ft, and if a missile did appear over the horizon, a laser would automatically dart out, painting the threat with enough heat to send it tumbling back to Earth. _PopMech

Such a defensive weapon--if effective--would render ICBM nuclear attacks much less reliable. If an attacking nation is unsure if its missiles will get through, it will be forced to think very carefully before it launches.

This type of technology only ratchets up the arms race into new areas of research, of course. But it makes it ever so much harder for third world nations such as Pakistan, Iran, or North Korea to make credible threats against more technologically advanced nations who can have capable R&D infrastructures.

That is one way that Ronald Reagan intimidated the USSR military establishment into a nervous breakdown. Reagan's "Star Wars" missile defense was not a credible defense at the time. But USSR analysts understood that for the US to even be working on such a thing revealed a huge gap in R&D capability between the USSR and the USA.

The same type of infrastructural gap exists now between the US and most of the rest of the world. Only China has the capacity to eventually develop an R&D infrastructure to rival that of the US. Russia's wealth is being stripped and shipped to Swiss bank accounts by the Putin gang. Russia never did develop beyond a "one-trick pony" economy, dependent on fossil fuel reserves that it is incompetent to develop efficiently.

If the airborne laser + UAV relay fleets prove capable of overcoming countermeasures--such as reflective coatings to deflect and dissipate laser energies--no doubt the US will share the technology with NATO allies and Israel. Which means that the technology will make its way to Russia and China via espionage of various types. The infrastructure for rapid development and updating to keep up with the rapid development of countermeasures and counter-countermeasures is what Russia lacks, and will always lack as long as it is run by criminals and KGB types.

Nano-Weapons of the Near Future

Nano-weapons are coming soon. No one knows exactly when, but you can be sure that they will see you before you see them!

Nano-Weaponry – Testing the Limits

Here are just some of the possibilities:

1.) Nano-Scouts – Using technologies that effectively “lives on” and controls live insects, the proverbial “fly on the wall” may have literally hundreds or even thousands of parasitic nano-scouts living on its exterior....

2.) Nano-Poisons – Most people instantly think of poison as a tool for killing someone. But nanotechnology, with its ability to trigger specific brain functions, will provide a whole new menu of poison options. As an example, a liar-poison will make it impossible for someone to tell the truth. A kleptomaniac poison will make it impossible for the person to stop stealing things. An alcoholic poison will make a person unable to stop drinking alcohol. The obesity poison will cause a person to eat themselves to death. And my favorite - - we’ll call it the “frontal lobotomy poison,” - - will make a person incapable of being angry or mean.

3.) Nano Force Fields – Any field powerful enough to keep the bad guys out is also capable of keeping the bad guys in....

4.) Nano Mind Erasers – Neutralizing a person’s memory can often be a more powerful defense than killing them. Micro fields flaring up in a succession of unnoticeable tiny brain bursts may wipe sections of a brain clean without anyone ever noticing. Alzheimer’s in a can.

5.) Nano Needles – Invisible to the human eye, nano diameter needles will be shot like clusters of bullets from great distances to “pin” people to a wall or freeze their physical movement. Nano needles, because of their tiny diameter, will be the ultimate non-lethal weapon, leaving no visible wounds and causing no permanent damage.

6.) Water Bullets – As a different kind of non-lethal weapon, self-contained water balls, formed around an elevated surface tension containment system, will be used to knock people down, temporarily rendering them harmless.

7.) Desynchronized Energy Fields – Binary power, created by the intersection of two otherwise harmless beams, has the ability to disrupt the energy fields in an individual. A person with desynchronized energy fields will feel extremely fatigued, and pushed to a more extreme level, will drop unconsciously to the ground. A new form of stun-gun.

8.) Nano Heart-Stoppers and Stroke Inducers – ... nano-blood flow restrictors that induce excruciating pain and reduce the victim to a fraction of who they once were, over a long period of time, have the side benefit of telling the world “don’t mess with me” or you’ll end up like this guy. __FS__via__FutureScanner

A future of nano-dust spies, sentinels, assassins, and defensive weapons, is one that most of the world's military specialists are unprepared for--to say nothing of the average world citizen. Yet most of these weapons are far closer and easier to devise and build, than the molecular nano-assembler--the horn of plenty that most people think of when they think of a nanotechnological future.

Nano-weapons combined with bio-weapons, chemical weapons, and genetic weapons, provide the budding world religious or ideological dictator with far more ultimate power than a few nuclear weapons.

Of course, every measure has a counter-measure. But not everyone will have the resources to obtain counter-measures, when the means of deadly attack becomes nearly ubiquitous. Have you thought lately about what I said regarding minimum viable population?

Invisible Death and Pain: Welcome to Your Future

If you go to war, if you die in war, the chances are you will be killed by an invisible force. By a rocket fired from miles above, by invisible energy beams, by invisible tanks and ships. Death is easy. Living is hard, and getting harder for combatants.

The “stealthiest” ship that currently exists is Sweden’s Visby Corvette. Apart from being painted in grey dazzle camouflage and made of low-radar reflectivity materials, it also does not use propellers, which are the noisiest part of a ship. The vessel also has the lowest “magnetic signature” of any current warship.

But the next generation of warships could be truly invisible by exploiting “metamaterials” – artificially engineered structures first dreamt up by physicist John Pendry at Imperial College, London. Metamaterials are tailored to have specific electromagnetic properties not found in nature. In particular, they can bend light around an object, making it appear to an observer as though the waves have passed through empty space.___Source

The US Pentagon is developing futuristic energy weapons, of course. High power lasers, microwaves, sound waves...

It's a gun that doesn't look anything like a gun: it's that flat dish antenna which shoots out a 100,000-watt beam at the speed of light, hitting any thing in its path with an intense blast of heat.

An operator uses a joystick to zero in on a target. Visible only with an infrared camera, the gun, when fired emits a flash of white hot energy -- an electromagnetic beam made up of very high frequency radio waves. ___CBS

The Active Denial System causes exquisite pain, but does not kill. But a slight modification to the system could change that. Current sentimental non-lethality is not likely to survive the next large scale terror attack on a western homeland.

It is not just the Pentagon that is getting into the high-tech energy weapons. China is doing its best to keep up, and possibly get ahead here and there.

"China is developing a multi-dimensional program to limit or prevent the use of space-based assets by its potential adversaries during times of crisis or conflict," the report said.

The report said the Chinese People's Liberation Army had developed a range of weapons and jammers to prevent an enemy from using space-based systems such as satellites.

"The PLA is also exploring satellite jammers, kinetic energy weapons, high-powered lasers, high-powered microwave weapons, particle beam weapons, and electromagnetic pulse weapons for counterspace application," it said.___Source

China is still dependent on the US and the west for its economic and industrial well-being. Consider the way Asian and Chinese stock markets get pneumonia when the US markets catch cold. Still, when the time is right, and Chinese leaders feel they are ready economically to act against the US, they intend to be ready militarily.

Consider it an arms race to the singularity. Eventually satellites will be armed with energy beam weapons as well. But the truly dangerous weapons are those that are invisible because they are so small. Nano-bio weapons. You will not be relieved to know that the US and China are racing for superiority on that front as well.

Meanwhile, back in the current capital of western civilisation, the US public is consumed by the political spectacle of the 2008 presidential election campaign. Of the candidates likely to win--either Senator Obama or Senator Clinton--both lack a firm grasp of the larger reality they will be expected to face in the real world outside US politics. Psychological neotenates in oblivion, living in a dream world on borrowed time.

My suggestion to readers. Think about what is likely to happen. Where do you want to be when it does? Who do you want to be with, and what sort of environment do you want to create for yourself? Do not count on affirmative action. Do not count on political correctness. Do not count on society or relief agencies.

USAF Prepares for Coming War with Russia, China

The small wars the US is fighting in Afghanistan, Iraq, the Horn of Africa, and other lesser known locations, are typically small unit wars fought against small units of loosely organised insurgent and terrorist groups. But the nature of the current hot wars fought by the US military says nothing about future conflicts with large nations of growing belligerency, such as China and Russia. The US Air Force (as well as the Army and Navy) must continue to train for conflict against battalion and division level units on land, sea, and in the air. That is where new energy weapons come in.

Boeing will support research, design, development and testing at Air Force Research Laboratory sites at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, N.M. Specific efforts will include:

• - Working to advance gas, hybrid electric-gas and chemical laser systems, as well as technologies related to high-power fiber lasers, fiber laser pumps, non-linear optics, solid-state lasers and diode-pump lasers.
• - Coordinating, preparing and executing tests of laser effects.
• - Rapid prototyping of directed energy technology, including semiconductor lasers, thin-disk lasers, ultra-short lasers, laser-based infrared countermeasures, and mid-wave and long-wave infrared lasers.
• - Supporting the Laser Center of Excellence, a joint Department of Defense/academic program that partners the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Air Force Research Lab, Air Force Institute of Technology, University of New Mexico and New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. The Center's efforts include gas, hybrid electric-gas and chemical laser systems.___Source

Other advanced energy weapons include advanced radio frequency and microwave weapons, particle beam technologies, high powered electromagnetic accelerator weapons being developed by the Navy.

The recent direct hit by a ship-launched missile on an errant spy satellite--in orbit--highlights the advanced level of weapons electronics incorporated into US weapons. And that technology was decades old. Imagine the type of weapons being tested in secret labs, waiting in the queue for implementation into actual weapons systems. The high technology of US weapons systems is a nightmare to Russian defense planners, and an exciting spy opportunity for the CCP PLA defense planners.

Scramjet: New York to Sydney in 2 Hours at Hypersonic Speeds

Rocket engine performance from a scramjet engine? That is what the X-51A Flight Test Program project is hoping to create. DARPA and the Air Force Research Laboratory are funding the collaborative effort to achieve mach 6 speeds initially. Eventually they hope to reach mach 15.

Ordinary jets have a major limitation: They can't go faster than Mach 3 without their turbine blades melting. Rocket ships can reach Mach 25, but they have to carry tremendous amounts of liquid oxygen to burn their fuel. The space shuttle, for example, weighs only 165,000 pounds empty, but it must carry 226,000 pounds of liquid hydrogen and 1.4 million pounds of liquid oxygen to reach orbit.

An air-breathing jet engine with no moving, meltable parts, such as a scramjet, can solve these problems. A scramjet is an advanced form of a "ramjet," an engine that takes the air rushing into the engine and "rams" it into the combustion chamber, creating intense pressures that can sustain combustion at the furious rate that Mach-3-plus speeds demand. But ramjets have limits too. The air entering the engine has to be slowed to subsonic speeds for it to run efficiently. And that air is so hot that no matter what measures are taken to cool it, a ramjet-powered craft must stay under Mach 5 to keep from disintegrating.

But a scramjet—a "supersonic combustion ramjet"—changes things. A scramjet does away with the diffuser that a ramjet uses to slow down incoming air, allowing the air to move through the engine at supersonic speeds so it can fly above Mach 5. The tradeoff: A scramjet engine in flight is a delicate system. Achieving balanced combustion at those speeds is an engineering challenge often compared to keeping a match lit in a hurricane.

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The impetus for rapid development of such a craft comes from the fact that the Chinese military has its own project to develop scramjet technology.

Last July, engineers from China showed up at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Joint Propulsion Conference in Cincinnati and revealed a growing scramjet research program of their own, including a new hypersonic wind tunnel in Beijing and work on rocket-powered combined-cycle scramjets. None of the American scramjet experts we talked to would discuss their reactions to the Chinese revelations. But Craig Covault, an editor at Aviation Week & Space Technology who reported on the conference, believes one of the main reasons the Chinese attended was to glean all available intel on Western scramjet research. "I would bet that they have a serious research program under way that has a lot more going on than just the few papers that they issued at this forum," Covault says. "The reason that they issued them was just kind of a message to the rest of the world that they are engaged in these high-tech things. It also allowed them to get the 500 or more other papers in propulsion technology of all kinds delivered at the conference."

Whether or not the Chinese are actually as far along as they say, the US is determined to proceed with the hypersonic engine development. Being able to deliver a large weapons payload, or a squad of well-equipped special forces troops anywhere in the world in under 2 hours, is a temptation the US military cannot resist.

In terms of space launch capability, using a scramjet first stage to boost a rocket powered orbital second stage might reduce launch costs to orbit by more than half. Using such a system to launch sensitive payloads such as humans into orbit, and launching non-sensitive materials by laser launch, electromagnetic launch, or other cheap and high-g launch method, may work out to a combination that gets more people into earth orbit, lunar space, and la grange orbits.

Truck Mounted Laser--For Shooting Down Rockets and Mortar Shells

Directed energy weapons will be more common on the battlefield, for shooting down incoming rockets, missiles--even artillery shells. Boeing was recently awarded a contract to develop a truck-mounted laser weapon for defending ground forces against incoming explosive ordnance, such as rockets, artillery, and mortar shells.

The High-Energy Laser Technology Demonstrator (HEL TD) Phase I contract contains options that would call for Boeing to build and test a significant component of the HEL TD system, comprised of the BCS integrated on a vehicle platform, and to refine requirements for the entire HEL TD system. The options would increase the contract cost to approximately $50 million.

The HEL TD program is intended to demonstrate that a mobile, solid-state laser weapon system can effectively counter rocket, artillery and mortar projectiles.

Source

Laser and particle beam weaponry will receive a large amount of military funding in the coming decades. Eventually, anti-satellite and anti ballistic missile weaponry will be mainly directed energy weapons, due to their accuracy and speed.

Personally, I would like one of these mounted on the back of my car, for dealing with tailgaters. Which suggests that humans may not be ready for advanced technology after all.

Seriously, directed energy weapons are another example of revolutionary weapons technology--including nano-weapons, bio-weapons, nuclear weapons, and electromagnetic weaponry--that may dramatically alter the way society is structured.

It is only a matter of time before a highly virulent, almost universally contagious engineered bio-weapon is loosed into modern populations. It is likewise only a matter of time before invisible yet deadly reproducing nano-weapons are allowed to escape into the environment.

Nuclear weapons technology is propagating deeply into militant Islam and other enemies of modern civilisation such as North Korea. Nukes will be used against large populations of civilians in surprise attacks. The repercussions from such attacks are frightening and unpredictable.

If directed energy weapons technology escapes into the general population of arms dealers, safe air travel may become impossible in certain parts of the world, such as Europe.

Electromagnetic weapons include electromagnetic pulse weapons (EMPs), electronically activated and timed conventional weaponry, hypersonic electromagnetic rail weaponry, electromagnetic ballistic cannons--including suborbital and orbit capable weapons.

And that is only scratching the surface.

Many of these weapons can make large areas of Earth's surface virtually uninhabitable to densely packed human settlements such as modern cities. Some of these weapons can lay waste to large areas of planted cropland, triggering mass hunger. And so on.

Given the modern predominance of narcissism, psychological neoteny, and academic lobotomy, it is unlikely that most modern persons will know how to react to the coming of these brave new weapons.

But you will know, won't you?

Update: Those of you who believe in the Peak Oil Theory are already thinking along these lines. Big cities with their surrounding suburbs and country bedroom communities full of commuters will not be viable in the age of ultra-expensive gasoline, and oil.

The jury is still out on that theory. Fossil fuels will certainly be more expensive, forcing some hard choices. But that is not really on the same level as mass-death from plague or out of control nano-killers, is it?

Consider looking into the Lifeboat Foundation, or the Society for Creative Apocalyptology. Think about surviving into the next level.

Plasma Shields, Laser Snipers, Perpetual Nuclear Fuel Recycling

The US military aims to introduce some rather exotic weapons into the battlefield of the near future.

The Plasma Acoustic Shield System will eventually combine a dynamic pulse detonation laser with a high power speaking for hailing or warning, and a dazzler light source. PASS has already been demonstrated by the system's makers, Stellar Photonics.

"It uses a programmed pattern of rapid plasma events to create a sort of wall of bright lights and reports (bangs) over the coverage area," says Keith Braun of the US Army's Advanced Energy Armaments Systems Division at Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey, US, where the system is being tested.

...The company has also pitched a portable laser rifle, which would be lethal, to the US Army. It would weigh about fifteen kilograms, would have a range of more than a mile, and could have numerous advantages over existing rifles – better accuracy and the ability to hit a moving target at the speed of light.

It could also be used in non-lethal mode, "offering the individual soldier a first response non-lethal alternative, with the capability to go lethal should the situation call for that level of response", says Braun. But extensive testing of its effects on humans would need to be carried out before it could be legitimately used as a non-lethal weapon.

Source

Meanwhile, Oak Ridge National Lab wants to recycle all that nuclear waste from nuclear reactors, that had been slated for the Yucca Mountain waste disposal site.

The aim of the demo -- part of a controversial $405-million government project called the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) -- is to transform nuclear leftovers into fuel for a new breed of reactors. The new reactor/fuel combo, GNEP officials say, could produce up to 100 times as much energy as conventional reactors and could generate 40 percent less waste.

The initiative is a key part of the Bush administration's long-term strategy to meet America's rising demand for electricity -- according to the DOE, it's expected to jump by 45 percent from 4,000 billion kilowatt-hours in 2005 to 5,800 billion kilowatt-hours in 2030 -- without creating more greenhouse gases.

"Nuclear energy is the biggest source we have for meeting our energy needs without contributing to global warming," says Sherrell Greene, director of the nuclear-technology program at Oak Ridge, one of the 13 potential recycling sites selected earlier this year by the DOE.

Another central GNEP objective is to deal with the nation's growing nuclear-waste problem: The country's 103 nuclear reactors produce 2,200 tons of radioactive waste annually, and there's no good place to put it.

Source

New generations of reactors should be able to utilise the recycled nuclear waste as fuel to generate more gigawatt scale power. While "environmentalists" may wish to have it both ways--no fossil fuels and no nuclear power--it is very unlikely that such "purity" will be achievable for the next thirty years. After that it is possible that nuclear fusion will step in--quien sabe?

And speaking of profitable uses of waste, how about this plasma converter that turns garbage into clean energy?

The radiant energy of the plasma arc is so powerful, it disintegrates trash into its constituent elements by tearing apart molecular bonds. The system is capable of breaking down pretty much anything except nuclear waste, the isotopes of which are indestructible. The only by-products are an obsidian-like glass used as a raw material for numerous applications, including bathroom tiles and high-strength asphalt, and a synthesis gas, or “syngas”—a mixture of primarily hydrogen and carbon monoxide that can be converted into a variety of marketable fuels, including ethanol, natural gas and hydrogen.

Perhaps the most amazing part of the process is that it’s self-sustaining. Just like your toaster, Startech’s Plasma Converter draws its power from the electrical grid to get started. The initial voltage is about equal to the zap from a police stun gun. But once the cycle is under way, the 2,200˚F syngas is fed into a cooling system, generating steam that drives turbines to produce electricity. About two thirds of the power is siphoned off to run the converter; the rest can be used on-site for heating or electricity, or sold back to the utility grid. “Even a blackout would not stop the operation of the facility,” Longo says.