New military hardware

[lucinator]

Maybe it's just me but it seems the US is stepping up it's intimidation game versus Iran. In the last month the US Airforce has made announcements on three weapon systems that would most likely be used against Iran.

1. The Massive Ordnance Penatrator (mop) was given IOC
2. So to was a prompt global strike weapon (PGSW a intercontinental range hypersonic glider)
3.A previously black stealth cruse missile with directed energy and EW payload options has been unrivaled with IOC soon.:gun

 

[SASWanabe]

1. has been known of for years
2. has been known of for years
and 3. i would like a link to because i havn't heard of it

 

[lucinator]

1. has been known of for years
2. has been known of for years
and 3. i would like a link to because i havn't heard of it

for 1+2, I know they've been known for years, I'm saying that the weapons have been given IOC and lots of press.

for 3, Do you have a aviation week account, its from this week's issue

 

[Bonza]

and 3. i would like a link to because i havn't heard of it

I think this is the weapon to which he's referring: First Look: Electronic Warfare Missile | AVIATION WEEK

 

[colay]

I was reading up on High Power Microwave weapons a while back and was interested to learn that the techniques for hardening against EMP are not effective against HPMs. HPMs are devious and can infiltrate the tiniest defects in protective shielding. For the legacy equipment in place today, one wonders how much time and money it will take to shield them..

 

[lucinator]

I was reading up on High Power Microwave weapons a while back and was interested to learn that the techniques for hardening against EMP are not effective against HPMs. HPMs are devious and can infiltrate the tiniest defects in protective shielding. For the legacy equipment in place today, one wonders how much time and money it will take to shield them..

My father worked on EMP shielding for Bell Labs. According to him Microwaves are very easy to protect against compared to a EMP. Since microwaves are similar in wavelength to Cell phone signals it is easy to modify any shielded devise that covers said wavelengths to accommodate microwaves. EMP's are much trickier since they use a broad spectrum of wavelengths in each pulse and thus need much tighter shielding webs to protect electronics against them. The advantage microwaves have is that they require much less power for amount of power emitted and have vastly larger range.

 

[colay]

www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/cst/occppr11.htm

Here's an informative article on the nature of HPMs and possible areas of application. What you can do to others is also true in reverse.. hate to see terrorists get their hands on something like this and employ it in a major city..

 

[wildcolonialboy]

I hadn't heard about the Advanced Hypersonic Weapon announcement; that's quite interesting, to say the least.

It's possible that this is part of a negotiating strategy; if it is, hopefully it works and a deal is struck. Having said that, none of these new systems will give the US a capability that it didn't already possess, in one form or another.

If the Iranians aren't intimidated by B-2s (in fact, they probably are), then I doubt the AHW or a stealth version of the EMP Tomahawk will frighten them much more. I don't think that the US has to resort to a kind of tactic that Ahmadinejad uses (using weapons system announcements as a means of intimidation).

The Israelis play that game too (firing off some Jerichos when the IAEA report was being released), but I think that US carries far more menace in what it doesn't say (it doesn't need to remind potential adversaries of its B-2s, F-22s, that it can launch Tomahawks on a shock and awe scale, and that if things don't go according to plan, a W-88 or ten).

 

[lucinator]

The advantage of the stealthy cruise missile is that it is unmanned, and expendable. The advantage to the Hypersonic missile is that it can hit anywhere in under a hour, something that requires 40+ hours for a B-2 to do, so it could be used to hit senior officials with little notice.