What’s New In Weapons?

There are certain rules which are in existence which even govern who our enemies are.Β  The Pentagon just released an instruction book. It was designed to let the military know who their enemies are during war time and there is a new category of enemies listed. They are “unprivileged belligerents”. This phrase seems puzzling at first but as we read the “Department of Defense Law of War Manual”, we find it includes journalists under certain conditions. It seems to zero in on journalists who are members of the armed forces, persons authorized to accompany the armed forces, or unprivileged belligerents. The words “unprivileged belligerents” replaces the phrase “unlawful enemy combatant”. I would say reporters better be careful.

Remember those cycles that flew through the air at high speed and were featured in some of the Star Wars movies? They may have been the impetus for the invention of the US Army’s new hoverbikes. The hoverbikes look like a primitive version of the Star Wars cycles. They have a large fan in the front and back and the driver sites on a frame in the middle, between the fans. The Pentagon has signed a deal with Malloy Aeronautics of the UK. The technology has been in the hopper for years as the company has been working on the development. The Pentagon wants the company to build a functional model and then the Pentagon will examine it with the ultimate goal of creating military grade hoverbikes.

Did you ever wonder why Soviet missile submarines were bigger than ours? Actually the answer is very simple, it was not to show off or make the crew comfortable, it was because the Soviets had larger missiles and needed larger submarines to hold more of them. The Soviets wanted to match the Ohio-class submarines which could carry 192 nuclear warheads of 100 kt each, but their R-39 missile was twice as big as our Trident 1 so they need bigger submarines.

China is admitting it is testing at least one new hypersonic strike vehicle. It is known as the Wu-14. The vehicle is said to be capable of delivering a nuclear war head. The missile has been tested at least four times in the past 18 months. It is said to be capable of speeds of 12,200+ miles per hour. What makes this even more dangerous according to experts is it can maneuver during flight making it impossible for the US to counter it. Our defenses are said to be set up to counter ballistic missiles which have a predictable trajectory. The last test of the missile was timed to coincide with a visit to Washington by the Chinese vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission. The disputed islands were the first thing on the agenda and it seems China was sending us a message. One has to wonder how we can adapt our missile defenses to protect us from these types of missiles. We might not be able to since we really can’t be entirely protected from a missile attack now, no matter what we are being told.

Nuclear weapons are like a cancer. We don’t have a cure for cancer and we don’t have a cure for the proliferation of nuclear weapons all over the world. When you have a planet with 196 countries and over 7 billion people there has to be some who are ready to use a nuke. It is just a question of probabilities. There is the scenario of a country which is losing a war and thinks it has nothing else to lose so it sends out nukes. There is also the scenario of a country whose leaders think if they launch a first strike they can win a war. Then there are those who think it doesn’t matter if they get destroyed in the process, because they will all go to heaven. The last scenario is perhaps the most dangerous for the world. While we are doing what seems everything in our power to stop Iran from getting nukes, it looks like Saudi Arabia will be acquiring them soon. It will be interesting to see if we do anything about that or only perform lip service. Saudi Arabia cut the heads off 80 people in 2014 and so far as of May 8, 2015 has already beheaded 88 people including foreigners during public executions.

We are putting a lot of our assets in developing drones, but so is the rest of the world. It does make one wonder how this technology will keep us in the lead. Perhaps we are developing drones which will be able to go into orbit? This is no longer farfetched as there have been rumors for years which state we have the Aurora air/spacecraft which is basically a plane which can switch fuel systems and make orbit. We are expressing a tactic which calls for drones to descent on targets in groups.

The old chestnut has turned up again. There is no end to the nonsense that comes out of the some of our government agencies. Take this for example, a recent article stating the CIA fears hostile nations are triggering floods and droughts. This is actually an old story as I have seen this in one way or another for at least the last ten years or more and while in may be possible someday, it doesn’t seem credible today and seems like a scheme to get more money for these agencies. I have to wonder why some people still won’t admit there is global warming and the droughts we are experiencing are due to this? They are willing to let the ship sink as long as they get their profits.

China is said to have made some large strides in pulse weapons. Another term for them is directed energy weapons. A Chinese government newspaper, the People’s Daily, has reported a breakthrough which allows an X-ray source to generate pulses. China is not alone in developing these weapons. The US, Russia, England, France, Germany and Japan are some of the other countries working on similar weapons. It is said these weapons can put out an Electro Magnetic Pulse or EMP which will destroy electrical grids and devices, which might even cause more damage than a nuke while not killing anyone immediately. Their deaths would result from not being able to obtain food and water after the grid collapses and vehicles are knocked out among other things. The US is particularly vulnerable to a device like this.