There is a lot going on in the area of weapons and arms. The first thing which I noticed is the fact a lot of propaganda is coming out defending the US F-35 fighter plane. If one wonders why this is, the answer is simple. A lot of experts and pilots have been saying the plane is inferior, super-expensive and riddled with defects. The feel good articles are being put out to make us think it is a wonderful plane. Many are pushing the government to cancel the contract and recoup what is left of the money on the contract and this has scared the companies involved in its manufacture. They would rather give us an inferior plane and put our country in jeopardy so they can rake in the billions they will make, rather than do the right thing and give us a good product. It is a sin when we compare the numbers to the new Russian plane the Sukhoi PAK FA. The top speed of the F-35 is listed as 1,199 while the PAK FA is listed as 1,516. The Russian fighter is far more maneuverable and has thrust vectoring engines. Our plane has all sorts of problems, over 700 at last count, but lucky for us the Russians are also having problems with their plane. Both planes are said to be stealth, but it is also said the Russians have a new radar which will be able to pick our plane out. The worst news is our plane is not only slower and less maneuverable, but costs far more. It is estimated the PAK FA has a unit cost of $50 million, but the F-35 costs $98 million to $115 million depending on the model of the F-35. The F-22 which is really supposed to be our best fighter cost $339 million per plane and is more the competitor to the PAK FA.

Years ago the old Soviet Union decided they wanted to develop a gun which could fire underwater so they could arm their frogmen. It takes 800 times more force to propel a bullet through water and it hardly seems worth the while to waste money on this development, but Russia is continuing its research. Many guns already fire underwater, but are inaccurate and the bullets have a very short range as you can imagine. After decades of trial and error the SPP-1 was developed. It is a handgun which is said to be able to fire efficiently underwater. The gun doesn’t fire a bullet, it fires a dart. The tips of the darts are slightly flattened and the dart is stabilized by cavitation. This is a cavity created by the dart which is a bubble like vapor that reduces drag. The makes the dart much more deadly than any bullet and increases it accuracy. The range of the dart at 5 meters depth is about 17 meters. The US developed the Mk1 which also fires darts and has a six round magazine. Its range at 18 meters depth is about 9 meters. Next the Soviets developed a weapon which looked similar to an assault rifle and could fire 600 darts per minute. It was almost useless out of water due to it smooth bore barrel. Later on the KPB a Russian arms manufacture announced it had made an amphibious assault rifle which was effective both under the water and above, you merely changed the clip which contained different ammunition for each situation. The rifle has a range under 25 meters of water to about 30 meters.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I am tired of hearing we are developing weapons to be used against Russia and China. Talk about pulling the dog’s tail. We just keep goading these countries. It’s great for the military industrial complex, because they use the excuse we have to be ready to war against these countries, but it is not good for the country. There is a story which is stating China is considering putting their nuclear missiles on High Alert. There were many close calls when we and the Soviets had ours on high alert and it was only by the grace of God we didn’t have a nuclear war. We are being brought to the brink so companies can make money. At a meeting a couple of weeks ago the US Secretary of Defense, Ash Carter said he is was going to ask for spending on US forces in Europe to be quadrupled in the light of Russian aggression. Translated to English it means we need to purchase more weapons to further enrich the military industrial complex. When President Eisenhower left office he stated we should never let the military industrial complex get too strong and he was right.

A new material which could have both military and civilian applications is appearing on the market soon. It is Spinel. Spinel is magnesium aluminate and it is clear as glass, but far stronger. It is being said a thinner layer of Spinel can be far stronger than a thick layer of glass. Not only that, it probably will never scratch and can resist sand and erosion. It has other properties such as infrared light can pass through it. This means the military can use it on imaging systems. The current thinking is it might be good to protect lasers in harsh environments, because it won’t interfere with laser light shone through it. It can be mined as gem stone, but the scientists have made their own synthetic Spinel powder they can press together to form the material. The civilian use would be to protect anything glass does, only better, such as non-scratch screens for cell phones.

A new system is being installed in Russian long-range bombers. Everyone knows if a plane’s navigation is jammed or if the satellites are shot down which allow for navigation, planes would not be able to find their targets. The Russians say they have solved this problem by putting new devices in their bombers which allow them to navigate by the stars. The system is named the ANS-2009 astronavigation system and can determine an aircraft’s position and speed precisely.

Officials in the US have said electronic warfare and cyber capabilities hold more promise for missile defense than shooting down one missile with another. When you think about it, one of the most inefficient systems you can have is the missile shoot down system. So much can go wrong and it only takes one nuke to get through. If a system was in place which could destroy all the electronics in a missile or group of missiles this would be much more efficient.

Can you imagine if we could just use the money from one of our failed weapons systems by cancelling it and saving on the balance owed? We could use it to solve some of our problems with our social programs. It is not the social programs which are responsible for the lion’s share of the deficit, it is the military contracts and black projects we never hear about along with all those secret and political deals.