The New Weapons Race

The next question is what about the new air defense system the Russians have which they are also claiming is the best in the world? The system is named the S-500 and they claim it has unprecedented capabilities such as being able to not only shoot down any of our planes, but also satellites and ballistic missiles. There is a problem with this however and it is that capability has never been demonstrated. Is it just talk or is it reality? Putin’s claims of fierce new weapons have some experts laughing. An example of this is his proposed nuclear-powered cruise missile with unlimited range. The reason this is being laughed at is a nuclear reactor would be so heaving it wouldn’t leave much room for a nuclear war head so the war head would have to be small. This means this cruise missile would be less powerful than a standard non-nuclear one. This is one thing I always wondered about. Our defense system plans seem to be easily stolen and our best planes have been copied by at least China. When is the last time anyone ever heard about the United States being accused of stealing another country’s weapon’s plans? I would think if the S-500 missile defense is so good as Russia claims we would be moving heaven and earth to get those plans. One thing I do know and that is the previous system the S-400 was also said at the time to be unbeatable and was installed in Syria and it didn’t seem to be able to shoot down any American planes when we attacked. There is no missile defense system in the world, no matter how good which cannot be overwhelmed. We know if Russia decided to launch a massive attack that would be the end for us and for them because we would retaliate, missile defense systems are really only effective for small attacks. There is also more to destroying enemy aircraft and missiles since electronic methods can be deployed to knock them off target.

Apparently, the US is not too worried about the Russian air defenses since we are developing a new bomber called the B-21. The bomber is known as the Raider. It is a replacement for the B-2 bomber and some are saying it will finally replace the B-52s and B-1s. The features are secret that is until the Chinese steal them. Sorry for sounding so pessimistic. It is said it will be put into service around 2025 but as we all know these dates always turn out to be much later. One thing I heard about it seems a little strange for a bomber. When its job description was listed it was to deliver conventional long-range and thermonuclear weapons which was expected but then it stated not only to gather intelligence but also to intercept enemy planes. When is the last time you ever heard of a bomber being used to take on planes? Will this bomber negate the need for fighters, this sounds like a pipe dream to me unless we are talking about firing missiles at them from a distance? So far, no cost has been projected but you can imagine it will be massive, so massive that the request for 200 bombers may be trimmed quite a bit or in the worst scenario the project cancelled. We are developing a space plane which will be capable of launching satellites and have a turn around time of only a couple of hours. The name of the plane is the Phantom Express and it is being built by Boeing. Testing is said to begin in 2020. So many new drones are being designed it is hard to pick out any one. Lockheed is developing the SR-72. Remember the SR-71? That was the Blackbird plane which still holds many speed records. The SR-72 will be able to reach speeds of 4,000 miles per hour but I have a hunch it will get faster than that. It is said to employ a dual-engine mode of turbine and ramjet technologies. We are told we can expect to see it in 2030. That is just too far ahead in the future to worry about. Either it might not ever get built or if made may be even more efficient and faster.

We keep hearing about railguns being put on US Navy ships. There has been an ongoing problem with them as they seem to wear out quickly, but it is only a matter of time before this problem is solved. We can expect to see railguns on most of the navy’s fighting ships. One reason for this is the ammunition is non-explosive and can be stored anywhere on the ship. Another reason is it should be cheaper than explosive shells which keep increasing in cost since it is just a hunk of metal. They are very fast and hard to shoot down and it has been said their flight path is much more erratic.

We are going to build a new class of submarine called the Columbia class. It is expected to have a life span of 42 years and never need refueling since it will have an advanced nuclear reactor. It is a stealth submarine with electric drive. Construction is said to begin in 2021. I would be remiss if I didn’t say this. All submarines are becoming silent since the are all using silent motors. What the United States should do is also build conventional submarines which are a fraction of the cost of nuclear ones and can now remain under the sea for up to three weeks and do it silently.

The US Navy is now deciding on the design for ships they want to replace such as the current crop of destroyers. They were going to replace them with the newest stealth destroyer type like the USS Zumwalt but a study found those ships while costing far more were not much or any better than the current Arleigh-Burke class of destroyer.

When referring to weapons and war I always think about the novel by Jules Verne, From the Earth to the Moon. In it were two friendly foes. One was a munitions manufacturer and the other a defensive engineer. The engineer would create armor which would defeat the weapons of the manufacturer but then he would make his weapons more powerful and the engineer would have to improve his armor and so forth. That seems to be where we are now.