Advanced Weapons

When we develop advanced weapons we have to realize we cannot protect the secret of how we created them forever and must also realize eventually their secret will land in the hands of countries or people we don’t want to have them. What could be a more convincing example of what I am talking about than the hydrogen bomb and the atomic bomb before it? We were only able to keep the secret of the atomic bomb for about 4 years. The Soviets exploded their first one in 1949. We then went on to develop a hydrogen bomb under what we thought were highly secret conditions. We might as well developed it in Yankee Stadium, because we exploded our first hydrogen bomb in 1952 and the Soviets exploded their first one in 1953.They had improved on the time it took to steal the secret. I would like to know what makes us think what we develop in secret now will remain secret for any length of time? We never seem to learn the lesson that the secrets of weapon’s development are fleeting and history proves I am right.

We are not the only ones developing advanced weapons and sometimes other countries surprise us by creating a superior weapon. Sweden gave us a fit when they developed something we thought was impossible and it was a silent undersea diesel submarine. Their submarine was powered underwater by a Stirling engine which ran a generator making the submarine practically impossible to detect and the submarine also had the capacity to stay submerged for weeks. This was the first submarine other than a nuclear submarine which had this ability. The submarine class is known as Gotland and the computerized sub is built to allow a much smaller crew and lower operating costs. We got so upset when we found out, we put pressure on Sweden to rent us one for a year so we could study it. In truth this submarine had upset the balance of submarine warfare and showed us we really didn’t need to spend billions of dollars on nuclear subs when we could have a fleet of this type of submarine and get far more bang for our buck, but this doesn’t suit the military industrial complex which wants us to spend more money on weapons and certainly not less.

It seems there has been a breakthrough in laser weapons. I say this because we have been testing a new type of laser that fits on fighter planes or spacecraft. One has to remember when we talked about lasers on planes in the past it took a Boeing 747 to hold one.Β  DARPA, the US Military Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has said, the weapons have unprecedented power. They also say testing of the weapons against what they call live targets will begin immediately. The weapons system is named HELLADS. DARPA said, “The goal of the HELLADS program is to develop a 150 kilowatt (kw) laser weapon system that is ten times smaller and lighter than current lasers of similar power, enabling integration onto tactical aircraft to defend against and defeat ground threats.” The name HELLADS stand for High-Energy Liquid Laser Area Defense System.

I have to wonder about another announcement which was made a little while ago and that was by Lockheed Skunk Works, the secret aircraft development arm of the company. They had announced the development of a fusion generator which not only worked, but could be made small enough to be carried on a fighter plane. Perhaps this generator is what is being used to power the HELLADS laser? This is only speculation on my part. While we can’t be sure yet what the exact use of the laser will be, some are saying it will be used to shoot down drones. The more the power is increased to the lasers the more powerful the lasers themselves will become. We are experimenting with a 150 kilowatt laser, a bolt of lightning can contain up to one billion volts. It probably is only a matter of time before we can equal or surpass nature in this area. China had announced it had developed a laser for shooting down drones but it was more like the one the US Navy announced. A larger ship mounted device.

One of the problems with weapons development is we are getting less and less bang for our buck. Even when we spend outrageous sums to develop these weapons we don’t always get the best weapons. An example I have cited before is the F-35 which cost us $148 million each for an F-35A, $251 million each for a Marine Corps F-35B and $337 million each for a navy F-35C. According to Military.com the Rand Corporation has recently reviewed the plane and came out with some startling conclusions. They were said to have stated when compared to the best Russian and Chinese fighter planes, it is inferior in visual combat, has inferior acceleration, inferior climb and inferior sustained turn capability. Besides all this it concludes the plane can’t even go fast enough to run away. Remember we are spending double, triple and more on each of these planes than China and Russia spend on theirs and all this is being done to enrich the military industrial complex, lobbyists and legislators. It is the public be dammed and profit is king. Maybe we should buy Russian and Chinese planes, we could get a lot more for our money.

We give our weapons supposedly to help others overthrow dictators, or at least this is what we are being told. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know when you give weapons out some will fall into enemy hands. A recent example of this was when the US gave weapons to rebels fighting in Syria and they turned around and defected to join Al-Qaeda, so in a round-about way we are supplying the group we call terrorists with their weapons. Makes a lot of sense doesn’t it. This has also happened with some of the larger weapons in our arsenal. Maybe we should be supplying the rebels with some of the defective weapons we have been paying for. Here is something I would like explained. Lately the U.S. is finding fake parts in some of its weapons. These parts consist of things like electronics made in China. If we buy our weapons from our own suppliers in this country are we being hoodwinked?

All I know is our military purchases are draining our economy and we are not getting what we pay for. We are getting far less weapons and some of the ones we are getting are inferior or just don’t work as advertised. It is time for a real investigation into this problem and people should be going to jail. I know this will never happen because there is just too much money floating around, but I can dream can’t I?