Wwhat

__redruM

jermy

huskyphan

That's like bill gates giving a kid 1% of his money and ... joe shmoe giving the kid 2% and you saying that joe shmoe is better because he gave them a higher percent... yet the amount is 1,000,000$ vs 500$

phantam

gotta love the political bashers....

When the US doesn't do anything we get bitched at that we're being too pacifisty (dafur) but when we take action ... japan/iraq/afghanistan we're war mongers....

give it a rest.....

I'd rather the US develop more targeted well armed weapons that can kill pin point targets (From the 200-300 miles tis shoots 6m of disctruction is a needle prick) ...

people seem to forget that back in the old wars, in the era of daisy cutters and massive unguided bombs, not to mention napalm strikes where they used to kill entire villages of people ... i mean deaths are quite alot lower than when they used to be in the 500-1m death area... why? because we use more advanced weapons ... if it wasnt for those more advanced weapons more innocents would die.

Now yes i agree wars a f*cked up thing and we shouldnt need to be involved, and bush fu*ked everything up with going after IRAQ but everyone knows that entire area has been f*cked up since god knows ... hence the reason "peace in the middle east" is a catch phrase thats always been a joke.

phantam

Per Capita, perhaps, but that per capita adds up to more foreign aid than the rest of the world combined. Plus, that only includes government aid, not private donations, in which the US again leads the world.

Candyman

RoDe

In fact BSA is a joint operation with GE and GE is really american, and the CEO of the american daughter company is most certainly american, and as far as railguns go, I can't say I ever heard any european country trying to make one to be honest, and it is a pretty neat thing, regardless if the american politicians/forces might abuse it as a weapon in unwholesome wars.

Oh and the european governments are mostly just as bad or worse as the US one currently, so you can't say europeans have much reason to sneer at the US anymore right now in that area.

Wwhat

spatchpatch

Fountainhead

spatchpatch

Also, putting your shenanigans aside, yes, in fact I am proud to be an American. You got a fuckin' problem with it?

spatchpatch

ZoomWaffle

Wwhat

FullFlava

And from the BAE site:
We have strong positions in each of our six home markets - Australia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Sweden, UK, US - and have organised the business to reflect this.

I add the wikipedia info:
BAE Systems plc (BAE) is a British defence and aerospace company headquartered at Farnborough, UK, which has worldwide interests, particularly in North America through its subsidiary BAE Systems Inc. BAE is the world's third largest defence contractor and the largest in Europe.[3] BAE was formed on 30 November 1999 by the £7.7 billion merger of two British companies: Marconi Electronic Systems (MES), the defence electronics and naval shipbuilding subsidiary of The General Electric Company plc (GEC) and aircraft, munitions and naval systems manufacturer British Aerospace (BAe).

So it's the brits then eh. still proud to be a redcoat americans? >:)

Wwhat

I was there -> this IS what they said. Most people of Asian background who lived through eras of Japanese expansion would agree with the above sentiment.

banmojo

mainly, we stick around to make sure the government doesn't fall apart... we don't stick around just to do it, if we left, the Iraqi military, as it stands now, would collapse.. the only reason were still their is to get them up to snuff.

detraya

Take a step back and understand why you were sent there.

After Saddam was hanged and his cronies hiding across the world, what's the point of sticking around?

Stop the sale of weapons to these crazy cultists - just stop all of your own exports and tell the rest of the G8 to do so as well - if you keep on feeding monsters they just grow more unmanageable every day.

Before everyone gets at each others throats - take a few minutes to breath - the general public doesn't have a fucking clue what the fuck is going on in the world. Everything in the developing world is that way for a reason, technology and education embargoes, the backing of corrupt officials by drug lords, everything that could have been done to fan the flames of hate.

It has taken generations for racism to slowly disappear from acceptance, it's going to take much longer to remove the cultists.

skulldriveshaft

Considering that the next president could be a woman or not white you're kinda pissing up a rope.

Peace from the guarantees of mutual annihilation may have worked before - this just makes the killing of people that much more detached.

Only the people on the ground will feel the pain - while the person firing gets a visual confirmation of a 5 metre target destroyed. Are you heartless?

You should reconsider your comments.

skulldriveshaft

whiteknight

Sonic84

The US and allies (such as they were) were blockading Japan, specifically keeping oil from reaching Japan.

The US had, effectively, declared an economic war against Japan.

Japan had very good and rational and logical reasons for attacking the US naval forces at Pearl. Had the carrier battle groups not been at sea December 7th, the war in the Pacific might hve been very different until Fat Man and Little Boy could have been delivered to their respective targets, and that delivery might very well have had to been from Soviet or Chinese territory.

tuckerch

CaliforniaKid

BigRosie

nimblesquirrel

nimblesquirrel

sqeakytoy of the apocalypse

As for you, Pope John Peeps II, you are spent.

spatchpatch

Scott_T

Anyway, violence is natural among humans, primates, etc. If humanity is to evolve, it will have to cap it's breeding, regulate greed and resort to diplomacy over violence or we are all fucked....no matter what you believe in.

@Pope John Peeps II: Don't blame the troops...really. I actually feel very sorry about young (mostly poor) people having to fight for rich old bastards. Through history this dynamic has never changed. Redirect your passion to who gives the orders, not who carries them out. Bullshit needs to be stopped at the source. Although the press covers the scandals, which might lead to your "killing everyone they can" statement, they should be showing more pictures of flag draped coffins juxtaposed with pictures of Cheney smiling/smirking/sneering instead of demonizing troops.

johnnyabnormal

sqeakytoy of the apocalypse

The fact is, you can point to any culture that's been around for awhile and find plenty examples of violent behavior. We've all got blood on our hands and I see no reason for the US to apologize for trying to maintain a military edge.

Much of what we are dealing with today is the result of the disasterous Paris Peace conference of 1919 and those of you screaming about future wars being fought economically would do well to read up on that (I strongly recomend "The Guns of August") !! The insane partitioning of the middle east which has led to our current troubles there was the work of European diplomats and a too-smart-for-his-own-good-POS-racist American presidient Wilson, not generals.

As for the rail gun, America FUCK YEAH!

Blue Oyster Cultist

Diplomat: "Mr. nice dictator, will you please stop killing your people?"

Mr. nice dictator: You want me to do what? Wahahaha! I'm not even close to killing all the

Mr. nice dictator's sexy secratary: Bang.

Diplomat: Thud

gclapp

gclapp

xznofile

Oh really? We don't give a shit about the war?
Is that why we've had hundreds of soldiers within A HALF HOUR OF MY HOUSE leave within the past 6 years for war, and NUMEROUS of them come back in a flag-draped coffin?
Is that why it's on the news EVERY DAY?
Is that why it's the hottest topic in the presidential candidate debates?
Is that why every fucking family dinner I go to, we end up bitching at each other because my side of the family favors extraction?
Is that why one of my best friends spent all last summer in North Carolina at boot camp, and is now in Iraq, putting himself in harm's way for us?
Is that why MILLIONS of people were outraged when the war started, and millions more even more outraged when the so-called "WMD's" were never found?
Is that why Bush's approval rating is dipping in the lower end of 30%?
Is that why there's practically monthly anti-war rallies?

Guess what, MAN? SOME of our country elected our dumbfuck president Bush. MOST of our country doesn't support his actions in Iraq. We cannot just TELL the president not to go to war, or extract now, and expect him to do it. We elected the president 4 or 8 years ago based upon what he said. It's up to him to live up to his words, and unless he does something illegal, nobody can do shit about it until it comes to election time.

Bow out while you can. You are WELL out of bounds.

And don't give me shit about being blood-thirsty when I never voted for Bush, approved of the war, or approved of Bush's actions. Your stereotypes are incredible and arrogant. You sir, are a dumbass.

spatchpatch

BEST OF BOTH WORLDS, BEE-OTCHES!

sam_i_am

UpIrons

I actually agree with you.

Our economies are very intertwined.
But the point of putting Chinese jobs at risk is still just as valid. China retaliating economically benefits no one. If China were to intentionally cause an American economic collapse in retaliation for the US cutting off Chinese products, it still wouldn't bring those jobs back and they would still have social unrest. If fact it would likely make things worse since a collapse of the US economy would bring many other national economies to their knees along with it. Then even more of the world wouldn't be able to afford Chinese products putting even more workers into the streets. So yes they could bloody our nose, but not without breaking their hand in the process.

The point is, the stakes are way to high for China to attempt an invasion of Taiwan.

I actually think if capitalism continues to chip away at Chinese communism, we will probably see them peacefully reunite sometime in the next 30-40 years.

Bender

That argument would hold weight were your army not ACTIVELY IN another country actively killing as many people as they can. It's all well and good to claim that it has nothing to do with you, but your army represents your country and therefore each of your individual citizens. It is acting on your behalf, in your name, so you have to choose to either support, or not support it's actions. Most Americans tacitly endorse the war by not giving a shit about stopping it and saying nothing.

Sorry man, your country is violent.

Pope John Peeps II

Although it won't matter when the Japanese send robot ninjas to disable the railgun. We still have no defense against robot ninjas.

Pope John Peeps II

spatchpatch

jkr

johnnyabnormal

The links above have already been pulled down but there are several others up on YouTube. [youtube.com]

Vagabum

Vagabum

Adam Shegrud

However, I think the more exciting potential is for transportation. Mach 8 travel would cut my commute to about .4 seconds. Well, probably more than that because I will want to slow down a bit before I get to my cube.

brundlefly76

I love it. with this technology having found a military use, it will force funding to it which will lead to other things. Magnetic elevators for instance, perhaps mass transportation.

In America, it's hard to maintain a good metro system because there is so much space to cover. Doing so would mean a lot of fuel resources used for travel that frankly, would price it out of usefulness.

Not now, but perhaps after refinement, this could offer safe, affordable and CLEAN travel alternatives at faster speeds than currently possible by jet.

Imagine taking a train from New York to California that only takes 2-3 hours instead of 5-6!

Going from Miami to Richmond in a matter of minutes!

And all of it clean.

Imagine launching a satellite into orbit without the need for thousands of pounds of rocket fuel (liquid or solid)

Imagine the space exploration possibilities!

No my friends, a weapon is just the beginning and as history has shown, weapons lead the way for peaceful innovations and I for one am excited about this!

Magiksreal

Nothing in this world will ever be settled until people can ask questions rather than coming to conclusions and believing them to be 100% true.

It's easy to think of Americans as having a shotgun in every car, waging the flag around and then heading on back to the trailer for some cheap beer and to watch the news for explosions.

It's equally easy to say that all Brits are weak and inbred and a whole host of other negative things.

The facts are that yes, after America was attacked, we entered WWI, and again, after we were attacked, we entered WWII. Then after WWII, we emerged as a superpower and one that has the burden of being scrutinized and villified as well as looked up to and honored.

One phrase came to mind when I saw these videos and that was "An armed society is a polite society" Let's be honest, the reason that full scale nuclear war hasn't already broken out is because other countries have them too (and the intentional misinformation about fallout didn't hurt either)

Looking at current technology, missiles and bombs have a lower accuracy rate than this technology does. so your enemy bunkers up next to a school of orphaned kittens, what do you do?

You can't bomb it (like the allies and Axis powers did in WWI and WWII) because of the public outrage. I'd like to say it's because it's wrong to accept collateral damage, but it's not.

So you devise weapons that are more accurate and have less environmental impact (lost ordinance from WWI is still killing and maiming kids BTW)

Rather than villify anyone for this, I applaud them for making a weapon that is more safe than ones currently in use.

Magiksreal

bucho54

p.s. You can't escape the farts out here...it's all the tofu.

johnnyabnormal

Tikey

ajcali08

reefdweller

-Including many (post-reconstruction) Euros, who pride themselves on being so Sophisticated whilst they lump All Americans into their convenient oversimplified stereotype; (and run screaming from any Expenditure -I mean, Conflict).

Things like this weapon, etc. are the Cost of Doing Business.
You can't have it both ways. Either accept the good (with the bad) that someone else does for you, and be respectful, fair & non-extremist in your critique, -OR Go Scratch and be left to twist in the wind with the refuseniks.

Let's face it: The vast majority of all Liberals, the world over, are like Women. They Complain whenever you Do something, and also about every single thing you Don't do; -and how 100% of it's not done Perfectly.

People who cannot/refuse to grasp the duality of things are too illogical to warrant serious attention.

Okay, that's my bit. You can return to enjoying the smell of your own farts in San Francisco. :D

(PS: I agree with @sqeakytoy of the apocalypse. If our Foreign Aid is such a bad thing, and any of the recipients feel like complaining, we should just take it away, call in all the debts -old and new- and see how they like that better. -Bono included.)

wonkydonky

Giz, any help here?

cvalue13

Accelerata

nmirza

"America, F*CK YEAH!
We're coming again to save the mother f*ckin' day, yeah
America, F*CK YEAH!
Freedom is the only way, yeah
Terrorists your game is through
'Cause now you'll have to answer to
America, F*CK YEAH!
So lick my butt and suck on my balls
America, F*CK YEAH!"

Catchy little tune, ain't it?

golferal

SeraSera

ItsMrJP

elvindeath

tanvach

johnnyabnormal

To quote Bill Maher, "This country needs to get over itself. It's not the 1950's anymore. We're not the most efficient, we're not the most healthy, we're not the most respected. I'm not hating on America, these are facts. This is a challenge to America. I'm tired of people saying, "America is the greatest country in the world!" How would you know? ...Always from the people who have never been anywhere else."

Here's some math for today: Ethnocentric attitude + military industrial complex + greed = the announcement of today's record breaking Exxon profit. (40.6 billion dollars)

As an American taxpayer, I am not anti-military, but I think that there's too much money being poured into it. I'd rather see the majority of that money being spent on education so our kids aren't so fucking stupid. I'd like to see that money poured into technology to free us from foreign fuel sources. It would also be nice to have a president that can speak English.

johnnyabnormal

MrPeach

MrPeach

ANoel

That said... AWESOME. AMERICA, FUCK YEAH!

Pender

Tikey

housermag

If for no other reason: Portable air fields. When a nation won't allow our use of their bases or flyover their territory, we just float our own airstrip in. Those need protection, too, which come from battlegroups. The navy is quite relevant.

The Air Force (of which I am a vet), on the other hand, isn't so much. The other three branches have the ability and will to correctly use air power. A separate Air Force is a waste.

shawn_dude

Not better... just different.

With a cruise missile, all the expensive technology goes into the missile. So every time you launch one, you throw away some pretty sophisticated stuff. With a rail gun you throw away a chunk of metal and the expensive equipment stays for re-use.

On the other hand, you can "recall" a cruise missile while still in flight and it can change direction if the target moves. A ballistic projectile is committed the second it leaves the barrel.

For a naval vessel, large "bullets" are stored on board and fired through the huge cannon-like guns on the ship. They are physically larger and carry explosives both to launch them and for impact. Otherwise, the two system have identical uses. So the rail gun eliminates a lot of explosives and weight from a naval vessel. It also frees up space for other systems or can give a smaller craft equivalent firepower.

Does anyone know if these things have recoil? Technically, rail guns shouldn't, but like everyone else, the plasma discharge was surprising to me. It makes me wonder if there's any kind of compression or other reaction that creates recoil. A recoil-free gun would have its own benefits.

shawn_dude

spatchpatch

Tommasta

XJ_4x4

AndyDuncan

privatejoker75

sqeakytoy of the apocalypse

Noone is denying you guys got pretty fucked up in WW1 and 2. Americans don't think we are worse off, in fact - I think I'm much better off than you! I love being American. The weapon may be developed by BAE, but we're the only ones with the ball's to use it!

Oh, and here is some awesome military technology:

[youtube.com] Metal Storm 40mm Grenade shooting (600rpm , 3000rpm , 6000rpm, 15,000rpm, 240,000 rpm) I escpecially like the 42 40mm being fired at 3,000rpm at the end)

also watch:

[youtube.com] (this one is 10 minutes and explains the whole system)

[youtube.com]

Rizzuh

ItsMrJP

spatchpatch

I think Giz needs to lock this comment thread now.

EmptyRepublic

I will give you guys kudos for being the only ones who put money into this. This is really cool, and could have a number of useful applications other than blowing stuff up (but obviously, that comes first :p ).

Silent_Shark

You can thank an AMERICAN for your freedom, and the time and money we spend to be ahead of everyone else.

Maybe you would rather have someone like Nazi Germany, Imperialist Japan, or a hard line Muslim President like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. No; didn't think so.

I'm not saying America is perfect, FAR from it. Bush has been the worst president in our history, and over 70% of the American people do not agree with him. That being said, it is America's military power that keeps your lights on at night, your political freedom, and your right to vote.

Don't believe me? Who's your leader right now? I guarantee it's not a Nazi and it's not someone who takes orders from the Kremlin. Like it or not, it was America putting her military in harms way that protect you from Nazi Germany and then a Communist Russia. It was also that same technology that we spend so much money on, that made our military so much better then anyone else's.

Like it or not, the world needs America, and you'll need us again when China decides to start forcing itself on the world stage.

I don't mean to come off as a prick, but I'm tired of reading people bash us, then turn around and need us when something bad happens to them and they need a strong friend. You can't have it both ways.

Tanviper

And Times like this I am PROUD to be an American.

topbravo222

JamesF1

You use this to put powersats into orbit, beam down the energy to receiving stations in the desert.

Sihanouk-s-Poodle

jcy

p389

spatchpatch

I guess that's only a bit bigger than the wombats back on Tatooine...

Jason

You know what? I can't be bothered to type any more - because I'm sick of people like you making out that everyone should pity you because you've been so hard done by. Well, I won't - and 99% of the rest of the world won't either... get used to it.

JamesF1

Arguing on the internet is like competing in the special olympics: Even if you win, you're still retarded.

Crominator56

spatchpatch

As a percentage of GDP the US ranks way down the list too (obviously) and the number has steadily declined since the end of WWII (something like 3% of GDP in the 50s and <1% now, I think).

Much so-called "US foreign aid" is also basically a back door subsidy for US companies. The "aid" is given on the condition that the recipient country will immediately send it back to the US to buy US goods.

Obviously the US does give a lot of aid, but the idiotic ramblings you hear here from people who honestly believe that a significant percentage of their tax money is given away to foreign countries is just BS.

LittleJon

Also, to those who scream about us cutting off our trade to China overnight and how much they'd be suffering...have you forgotten our massive trade deficit and the amount of money they have in our banks? They don't have to let it get so far as to our cessation of purchasing their tainted goods. All they, or the Saudis for that matter, have to do is call the loans on our banks. Imagine more than a trillion dollars being drained from our economy in one day. Overnight our economy would collapse. China could wait out any internal unrest if it's sitting on a trillion dollars while our financial markets go into a tailspin. Our economy wouldn't go into a recession or have pockets of depression; it would COLLAPSE...like a house of cards. Remember, it wasn't more than a few weeks ago that both China and Saudi Arabia purchased a chunk of Citigroup after it declared excessive exposure in the subprime market due to the credit crunch. That was a trend. At least France had the good sense to raise capital within the country when it found a rogue commodities trader in one of it's oldest and most venerable banks. We're running to the arms of foreign capital that do not necessarily have the best interests of this country in mind. Corporate America is literally selling out the futures of you and your kids to people who may not have any qualms about turning the United States of America into a third-rank, second-world country. Think about that for a while.

By the way, I am not an expert on such matters, nor do I play one on TV. I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night, though.

Citizen Kang

octopussy

Yes, we're grateful your country has aided us so many times, but please, take your head out of your arse. I swear, two buildings go down and you think you're the worst-off country in the world and that no-one has ever had it harder than you.

Grow up.

JamesF1

Europeans have seen a lot more death and destruction of its cities than Americans can imagine. That has led to a wide-spread anti-war disposition. The word "war" just has different connotations to the average European.

To Americans war is about having your sons and daughters go off to a foreign country and some of them coming back in coffins. To Europeans war is about having your cities destroyed and MILLIONS of your best people dying.

I'm not trying to belittle the American perspective, nor the sacrifice America has made in the past for other people. I'm just trying to explain that the European experience has created a different perspective.

Incidentally, over 200 non-Americans were killed on 9-11.

LittleJon

Seriously, it's at times like these that I am proud to be better informed than you.

JamesF1

jackhandy

They say this technology will have a 400 mile range - figure a round going 5600 miles per hour... That's a pretty short period of time from firing solution to exploding target.

It'd be shorter if we didn't have to deal with that darn "round planet" thing... I know! Have this cannon fire hypercavitating rounds, then you can shoot stuff straight-line through the ocean and not have to worry about over-the-horizon stuff.

I should patent that...

rihahn

spatchpatch

spatchpatch

That said, a 3.5 kilogram projectile traveling that fast would destroy most things it DOESN'T touch too. I would suspect the shockwave damage would act much like those depleted uranium shells thye use o today's tanks... only amplified. I'd have to imagine that it would destroy objects several meters away.

Maybe they can use this to launch space probes.... if the force of launch isn't too strong that it destroys the probe. Or detroy meteor threats. Let's hope they come up with some non combat utilities for this.

Crazy cool.

N@tedog

AmishJohn

kingsnake

spatchpatch

Also the Covenant will think twice before attacking Earth so Masterchief can take a vacation now.

I can go all day!

MorganRW

But thanks anyway...

sqeakytoy of the apocalypse

poorGeek

But when do I get it in pocket size? Huh? Huh?

IrisMR

FredicvsMaximvs

FredicvsMaximvs

FredicvsMaximvs

timerider42

encyclia

umm 5m > pinpoint unless you have some pretty fat pins in America (which wouldn't supprise me, fatty!)

@jraktal: actually, everyone elses ability to be rational, diplomatic adults is what keeps peace. your ability to create war doesn't enter in to it. but thanks anyway.

Rajio

Kaiser-Machead's Chips Ahoy!

Skemo

graphicwave

bpatten

Of course, the Navy can carry significantly more projectiles per boat this way, so maybe they'll fire more and up the kill rate. And maybe it won't be metal, but depleted uranium, which has it's own set of problems for people living in/near a target.

crash

Or through it. Depends on how that imperial to metric conversion works out.

smith186

No, we will not invade China. Ever.

And China becoming a global superpower is reason enough for them not to invade Taiwan. It would destroy China's economy.

The closer China gets to being a global superpower, the more they have to play nice with the people they are trading with.
If they piss off the US, they've just pissed of their biggest customer. You can't be an economic superpower if nobody is buying your crap.

So let's say China invades Taiwan and takes it before the US can respond militarily. The US imposes massive sactions on Chinese imports and most of our allies follow our lead. Overnight China has just lost it's markets. Exports dry up, and factories go idle.

And what do you think would happen if China suddenly found itself with half a billion work factory workers out of jobs? It would be ugly to say the least.

Bender

WAAA! WAAA! GUNS are Scary! WAAA! WAAA!

Get over it already!

Our ability to do war is what actually keeps the peace in the world.

Jraktal

Wimpkins

We (the US) may sadly, and far too often, have a ham-handed approach geopolitically speaking, but I don't see China or Russia publicly demonstrating how they're continually working to advance necessary military capabilities with the goal of MINIMIZING collateral damage.

Sorry peaceniks, as long as there are bad men out there, someone has to keep developing better defensive/offensive measures. Funny how the world at large doesn't complain when they *want* our military to come in to places like Bosnia/Mogadishu/Darfur (last one where we *should* have gone BTW). Ask the average citizen of Seoul what day they would like the entire US military presence and support to end.

Ridgerunner

Someone is going to have to tell me exactly how this is better than a bunch of cruise missiles.

daveNYC

gaiking

gaiking

dingus

I generally have nothing against America and americans but there are some "bad apples" that really piss me off with their chest beating and generally annoying attitudes towards non-americans (and no, I'm not dense enough to not realize stupidity/arrogance/what have you is universal so don't even start).

Won't someone please think of the children!

BoinK