Posted on 12/04/2009 3:46:26 PM PST by Reaganesque
They were brewing up kikapoo juice which stunk to high heaven
They brewed the stuff in “Skunk Hallow” and one of the ingredients was suspected to be skunks or any other critter what happened to be handy at the time.
The big problem is that there is a way to defeat superior technology: with superior numbers.
Imagine an aircraft little more than a buzz bomb—an engine, a fuel tank, literal fly by wire guidance from a simple control unit, and a small computer controller that can be pre-programmed, or joystick controlled. One kind carries a 500lb bomb, and the remote control kind carries a machine gun and ammunition. About $50k each.
So simple it could be made by any country that can make a car.
In a combat situation, a $500m fighter aircraft can engage and defeat six targets simultaneously. But it is faced off against an air armada of 10,000 cheap aircraft, purchased for the same price. It will lose.
It will lose if faced off by 100 such aircraft. Maybe even 10 such aircraft will best it.
The only way such an armada can be beaten is with another armada. If the numbers are matched, then the high tech aircraft can be in the second echelon, to take out any that break through.
Because if the enemies first armada of planes with machine guns can break through and suppress your high tech aircraft, then you have to contend with hundreds, or even thousands of GPS guided drone aircraft, each of which is carrying a five hundred pound iron bomb.
It looks like a Nazi Horten Flying Wing.
Add a couple HARM missiles to the "non-existent" weapons bay and you've got something...
Except for the price, you've just described a cruise missile.
...or joystick controlled...
Or a Predator.
Excellent idea.
Thats because the conventional option has been co-opted.
I wish! Predators cost upwards of $15M each. For $50k, you’re looking at beer cans stapled to an aluminum frame. Most of the cost would be in the engine. It would not unreasonable for it to have a prop, instead of a jet, unless you had a cheap jet engine you could use.
It just needs to be strong enough to fire a machine gun without destroying it. If it is of the kind carrying a 500lb bomb, it just needs to get over the target, then head due south.
What is the biggest worry is that if some rogue country makes several thousand of them, but keeps it secret until they attack.
Sort of a “Hunan wave attack”...
Yeah, because the last thing we'd want to do is prepare for an enemy other than the one that has our attention at the moment.
And I provided hybrid microcircuits.
Just remember that after Truman decided not to let MacArthur nuke the Chinese, the only thing that saved our bacon in Korea was the hantavirus outbreak that decimated the Chinese forces.
And we all helped pay for part of it!
Well put. I'd rather send a whole bunch of A-10s instead.
Cool.
Well yes, but military contracting had gone from “Cost Plus” to “Firm Fixed Price” when the contract was let. The (small) company I worked for went under after some problems came up (both with the design and our execution)
Jack Northrop wins another one.
No, not an Aurora
No, not an Aurora
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