Predator 2 ~ NOT a movie: US considers 'hypersonic strike drones'

[UNCjigga]

Link

What is your first reaction to this story?

 

[GoingUp]

kickass

 

[Angrymarshmello]

Don't current cruise missles cost $1 million per missle now? These things would be uber-expensive

 

[iwearnosox]

I've had these for years, my girlfriend calls them "farts."

 

[AndrewR]

Awesome. Real time intelligence translates to nearly instant destruction with little hope that even an advanced surface to air missile system can intercept this puppy. I sure hope there are some potential adversaries out there really worried about their ability to take on the United States in the future, one adversary in particular.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Cool! Makes Bush and his ilk de facto dictators!

 

[DanJ]

Everything the U.S. says and does is right.

 

[HappyPuppy]

Originally posted by: Hayabusarider
Cool! Makes Bush and his ilk de facto dictators!

Correction, "worldwide dictators".

 

[no0b]

and why the hell are we being told this..... I like surprises damnit IE F-117, U2, and the SR-71 Dont tell every body wtf you are doing. jeebus.

We need secret weapons.

Loose lips sink ships. damnit

 

[mAdD INDIAN]

I find it scary that the US will have this type of weapon. I sure hope some other country's get these as well.

 

[da loser]

what's so special about this? it just sounds like an icbm that can come back. plus you're still going to need basing rights and such to support troops on the ground. i think this is a bunch of crap trying to come up with a reason to develop a hypersonic jet which sounds pretty cool.

 

[Palek]

One word: frightening.

 

[flxnimprtmscl]

Originally posted by: Hayabusarider
Cool! Makes Bush and his ilk de facto dictators!

No need to worry about that. If you didnt' read the article it said these would take 20 years to develop. In case you're not too good at math that means bush will be gone by then so you can rest easy.


Btw, who starts planing something 20 freaking years out? Won't technology most likely be so far advanced by then as to make these obsolete no matter how cool they seem now?

 

[flxnimprtmscl]

Originally posted by: da loser
what's so special about this? it just sounds like an icbm that can come back. plus you're still going to need basing rights and such to support troops on the ground. i think this is a bunch of crap trying to come up with a reason to develop a hypersonic jet which sounds pretty cool.

What's so special about this is the fact that this gives no warning. An icbm launch is a pretty hard thing to hide where as you wouldn't know this thing was coming til it was on top of you.

 

[Babbles]

I could use a couple of them.

 

[littleprince]

20 years to develop...
No big deal, some other administration will cancel it 10 years and 100 billion into the project
That is the way of you americans.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Originally posted by: flxnimprtmscl

Originally posted by: Hayabusarider
Cool! Makes Bush and his ilk de facto dictators!

No need to worry about that. If you didnt' read the article it said these would take 20 years to develop. In case you're not too good at math that means bush will be gone by then so you can rest easy.


Btw, who starts planing something 20 freaking years out? Won't technology most likely be so far advanced by then as to make these obsolete no matter how cool they seem now?

Don't forget the ilk

Besides, the Constitution can always be amended to allow more than two terms

 

[ThaGrandCow]

who-fuggin-ray
Another weapon that we're developing to piss off all the people that are quasi-allies/quasi-enemies with us. So now we have the ability to deliver a nuclear payload even quicker to whomever we choose. Hooray! </sarcasm>

Granted, me = teh marine so I should be all about this... but this definitely does not make me happy.

 

[flxnimprtmscl]

Originally posted by: ThaGrandCow
who-fuggin-ray
Another weapon that we're developing to piss off all the people that are quasi-allies/quasi-enemies with us. So now we have the ability to deliver a nuclear payload even quicker to whomever we choose. Hooray! </sarcasm>

Granted, me = teh marine so I should be all about this... but this definitely does not make me happy.

Eh, an ICBM can deliver it's nuclear payload much quicker than this can.

 

[ThaGrandCow]

Originally posted by: flxnimprtmscl

Originally posted by: Hayabusarider
Cool! Makes Bush and his ilk de facto dictators!

No need to worry about that. If you didnt' read the article it said these would take 20 years to develop. In case you're not too good at math that means bush will be gone by then so you can rest easy.


Btw, who starts planing something 20 freaking years out? Won't technology most likely be so far advanced by then as to make these obsolete no matter how cool they seem now?

Japan and some other countries in Asia do. They make a large number of their business decisions based on whats going to happen 10-20 years in the future. And it works too... minimal profit now for huge profits later.

 

[glenn1]

What we could really use is man-portable railguns, both crew and individual served. We need some more new tools for the basic grunts who've been making due with basically the same weapons technology since WW2 and less for the flyboys and sailors which already outgun all the rest of the world put together. One of our infantry platoons should be able to outfight an enemy batallion the way one of our carrier groups can outfight an entire enemy navy.

 

[ThaGrandCow]

Originally posted by: flxnimprtmscl

Originally posted by: ThaGrandCow
who-fuggin-ray
Another weapon that we're developing to piss off all the people that are quasi-allies/quasi-enemies with us. So now we have the ability to deliver a nuclear payload even quicker to whomever we choose. Hooray! </sarcasm>

Granted, me = teh marine so I should be all about this... but this definitely does not make me happy.

Eh, an ICBM can deliver it's nuclear payload much quicker than this can.

Excatly... so why develop this in the first place? All it's doing is broadcasting to the world "we're developing more weapons to kill you quickly." We've got enough ICBM's around the world already to end human life completely on every continent with a nuclear payload if we so chose. Why do we need more?

 

[flxnimprtmscl]

Originally posted by: ThaGrandCow

Originally posted by: flxnimprtmscl

Originally posted by: ThaGrandCow
who-fuggin-ray
Another weapon that we're developing to piss off all the people that are quasi-allies/quasi-enemies with us. So now we have the ability to deliver a nuclear payload even quicker to whomever we choose. Hooray! </sarcasm>

Granted, me = teh marine so I should be all about this... but this definitely does not make me happy.

Eh, an ICBM can deliver it's nuclear payload much quicker than this can.

Excatly... so why develop this in the first place? All it's doing is broadcasting to the world "we're developing more weapons to kill you quickly." We've got enough ICBM's around the world already to end human life completely on every continent with a nuclear payload if we so chose. Why do we need more?

Well, I'm no nuclear weapons expert but I'll take a shot at answering this I guess. There are three main benifits I see from this. The first I already mentioned which is stealth. This can be completely concealed. They won't know what hit them until it hits them.

The second would be the way the payload is delivered. An ICBM really consists of a bunch of little nukes called MIRV's (multiple independent re-entry vehicles). Which makes an ICBM a pretty devestating weapon by nuclear standards. Perhaps the payload configuration can be changed so there's only one nuke (with a smaller yield) being dellivered but I'm not sure about that. If not the other advantage to this is that a smaller, more tactical nuke can be used if your objective is to say, take out a hardened missle silo instead of a city.

The third advantage would be how flexible this would be. You could load it up with any payload you want from a large yield nuke to a small yield nuke to a normal bomb. Screwing with an ICBM would take a lot more time even when you consider that ICBM's are faster so that makes this a better first strike/quick response weapon.

There could be more benifits and the ones I've listed might not even be accurate but that's a layman's assesment of it.

 

[flxnimprtmscl]

Originally posted by: ThaGrandCow

Originally posted by: flxnimprtmscl

Originally posted by: Hayabusarider
Cool! Makes Bush and his ilk de facto dictators!

No need to worry about that. If you didnt' read the article it said these would take 20 years to develop. In case you're not too good at math that means bush will be gone by then so you can rest easy.


Btw, who starts planing something 20 freaking years out? Won't technology most likely be so far advanced by then as to make these obsolete no matter how cool they seem now?

Japan and some other countries in Asia do. They make a large number of their business decisions based on whats going to happen 10-20 years in the future. And it works too... minimal profit now for huge profits later.

But with the speed we're advancing our technology how can your accurately predict 10-20 years out? That seems impossible given the speed advances today. We could easily design this and by the time it's done every country will have a 100% effective, foolproof method of defending itself against incoming warheads, airstrikes, etc.

 

[Lucky]

they could have said that about the b-2.