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Eglin Studying Massive 30,000-Pound Bomb
Bomb Would Be 40 Percent Bigger Than MOABEGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. -- The Air Force built a weapon so big it was nicknamed "Mother of All Bombs" on the eve of the war with Iraq, but MOAB would be dwarfed by a much larger munition now under study.
The proposed Massive Ordnance Penetrator, or MOP, would weigh 30,000 pounds, nearly 40 percent more than the 21,000 pound MOAB -- officially Massive Ordnance Air Blast -- that never saw combat.
"The reason it's heavier than MOAB is that it has to penetrate a target," said Fred Davis, technical director for assessment and demonstrations at the Air Force Research Laboratory's Munitions Directorate.
MOP would be designed to explode deep in the ground or inside a structure to destroy tunnels and bunkers or topple tall buildings.
MOAB, on the other hand, explodes just above the ground. It is a larger version of the BLU-84 "Daisy Cutter" that was used during the Vietnam War to blast out helicopter landing zones in jungle areas.
The 15,000-pound Daisy Cutter also was dropped during the 1991 Persian Gulf War to clear minefields and more recently to blast caves believed to be hiding terrorists in Afghanistan.
MOAB can be against similar targets and structures or vehicles susceptible to surface blast damage. Both also are seen as psychological weapons that can demoralize an enemy.
During the next 16 months the Munitions Directorate at this Florida Panhandle base will look at everything from MOP's shape to its guidance. The Pentagon's Defense Threat Reduction Agency is providing $500,000 in initial research money.
If the project gets beyond the initial research and development phase, MOP probably won't see its first armed drop until 2006 or later.
MOP would have inertial and satellite guidance, just like MOAB, but it would have a more slender shape so it could be dropped from high altitude by a B-52 or a B-2 stealth bomber.
The Daisy Cutter and MOAB are too bulky to be carried by sleek bombers and must be pushed out of the rear door of lower-flying and slower cargo planes.
I thought it was pretty nifty. Good alternative to nuclear busters too, considering the problems with those.
Either way, that is one huge bomb.
The Landing Zone thing is also cool 
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JooJooFlop had this to say about dark elf butts:
I'm still looking forward to those ship-mounted railguns.
As in.. Gauss-rifle like technology? (No explosive powder, just a bigass magnet propelling the round)
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Delphi Aegis had this to say about Captain Planet:
As in.. Gauss-rifle like technology? (No explosive powder, just a bigass magnet propelling the round)
Yeah the navy is taking about having them by 2015 or something.
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Delphi Aegis had this to say about Tron:
As in.. Gauss-rifle like technology? (No explosive powder, just a bigass magnet propelling the round)
Err, That would be a Coil gun, a Rail-gun is diffrent.
The basic Rail run has two rails, one positive, and one Negtive, the metal slug sits between the two, to move the slug a High voltage Pulse is sent into rails, the slug not being fixed is moved down the rails due to EMF(Right hand Rule iffin I rember right). The thing is, most rails guns happen to invole enough Power that the slug is often turned into plasma, though I belive the Navy is pushing slugs thqat remain solid. Biggest issues with the guns are the forces pushing the Rails out wards during the shot, Power, and rail crosion/pitting. Honestly, I Am kinda wondering why The Navy even wants them, the days of Navy Big Guns are long gone.
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Peter had this to say about pies:
Err, That would be a Coil gun, a Rail-gun is diffrent.The basic Rail run has two rails, one positive, and one Negtive, the metal slug sits between the two, to move the slug a High voltage Pulse is sent into rails, the slug not being fixed is moved down the rails due to EMF(Right hand Rule iffin I rember right). The thing is, most rails guns happen to invole enough Power that the slug is often turned into plasma, though I belive the Navy is pushing slugs thqat remain solid. Biggest issues with the guns are the forces pushing the Rails out wards during the shot, Power, and rail crosion/pitting. Honestly, I Am kinda wondering why The Navy even wants them, the days of Navy Big Guns are long gone.
I disagree with you there to an extent. Right now anti ship missiles and Anti missile technology just about counter each other out. the current CWIS gattling weapons have a very high shoot down record. When you figure that a Carrier will have a ring of cruisers and Destroyers around it for protection then it becomes very hard to hit them. A rail Cannon Provides a shell that will hit the same place every time, can fire pretty much to the horizon and has one shot kill capabilities.
In addition think smaller. Anti Aircraft weapons, anti Missile weapons. Rail cannons provide a much better option for both of these.
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JooJooFlop's fortune cookie read:
I'm still looking forward to those ship-mounted railguns.
REPAIR THE RAIL GUN!!!
But yeah they are under development. First Trimaran ships are scheduled to launch by 2010, I read, and the Electromagnetic accelerator weapons would be part of the first major upgrade within five years of launch.
sigpic courtesy of This Guy, original modified by me
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Peter was trying to sing "I'm a little tea pot" but poured out:
Err, That would be a Coil gun, a Rail-gun is diffrent.The basic Rail run has two rails, one positive, and one Negtive, the metal slug sits between the two, to move the slug a High voltage Pulse is sent into rails, the slug not being fixed is moved down the rails due to EMF(Right hand Rule iffin I rember right). The thing is, most rails guns happen to invole enough Power that the slug is often turned into plasma, though I belive the Navy is pushing slugs thqat remain solid. Biggest issues with the guns are the forces pushing the Rails out wards during the shot, Power, and rail crosion/pitting. Honestly, I Am kinda wondering why The Navy even wants them, the days of Navy Big Guns are long gone.
There's two type of rail cannon, then there's a coil type as a third
you presented the basic, the one being tested is another which is siilar, but the inner workings are very different than a coil type.
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This one time, at Vorago camp:
I can't help but wonder if with a dedicated computer program taking into account the effects of gravity and wind resistance, the railgun could be used to fire at targets beyond line of sight by arcing it around the curve of the Earth.
Fort Huachuca in AZ has been testing many types of these weapons for the past decade. Wind doesn't matter much when the round is burning its way through the atmosphere and for the curve of the earth, think of the shot like this /o\.
(the circle in the middle being the curve of the earth and the lines being the trajectory).
The Lawrence Livermore website is a really fun place to play in if you want more specific info.
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Verily, Mr. Gainsborough doth proclaim:
Sister Ray is next.
Metal Gear Rex.
sigpic courtesy of This Guy, original modified by me
