2003-04-08 17:00:06.384159+00 by Dan Lyke 5 comments
I tried to exercise restraint. Waited a day. But in the end I stole this one from Jay: Brits consider using laser guided concrete against Iraq. The idea is that if you take out the explosive payload and replace it with concrete you get more localized destruction. But what kept running through my mind was "I bet that'll hit them like a ton of bricks." Sorry.
[ related topics: Current Events War ]
comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):
#Comment made: 2003-04-08 19:35:30.483725+00 by: petronius
About 20 years ago I saw something in Analog magazine about an orbital kinetic weapon. The idea was to orbit hundreds of steel girders coated in an ablative material for heat shielding, with a small retrorocket and some aiming mechanism. The idea was to de-orbit the things and direct them into enemy bunkers and fortifications. The sheer kinetic energy from their 150 mile fall would vaporize them on contact, along with a good chunk of the target. They even suggested smaller, crowbar sized ones to take out Soviet tanks. They called them "Thunderbolts".
#Comment made: 2003-04-09 02:14:37.141799+00 by: Mars Saxman
There was a similar idea in Heinlein's "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress"... the moon colony used big space barges, shot into orbit on a railgun, as a makeshift kinetic bomb.
#Comment made: 2003-04-09 03:57:58.067473+00 by: Pete
Not much of a B5 fan, but I think that show featured orbitting "mass drivers" as some sort of banned-by-treaty weapon one faction got caught using.
#Comment made: 2003-04-09 22:39:16.973274+00 by: baylink
Oh, *this* is why my hit count doubled. Thanks, Dan. Glad you liked it.
#Comment made: 2003-04-10 11:31:04.521146+00 by: John Anderson
The system was called 'Thor' (hammers from heaven, etc.), and was the inspiration for one of the favorite sig-quotes:
I was thinking of putting the Thor kinetic weapon system up, not as an active weapon system [for which it would be not very good] but to deal with light pollution. Fuck up regional astronomy and get a crowbar through the roof at 8 km/s. -- James Nicoll in rasfw