"In the upcoming years, there will be advances made in gun technology, missile technology and even laser weapons on fighter planes. Warfare will look and feel much different than today..."
In my working days, I led a blessed life. Not that I climbed the ladder of success that high, but I really did get to do some very interesting things. I traveled quited a bit throughout this land, and had the opportunity to deal with our government as well as large companies. I was also able to do some international travel and deal with foreign governments.
Over the years, I worked at some very large Fortune 500 companies on some very large programs. However, one of my more memorable experiences was working on a 9 Megajoule Gun.
In 1990, this program really was star wars. I had just been hired by a company to handle all major procurements for "new technology" programs. I had no idea the technology was this revolutionary. Even though the Cold War had recently ended, the United States was still making weapons to fight the Soviets.
One of the biggest problems to solve was the reactive armoring the Soviets used on the outside of their tanks. The current tank (M1A1 Abrams) used a 120mm shell to fight enemy tanks. This was a state of the art munition and could reach speeds of 7,000 feet/sec once fired. The problem was with the reactive armoring. The shell would explode as soon as it hit the armoring. Damage would be done, but not enough to be lethal for the tank. The Soviet tank could keep on fighting. It was then thought by the Army if a projectile could reach a higher velocity, it might be able to defeat the reactive armoring and then kill the Soviet tank. Small problem however - 7,000 feet/sec was about as fast as the technology was back then.
Out of the University of Minnesota came a young PhD with an idea. The idea was so revolutionary, the company I worked at snapped him up in a heartbeat. He had a patent to use a very high level of electric current (about 9 Megajoules) and combine it with some common chemicals, and then a spark. It would then fire a sabot type of charge at speeds up to five times faster than the current gunpowder could.
The physics was fascinating. The sabot was used instead of an explosive charge for one reason - the explosive charge was not necessary. The sabot would be traveling so fast by the time it hit the Soviet tank, it would penetrate the reactive armoring before the armoring knew what hit it. The sabot would then use the mystery of kinetic energy and become nothing more than a ball of liquid metal as it entered the tank. The tank would explode and it would be game over.
I have lots of stories about the technology path I went on with these whiz kids in the development of this technology. They will have to wait of another day, or this article will end up being much too long. One quick note I will bring up. I toured a facility which had a competing technology for the "after gunpowder" days. That concept was a rail gun. And it could fire a projectile even faster than my company's concept could.
However, with both the rail gun and the concept I was working on, there was a common problem. How do you get the kind of power needed while on the battlefield? To generate 9 Megajoules of energy, took a boatload of power. Much, much more than could be put in a battery pack. So as of today, neither concept is on the battlefield. Nor has either been fully developed. In the future, that could change.
Star Wars the movie? Yes, there is that. There is also "Star Wars" type of technology going on in our nation's government labs. And the state of warfare will continue to change. I am just glad I had that one brief glimpse to see what part of the future could look like.
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