Those clever French people are dropping big rocks on armor; Primitive,but effective! Maybe CAP should have dropped Bee hives or anvils on German subs!
http://defensetech.org/2011/04/29/france-using-concrete-bombs-in-libya/
Major Lord
+1 to the Frenchies! That is hilarious, yet brilliant. :clap: :clap: :clap:
Quote from: GTCommando on May 01, 2011, 01:15:04 PM+1 to the Frenchies! That is hilarious, yet brilliant. :clap: :clap: :clap:
LASER GUIDED CONCRETE BOMB.
At first I thought it was an economy measure, but apparently not...
Smart Rocks?
Airborne trebuchet?
Sort of an interesting twist on the "David meets Goliath" story........I wonder how much these things cost with just a hunk of concrete and a guidance package? I remember the idea of our dropping tungsten pointy telephone poles from orbit. They would be going pretty fast when they hit their target and flash to plasma on impact, but they were really just big arrows dropped from the sky. The brute force approach of a chunk of concrete has a certain elegance. Smart rocks indeed!
Major Lord
Precision guided concrete bombs aren't such a bad idea. With no explosive there is very little collateral damage from the explosion.
Could come in pretty handy if you're dealing with bad guys in a built up area.
Ah.. Jerry Pournelle.. yeah. As opposed to lobbing rocks and boulders, which isn't the same thing. Though very close. Imagine if the Palestinians got some smart rocks. ;)
You're thinking of rocks being launched from the moon? Not Pournelle. Heinlein - The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.
Sticks and stones may break my bones....
Quote from: caphornbuckle on May 01, 2011, 11:20:11 PM
Sticks and stones may break my bones....
But finally France can hurt me!
-Rogovin
"Rods from God" .. Pournelle. I just wondered why they wouldn't burn up, myself. SpaceShipOne isn't going fast enough, but didn't come in from an orbit either.
Look up the properties of tungsten. It is more dense than uranium, and the melting point is 3695 K. That's 6191.33 °F.
Quote from: SarDragon on May 02, 2011, 05:19:11 AM
Look up the properties of tungsten. It is more dense than uranium, and the melting point is 3695 K. That's 6191.33 °F.
Thats about double the reentry heating of the Space Shuttle, according to wiki, so it just might work if it came in at the right reentry profile...
Some other methods:
http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military/planes-uavs/5-weapons-systems-to-reduce-collateral-damage?click=pp#fbIndex1
A "... cloud of 3700 penetrator rods, steel and tungsten darts ranging from 1 ounce to 1 pound in weight." ! Ouch!