Future Weapons of War in the Works

An anonymous reader writes "Who needs explosive missiles when you can just launch a 3 foot long chunk of metal at near Mach 7 speeds and get the same result? Popular Science looks at weapons the military is developing for future wars including electromagnetic railguns, space darts, superfast torpedos, laser cannons, and a gun that fires a million rounds per minute."

Comments

but what about poor puff?

[nounderscores]

Puff the Nuclear Weapon

Puff the Nuclear Weapon was pointed at Iraq,
and waited in his submarine for the signal to attack.
Little George Bush Junior, he loved that rascal puff,
and all those days, he nightly prayed for the UN to get tough.

oh
Puff the Nuclear Weapon lived in the sea,
protecting all our freedoms to
a brand new SUV.
Puff the Nuclear Weapon lived in the sea,
protecting all our freedoms to
a brand new SUV.

Now Puff he liked to travel, so he wore travelling clothes
While Bush was home and on the phone, from locations undisclosed.
Presidents and Princes, they bowed when'ere he came,
and Nation States lowered their flags when Puff roared out his name.

oh
Puff the Nuclear Weapon defender of the peace,
securing the world's oil supply
and the occasional golden fleece.
Puff the Nuclear Weapon defender of the peace,
securing the world's oil supply
and hte occasional golden fleece.

Plutonium lasts for ever, but not so little boys.
ICBMs and M-16s give way to... other toys.
And one grey day it happened: The traders broke the Dow.
So Puff the Nuclear Weapon's on the open market now.

His warhead packed in plastic, green crates that bore his name.
Poor Puff would not intimidate for the Stars and Stripes again.
Without his life long friend, poor puff could not be brave,
so al-Qaida hid that that weapon in a deep, dark, man-made cave.

oh
Puff the Nuclear Weapon lived in the sea,
but now he's in a backpack
some where close to you and me.
Puff the Nuclear Weapon defender of the free,
and you can blame it all upon
Bush fiscal policy.

lyrics fully GPL.

Re:Don't they ever learn?

[meringuoid]

Train the US military to protect a population, instead of blowing it up.

This is their big problem in Iraq. Americans just don't do peacekeeping.

The usual pattern of things throughout the wars in Yugoslavia throughout the nineties was: Milosevic starts war. Atrocities commence. Americans start bombing, threaten to invade. Milosevic backs off. Yugoslavia gets a bit smaller. Europeans keep peace under UN flag. The result of this is that the Americans end up with an army that's absolutely brilliant at invading countries and crushing opposition, but doesn't know its arse from its elbow in keeping order afterwards.

Of course, the Europeans didn't exactly cover themselves with glory in the Balkans. Srebrenica was an utterly appalling failure.