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USAF Launch Supersonic Bomb Firing Technology
coondoggie writes "Boeing and the US Air Force today said they have tested new technology that for the first time will let military aircraft launch bombs from aircraft moving at supersonic speeds. Researchers from Boeing Phantom Works and the Air Force Research Laboratory used a rocket sled in combination with what researchers called "active flow control" to successfully release a smart bomb known as MK-82 Joint Direct Attack Munition Standard Test Vehicle (JDAM) at a speed of about Mach 2 from a weapons bay with a size approximating that of the U.S. Air Force B-1 bomber, Boeing said. Active flow control is a tandem array of microjets upstream of the weapons bay that, when fired reduces the unsteady pressures inside the bay and modifies the flow outside to ensure the JDAM munition travels out of the bay correctly."
How many millions/billions spent on this that could've gone to the people of the US?
As I see it, any enemy we'd have to use this against would be throwing ICBMs with nukes at us. Why the fuck are we building bigger and better and more expensive bombs when all of our operations are counter-terrorist ops?
You're really buying that whole "intelligence screwed up" explanation for Iraq? I believe the intelligence was 100% accurate. If the CIA had really believed Iraq had WMDs, I doubt the US would have invaded (see North Korea and Iran).
Opus: the Swiss army knife of audio codec
Now we can miss faster! It's win/win. The quicker we miss the first target and kill a bunch of non-related civillians the quicker we can launch a second attack and kill even more civillians.
Off on a tangent though, it seems we (collectively as the human species, but some nations more than others) are putting so much time and effort into finding better ways of killing each other off. Wouldn't it seem that a better expenditure for most of that energy would be a little patience so we can all get along and resolve our differences?
I drink to make other people interesting!