Hi Ray, attoseconds, eh? Well they've got a long way to go before they get pulse widths of Planck time (http://www.physlink.com/ae281.cfm)
I read an interesting article a while back about the guy that is considered the father of high speed photography for ballistics and scientific measurements. It had some kewl pictures. Can't remember where I saw it though, so lotta good that does 'ya!
Thanks for reviving the HoP thread!
Here's my contribution:
You've Got Bang!
(Army's new laser-guided gun)
Forbes, June 11, 2001 p138
By , Chana R. Schoenberger
Move over, M-16. Here comes the Army's new chip-based, laser-guided gun.
Never mind all that galactic mumbo jumbo about space wars and missile- defense shields-wars are won on the ground, with rifles. The Army's standard-issue M-16 rifle has been updated only a little since its debut in 1967: It's time to inject a lethal dose of new technology.
A new gun, with the ponderous name Objective Individual Combat Weapon, puts antiaircraft power on a soldier's shoulder. It is now in prototype testing under a $108 million military contract led by Alliant Techsystems of Hopkins, Minn. Its 18 pounds of titanium-composite combines an automatic rifle with a laser-guided, airburst shell launcher, complete with infrared night vision. If it wins approval, it could serve as an alternative to Colt Industries' ubiquitous M-16 and grenade launcher, the M-203, in the second half of the decade.
Automatic rifles like the M-16 and its global rival, the Russian Kalashnikov, rely on a soldier's perfect aim, a skill that often vaporizes under fire. "In combat, when someone's shooting back at you, our ability to place aimed fire on a target is not what we would like," says Colonel Jim Stone, director of combat development at the Army's Infantry School in Fort Benning, Ga.
In search of a more reliable killing machine, Alliant tinkered with air-burst technology that has been evolving from Civil War cannonballs to modern-day antiaircraft guns. The design team spent four years developing 20mm rounds, four times as thick as regular bullets.
Once the soldier has marked his target with a red dot in his laser sights, a dime-size stack of microprocessors inside the bullet determines how many times it must revolve in flight before reaching its destination. Fired from up to 1,000 meters away, the bullet explodes a meter above the target, hailing shrapnel on an enemy in the open, behind a wall or in a ditch. The older M-203 launcher, which fires $20 grenades, incapacitates a target (which means he isn't going to shoot back) only 10% of the time. The Army wants the new gun's $35 shells to hit 50%.
The gun faces some obstacles. Each will cost taxpayers $24,000. Alliant and Army officials are quick to note that a fully equipped M-16 with infrared scope and grenade launcher costs $35,000 and up. If it gets the go-ahead, the Army plans to buy 22,000 guns for its 480,000 active- duty soldiers, or four to six weapons for every nine-man squad.
In September 1999 an airburst bullet exploded in the gun's barrel during a test firing, breaking a soldier's arm. The company says the design has been fine-tuned to prevent such accidents. It also must reduce the gun's weight from 18 pounds to 14 through such developments as a lighter battery.
The next round comes in 2005, when the Army may award a second-stage, $100 million engineering contract. There is competition from Giat Industries of France, which is working on a weapon incorporating a 30mm airburst grenade launcher. FN Herstal in Belgium is building a prototype assault rifle combined with an impact-bursting grenade launcher and laser sight. Herstal's gun lacks airburst bullets, making it not as lethal as the OICW, but it fires the 40mm rounds the Army already uses. And it could cost as little as $600 per gun.
Whichever contractor wins, the M-16 eventually will go the way of the musket. To soldiers, happiness is a smarter gun. "We see the potential for fighting across a bigger battle space," says Colonel Stone. "That's the guy who's going to win." |
