Weapons Officer, Ready the Octave Fauchon-Villeplee!

[LongBlade]

They've got to come-up with another name. The Rod of Death or Spear of God or something. Maybe The Eraser from the movie of the same name about Rail-Guns. "Arhnold's Eraser".  :P

I read an article a while ago about a concept where solid rounds were launched from orbit. Between a good kick out the door and gravity they were figured to give quite a punch.

The name? "Rods from the gods."

This is fairly similar (they reach 500k feet in altitude iirc), though "rail gun" has a nice futuristic ring to it.

[mirth]

Once again, Battletech shows us the way

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Naval_Gauss_Rifle

[JasonPratt]

"DEATHREEEEED!!!"  O0

...wait, are we actually using Ospreys now, or is that wishful hopefully expectant thinking? The last time I saw those in operation was with wingsuits and, well, a rail gun, in a movie series about transforming gobs of metal shooting each other weakly. TransaMegans or something like that.

[OJsDad]

More GPS guidance?

Any future big war will be focused around jamming or eliminating GPS & computer networks first and foremost.  ???  Because so many weapon & comms systems now depend on it so much.

I don't disagree that the GPS satellites will be a primary target, but I can see these guns being as effective as a battleships 16" guns.  Yes, according to the one graphic, it'll take about 6 mins to hit a target from max indirect fire range, but hitting non mobile targets, it wont matter.  Also, using drones, I would think being able to use laser guiding will be just as effective as gps.  Even with no guidance and a target that is mobile, will it know it's being shot at in time to more out of the damage area.  Can enough rounds be fired quickly enough to cover a large enough area that a mobile unit will still take damage. 

[Nefaro]

More GPS guidance?

Any future big war will be focused around jamming or eliminating GPS & computer networks first and foremost.  ???  Because so many weapon & comms systems now depend on it so much.

I don't disagree that the GPS satellites will be a primary target, but I can see these guns being as effective as a battleships 16" guns.  Yes, according to the one graphic, it'll take about 6 mins to hit a target from max indirect fire range, but hitting non mobile targets, it wont matter.  Also, using drones, I would think being able to use laser guiding will be just as effective as gps.  Even with no guidance and a target that is mobile, will it know it's being shot at in time to more out of the damage area.  Can enough rounds be fired quickly enough to cover a large enough area that a mobile unit will still take damage.

Oh, it definitely sounds like a useful weapon.

I'm just concerned about the guidance system.  Seems like we've been increasingly putting all our guidance eggs in the same basket over the years, and this is just another one with the same reliance.

Guessing there is more than one method of guidance or back-up systems without too massive a loss in effectiveness.  But when it comes to such things, we probably shouldn't take that for granted.. right?

[Boggit]

Looks like Iran better start digging deeper.

Or perhaps the Norks? Haven't they got a ton of bunkers on the border with South Korea?