Ship's Locker: Out of the Closet

[Condottiere]

Ship's Locker: Out of the Closet
ArcFlash Labs EMG-02 CoilGun: Making SciFi Weapons Into Reality ArcFlash Labs has come out with a new coil gun design that takes the best elements of their underpowered EMG-01 and their overly bulky GR-1 Anvil and melded them into a much handier EMG-02. This new design maintains the same muzzle...

Condottiere Post #1,019 Yesterday at 7:58 PM Forum: Traveller

Ship's Locker: Out of the Closet
The Reality of Gauss Rifles and Coil Guns w/ David Wirth of Arcflash Labs David Wirth is one of the founders of Arcflash Labs, a small company developing "ultra-high energy pulsed power supplies", which have applications in a variety of fields - but today we are talking about electromagnetic...

Condottiere Post #978 Feb 11, 2022 Forum: Traveller

Ship's Locker: Out of the Closet
Real Guns of Fallout: Gauss Rifle The Gauss Rifle is one of the most powerful weapons in the Fallout universe and Andrew shoots an actual, real life Gauss rifle from Arcflash Labs.

1. No water melon is safe. 2. Ten dee size batteries.

Condottiere Post #821 Jul 5, 2021 Forum: Traveller


They may be improving at a semiannual rate.

 

[Sigtrygg]

That makes four.

 

[Condottiere]

And it will be five, if Ian thinks it worthwhile to comment on whatever the next model is.

Now, in my inexpert opinion, there are probably four primary improvements:

1. Battery energy density.

2. Energy efficiency, in transferring that energy to pushing out the payload.

3. Compactizing the platform.

4. Lethalizing the payload at five hundred metres.

Logistics is probably underrated in Traveller, or at least in ground combat, in that when it grinds down to attritional, if your weapon platform can regenerate its ammunition capacity to keep pace with usage, the most famous example I can think of so far are the Imperial Guardsmen chucking their lasguns into the campfire in order to recharge the battery.

 

[Condottiere]

Incredible Bicycle Cars - Human Powered Vehicles

Hello! The rising cost of petrol, carbon emissions, tax and insurance...these are just some of the reasons why owning a car may not appeal to everyone. Likewise, there are many reasons why you might not want to own a bicycle or an e-bike. But what if you could combine the best qualities of bicycles and cars into one?

Let's take 7 incredible bicycle cars! Hope you like it!

I kept thinking battery powered rickshaws; or Johnny Cabs.

 

[Condottiere]

Where does the name "black hole" come from?

Black holes used to be called "gravitationally completely collapsed objects" (or GCCOs) so where did the name "black hole" come from? Especially considering that they're not "black" or "holes"! #etymology #blackhole

00:00 - Introduction
00:39 - The first scientific name for black holes: GCCOs
01:03 - Einstein's General Relativity and the idea of a "hole"
02:41 - They're not "holes": John Michell's "dark stars"
03:32 - Robert Dicke and the "Black Hole of Calcutta" prison
04:53 - The first use of "black hole" in print
05:13. -Popularising "black hole" in the late 60s
05:27 - They're not "black" either...
05:59 - Bloopers

Calcutta.

 

[Condottiere]

RUSSIA RUNS OUT of Equipment for TROOPS - Mobilized Recruits Told to BUY KIT & Then Sent to War


The CHOAS created by President Putin's announcement of MOBILIZATION continues to wreak havoc and DESTRUCTION for the Russian Economy. It is estimated that 700,000 people have left Russia to avoid the Mobilization, more have left their jobs and gone into hiding within Russia, 300,000 are being removed from the Workforce to be Mobilized and this is on top of the 500,000 that left at the start of the War in the 'Brain Drain'. It has now been reported that Troops have to BUY EQUIPMENT and receive only 10 DAYS TRAINING before being sent to Ukraine. All of these factors are having a Devastating impact on the Economy and will continue as long as the War continues. In this video I look at the issues facing Russia and provide my view on the implications for both Russia & the GLOBAL ECONOMY.

Chapters:
0:00 Intro
2:05 MOBILIZATION
4:03 EQUIPMENT
4:28 PERSONAL HYGENE
5:26 THERMAL UNDERWEAR
6:42 FLASHLIGHTS
7:22 BALACLAVA & GLOVES
8:23 CAMPING SEAT
8:47 MILITARY EQUIPMENT
9:43 TRAINING & EQUIPMENT
11:04 MOBILIZATION STATS
11:34 CASUALTIES
12:23 SUMMARY & CONCLUSION

I don't think you'll have this problem with interstellar militaries, though planetary defence forces might.

And Vargr.

 

[Condottiere]

Chuck Rajas in the Fifty Seventh Century: Artillery

1. Presumably, artillery shells and mortar rounds are taken out by laser point defence.

2. Which would be both the fastest to react, and the cheapest per shot.

3. Next would be very rapid gauss guns.

4. Then you would have point defence missiles, probably the slowest and most expensive option.

5. All would need sensors that detect incoming ordnance, and a control system that can respond almost instantly.

6. This should be part of an overall defence network, that can deal with drones, kamikaze or not, aerospacecraft, freefall ordnance, and missiles.

7. Considering the bulk of non energy point defence, at a minimum you would have to manufacture the ammunition locally.

8. If the conflict becomes attritional, and drawn out, even obsolescent weapon systems would be deployed.

9. Possibly, museum pieces.

 

[Condottiere]

Chuck Rajas in the Fifty Seventh Century: Artillery

A. I think you can generalize artillery usage as precision, carpetting and saturation.

B. Precision would be using limited numbers of guided munition to neutralize a a target, but most vulnerable to point defence.

C. Carpetting isn't concerned with accuracy, just placing ordnance within a large area, so point defence is pretty much hit or miss.

D. Saturation would be a variant of precision bombing, but using large numbers of ordnance to overwhelm point defence.

E. From what I hear, you remove the expensive warhead and replace it with ballast for the initial salvo.

F. Or, you simultaneously try the suppression or destruction of enemy air defence.

 

[Condottiere]

Chuck Rajas in the Fifty Seventh Century: Artillery

G. While ideally, you have artillery weapon systems on self propelled carriages, that might not always be possible.

H. Budgetary constraints, or even other considerations such as weight, may result in towed variants.

I. If a self propelled platform is disabled, the artillery weapon system cannot move.

J. A towed variant can just be attached to a suitable prime mover, if their original one is immobilized.

K. Tech level 10: Field artillery is now entirely MD guns or MRL's, in both cases self-propelled
on high speed grav vehicles, and with firing controlled completely by computer fire control
systems. In vertical envelopment situations, artillery support is provided exclusively by remote
controlled, disposable, static MRL units dropped by air.

 

[Condottiere]

Chuck Rajas in the Fifty Seventh Century: Artillery

L. If you have the high ground, you can see everything, and shoot everything.

M. It's one reason some militaries don't have a lot of artillery, as they rely on aircraft to take out out distant targets, and provide immediate ground support.

N. As Pournelle rightly predicted, anything that flies is going to be targetted and shot down.

O. Chances are, only small, stealthy satellites will go undetected.

P. The best would probably be nap of the earth.

 

[Condottiere]

Chuck Rajas in the Fifty Seventh Century: Artillery

Q. Ultimately, you will have weapon systems in orbit that could dominate battlefields.

R. It's an interesting question if you could destroy or divert mass driven and railed ordnance before it hits a static target.

S. Ortillery could be powered missiles or large tungsten type telephone poles.

T. You assume some form of guidance is present, since the point is more less precise strikes.

U. What I'm wondering about is placing the Guided Munition on freefalling objects from orbit?

 

[Condottiere]

Container Based Remote Weapon System

EOS' Container Based Weapon System is a weapon agnostic, discrete defense system that can be operated wirelessly. It's mobile, inconspicuous and can be networked to provide security and situational awareness for any size installation. When paired with the EOS R400S remote weapon station, the system provides unmatched precision for any weapon combination. The standard lethality package includes an M230LF, M240 and optional missile.

1. Pop up.

2. Also, possible module.

 

[Condottiere]

Chuck Rajas in the Fifty Seventh Century: Artillery

V. If you manage to secrete one meson weapon system in the planetary crust, unless the orbital forces are in overwhelming force, they are dead meat.

W. Chances are pretty good that the positions and/or flight paths of spacecraft would be detected and/or known.

X. You'd have to retreat spacecraft beyond the known range of the meson weapon system, and use ortillery.

Y. Or small fast spacecraft for closeish aerospace support.

Z. Likely interstellar militaries would take that approach.

 

[Condottiere]

Chuck Rajas in the Fifty Seventh Century: Artillery

1. If you have deployed ground forces, while the enemy's deep meson sites haven't been neutralized, the bases would need extensive meson screens, besides nuclear dampers and point defence.

2. Large groupings of infantry and vehicles would also be vulnerable, especially infantry.

3. You'd probably would want get into urban areas, since buildings are going to interfere with sensors, as well as potential collateral damage.

4. Of course, installing the meson weapon system on a submarine makes it mobile.

5. The location of meson deep sites would be highly classified, or should be.

6. You could place them on railway carriage, though that would limit their mobility to the available rail tracks.

7. In theory, you could use a very large grav sled, and in a large cavern, use the gravitational motors in the sled to align with the target.

8. You could aim below the base, and assuming the blast destroys whatever supports and stabilizes the buildings above, bypass the meson screen and cause a sinkhole.

9. Might pull a similar trick, if the base is near a cliff: cause the cliff to break off and drop down on the base.

 

[Condottiere]

Why the Weird AN-94 Russian Army Rifle Failed

What if you could pull the trigger once and land two bullets almost instantaneously while only feeling the recoil for one bullet?

In the 1980s the Soviet Union started experimenting on a next generation assault rifle design so advanced that to this day the US doesn’t have anything that comes anywhere close to its complexity. But maybe that’s a good thing? Maybe your rifle shouldn’t have more moving parts than a rube goldberg machine and come with a twenty page user manual in order to operate. Today it’s still considered a rare find popping up in strange places every so often even in the trucks of Ukranian’s cars. I like it , that’s casual.

The AN94 was originally meant to be the primary weapon for the Soviet Union which would have required a major change in infantry doctrine but there are a number of reasons why it failed. The Rifles development story leads us to answers about the pro’s and cons of how the Russian military industrial complex works.

In this episode we’re going to cover the AN-94 rifle that is used by both Russian Spetsnaz Operators and Ukrainian troops to this day. Let’s analyze how it operates, the right and wrong ways to deploy with it in combat and whether or not its unique fighting doctrine makes any sense. Fire off a quick burst at the like and subscribe button and lets get to it.

DEVELOPMENT

The Story of the AN-94 rifle begins with the famous Russian Gun engineer Gennadiy Nikonov. The fact that he was born in 1950 in the city of Izhevsk makes it seem like he was destined to work in the defense industry because Izhevsk is known as a major hub for Russia’s defense industry, engineering and metallurgy. The city has the title of the armory capital of Russia. Nikonov’s father and mother both worked at Izhmashh, the massive soviet arms factory there talk about being born into something.

The city’s armory itself is legendary. It was first established on June 10th 1807 by Emperor of all Russia Alexander the Ist in response to Napoleon's invasion of Russia. The placement of this small arms plant at Izhevsk was by no means random. Alexander the 1st strategically planned its location at the bank of the Izh River due to its close proximity to the iron works which would solve all of their raw material supply issues. The factory would go on to supply the Imperial Russian army with more than 6,000 of the No.15 17.7mm muskets and Napoleon would end up going back to France freezing cold and totally empty handed.

1. KISS.

2. Double tap.

 

[Yatima]

Sounds like it was inspired by the same thinking that led to the Heckler & Koch G11 - IIRC, a post-war German study into how to increase first-round hit probability decided that three-round bursts where the best bet to achieve this. To increase accuracy of a three round burst, they tried to figure out how to have all three rounds leave the barrel before the recoil hit the firer's shoulder. To do that, they invented caseless ammunition, in order to remove the case ejection step from the weapon's cycle.

I wouldn't be surprised to learn that this was a Russian attempt at the same objective, albeit by different means. There's history here, as Mr Kalashnikov had seen the German Sturmgewehr 44 (the world's first assault rifle) and his innovation was to figure out how to make cheap copies, creating the AK47.

Footnote: When you look through your classic Traveller books and see mention of the ACR (Advanced Combat Rifle) this is the name of a US Army competition to replace the AR-15, and the G11 was one of the entries. Other concepts in the ACR competition included a Flechette rifle and a dual-bullet cartridge, IIRC. Pretty sure the Traveller idea of an ACR is derived from this batch of concept weapons.

 

[Condottiere]

I think the Americans had a similar concept; though going by the discarding sabot school of penetration, length over diameter, a longer slug might be what you're looking for.

However, as someone recently pointed out, in the modern battlefield all sidearms are now personal defence weapons, more for deterrence and close quarters, as the go to weapon systems are heavy weapons.

And as such, you want them to be as simple to use and service, as possible.

While our Advanced Combat Rifle might actually be a case of the whole being greater than the parts, it's also a forty year old concept.

As regards the three round burst, as I understand the reasoning, it's for recruits and draftees who have no trigger control.

 

[Condottiere]

Firearms Expert Reacts To Warhammer 40,000: Darktide’s Guns

Jonathan Ferguson, a weapons expert and Keeper of Firearms & Artillery at the Royal Armouries, breaks down more of the weaponry of Warhammer 40,000: Darktide, including the iconic Boltgun, the versatile Grenadier Gauntlet, and an M79 Grenade Launcher in space.

00:00 - Opening
00:45 - Braced Autogun
02:04 - Shredder Autopistol
03:35 - Purgation Flamer
06:41 - Grenadier Gauntlet
08:01 - Spearhead Boltgun
11:09 - Infantry Lasgun
12:18 - Ripper Gun
14:23 - Combat Shotgun
17:05 - Helbore Lasgun
18:26 - Quickdraw Stub Revolver
21:02 - Twin-Linked Heavy Stubber
23:43 - Grenade Launcher
24:48 - Ending

In the latest video in the Firearm Expert Reacts series, Jonathan Ferguson--a weapons expert and Keeper of Firearms & Artillery at the Royal Armouries--breaks down the guns of Warhammer 40,000: Darktide and compares them to their potential real-life counterparts, of which there are unsurprisingly few.

1. Picatinny rails.

2. Flame thrower - should have a psychological check.

3. Laser sight on laser rifle?

4. Heavy weapon installed on walking drone, but operated by human.

 

[Condottiere]

Chuck Rajas in the Fifty Seventh Century: Artillery

A. Interstellar militaries will probably treat their groundside artillery assets about the same as current ones regard mortars.

B. Air support from weapon systems mounted on grav powered vehicles.

C. Aerospace support from spacecraft, likely manned by naval aviators.

D. Heavy artillery support from designated orbital strike and orbital bombardment weapon systems.

E. Though I'm not quite clear what the exact difference and effect small, medium, and large, missile bays have.

F. It's clear that for the Confederation Army, they're going to heavily lean on their Navy for such support.

 

[Condottiere]

Chuck Rajas in the Fifty Seventh Century: Artillery

G. It seems that you need to build up large stockpiles of ammunition before expected hostilities.

H. An indication that they are being planned, is when a statistically abnormal number of stockpiles blow up.

I. Production facilities, at least for ordnance that would be the most used, and therefore likely of cheap and comparatively lower technology, should be established dirtside.

J. Any arms factories off planet, even if insystem, would require transportation by spacecraft.

K. That would make the transports vulnerable to anti spacecraft weapon systems, if not interceptable by enemy spacecraft.