US Navy’s Railgun to be Displayed in Public in February

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
Joined
May 9, 2000
Messages
75,399
We’ve been seeing the test videos of the Navy’s super super sonic railgun, which is capable of firing projectiles 110 miles at six times the speed of sound for some time now. Now it’s going public and will be on display at the Naval Future Force Science and Technology (S&T) EXPO in Washington, D.C. on February 4th and 5th The railgun will begin sea trials next year
 
bucketlist said:
Or giant robots with metal balls.
Would be nice if we can shift what we spend on the military towards paying off the country's debt.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately our financial well being is tied very much to our military expenditures in that the military might is what is ensuring our dollar reserve status. Its a choice between decaying slowly vs collapsing within a few years and you know which the politicians will choose.

Back on topic, can I buy one of those to equip my space warship?
 
bucketlist said:
Or giant robots with metal balls.
Would be nice if we can shift what we spend on the military towards paying off the country's debt.
Click to expand...

Entitlement spending accounts for much more of our budget than military. Strong military is essential to preserve freedom.
 
This is a conventional, Anti-Air capability.. Saying it's going to be used to murder "brown people" are absolutely clueless..
 
fdiaz78 said:
Entitlement spending accounts for much more of our budget than military. Strong military is essential to preserve freedom.
Click to expand...

The Fox news is strong with you

"The U.S. military budget is $756.4 billion for FY 2015. That makes military spending the second largest Federal government expenditure, after Social Security ($896 billion). Military spending is greater than Medicare ($529 billion), Medicaid ($331 billion), or the interest payment on the debt ($251). It's also more than the three next largest departments combined: Health and Human Services ($73.1 billion), Education ($68.6 billion) and Housing and Urban Development ($32.6 billion).

If all military spending could somehow be safely eliminated, there would be a budget surplus of $174.8 billion, instead of a $564 billion budget deficit."
 
BlankIt said:
This is a conventional, Anti-Air capability.. Saying it's going to be used to murder "brown people" are absolutely clueless..
Click to expand...

Dirty Butler said:
The Fox news is strong with you

"The U.S. military budget is $756.4 billion for FY 2015. That makes military spending the second largest Federal government expenditure, after Social Security ($896 billion). Military spending is greater than Medicare ($529 billion), Medicaid ($331 billion), or the interest payment on the debt ($251). It's also more than the three next largest departments combined: Health and Human Services ($73.1 billion), Education ($68.6 billion) and Housing and Urban Development ($32.6 billion).

If all military spending could somehow be safely eliminated, there would be a budget surplus of $174.8 billion, instead of a $564 billion budget deficit."
Click to expand...

Eliminating military spending ELIMINATES THE MILITARY..

How can you put safe in the same sentence as that is beyond me.
 
The best military spending is the kind that scares the enemy away from firing the first shot. I think this qualifies for that.
 
BlankIt said:
This is a conventional, Anti-Air capability.. Saying it's going to be used to murder "brown people" are absolutely clueless..
Click to expand...

But I'm looking forward to this being mounted on a C-130 gunship and blasting freedom to the infidels.
 
OlIv0rIolI said:
Unfortunately our financial well being is tied very much to our military expenditures in that the military might is what is ensuring our dollar reserve status. Its a choice between decaying slowly vs collapsing within a few years and you know which the politicians will choose.

Back on topic, can I buy one of those to equip my space warship?
Click to expand...

Considering the path our budget is on, and the reactions of other countries to this....

They are going to dump the dollar within the next 20 years. We are really leaving them no choice in the matter.
 
fdiaz78 said:
Entitlement spending accounts for much more of our budget than military. Strong military is essential to preserve freedom.
Click to expand...

There's a middle ground to "strong military" though. Nevermind fucking 11 aircraft carriers, combine all the world's military personnel and hardware and the U.S.'s is still bigger. Thousands of bases around the world that all have to be sustained with our tax dollars; once we set up a base somewhere we NEVER leave.

U.S. defense and military is a glorified jobs program right, has been for a long time.

And to think of the improvements to infrastructure and education that could have been made with the TRILLIONS spent using the middle east as a practice range.
 
Dirty Butler said:
The Fox news is strong with you

"The U.S. military budget is $756.4 billion for FY 2015. That makes military spending the second largest Federal government expenditure, after Social Security ($896 billion). Military spending is greater than Medicare ($529 billion), Medicaid ($331 billion), or the interest payment on the debt ($251). It's also more than the three next largest departments combined: Health and Human Services ($73.1 billion), Education ($68.6 billion) and Housing and Urban Development ($32.6 billion).

If all military spending could somehow be safely eliminated, there would be a budget surplus of $174.8 billion, instead of a $564 billion budget deficit."
Click to expand...

The debt grew by over $1 trilllion dollars last year. The official US "Deficit" is now a heavily manipulated statistic full of lies. Your number on defense spending is also likely manipulated I suspect by:
1) disproportionate debt payment loading
2) Vet benefits and the VA which even if we never bought another bullet starting tomorrow would not go away anytime soon. Or at best their load would be shifted to Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid.
 
We spend more on the military than we have too.
Thats for damn sure and no one but an idiot would deny that.
 
{NG}Fidel said:
We spend more on the military than we have too.
Thats for damn sure and no one but an idiot would deny that.
Click to expand...

Pretty much. There's an awful lot of countries that get by with less simply because they don't throw wasteful amounts of capital at silly projects or pork (overpaying .. Like Haliburtons $60k toilets). They train their troops and send them back to a strong civilian populace, investing in health, services, and education. If someone invades, that same populace takes up arms.

We do not need to maintain half of what we do currently. Ever since WW2, the major defense companies realized that being a huge military power is big industry. Thus, we've been in more conflicts and bought more toys. If education had as big a lobbyist power as the defense industry, we might not be ranked 30+ in education, 30+ in healthcare, 20+ in quality of life. Countries that we consider "3rd world" rank higher than us.

But hey, we've got a strong military.
 
jpm100 said:
The debt grew by over $1 trilllion dollars last year. The official US "Deficit" is now a heavily manipulated statistic full of lies. Your number on defense spending is also likely manipulated I suspect by:
1) disproportionate debt payment loading
2) Vet benefits and the VA which even if we never bought another bullet starting tomorrow would not go away anytime soon. Or at best their load would be shifted to Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid.
Click to expand...

Yeah, manipulated alright, its too small, since that is the 'official' number.. the Irak/Afganisthan wars weren't even counted until Obama.
Nearly all of Social Security's surplus was used for what? Tell you a secret, it wasn't social security.
 
fdiaz78 said:
Entitlement spending accounts for much more of our budget than military. Strong military is essential to preserve freedom.
Click to expand...

So, apparently, before the 80s when defense spending exploded and has risen to even more ridiculous levels ever since, we weren't a free nation and we had no freedom.

I don't seem to recall that part of the US history.

Odd, though, how, the more we spend on military, the more people we have threatening our freedom. And the right wing talks about how bad Communism and the USSR was-- all while following them straight into the same financial abyss that sunk them-- ever increasing defense spending until the country completely collapses.

It's funny how Bin Laden's entire reason for 9/11 was to make us so paranoid that we'd bankrupt ourselves with defense spending, and how, even though we know this, we have so many people willing to still do his bidding years after his death.

News flash. If we don't spend our tax money on, like, Americans and American infrastructure and quality of life in America, just what the hell are we defending with all of this money? Freedom is bullshit if the only ones that can enjoy it are the rich. It's more like Paydom.

I wonder how much we would have spent on wars in the Middle East if Al Queda would have rammed rented helicopters into a few dozen high rises full of poor people, instead of ramming jets into the headquarters of dozens of large corporations?

He knew what he had to do to ignite the fires of the wealthiest of this nation to the call of everlasting, and financially devastating warfare.
 
BlankIt said:
This is a conventional, Anti-Air capability.. Saying it's going to be used to murder "brown people" are absolutely clueless..
Click to expand...

You are referring to the fact that all the brown people we kill have absolutely zero air superiority? That is a valid point.
 
UrielDagda said:
So, apparently, before the 80s when defense spending exploded and has risen to even more ridiculous levels ever since, we weren't a free nation and we had no freedom.

I don't seem to recall that part of the US history.
Click to expand...

If no one can threaten us then no one can challenge our monetary status. $18 Trillion in debt is as good as infinite money. If no one can ever collect that debt then we can keep it going forever.

We will never pay off that debt. Our country will either crumble and it will be forgiven. Or we will annihilate those trying to collect and it will be forgiven.
 
Spidey329 said:
Pretty much. There's an awful lot of countries that get by with less simply because they don't throw wasteful amounts of capital at silly projects or pork (overpaying .. Like Haliburtons $60k toilets). They train their troops and send them back to a strong civilian populace, investing in health, services, and education. If someone invades, that same populace takes up arms.

We do not need to maintain half of what we do currently. Ever since WW2, the major defense companies realized that being a huge military power is big industry. Thus, we've been in more conflicts and bought more toys. If education had as big a lobbyist power as the defense industry, we might not be ranked 30+ in education, 30+ in healthcare, 20+ in quality of life. Countries that we consider "3rd world" rank higher than us.

But hey, we've got a strong military.
Click to expand...

Most education spending in at the state and local level, and if you actually look at total spending you would see that education spending exceeds military spending by over 17%. We've been throwing money at education for decades and our ranking continue to drop (locally we have a gym teacher who makes over $100k a year in base salary.)

When total spending is looked at, defense spending is 4th on the list, with the number one being healthcare spending and number two being pensions for government workers (non-military, as military members pensions are part of the defense spending.) In fact spending on pensions is 50% more than the entire defense budget.

Also this doesn't even take into account the billions on non-defense related pork that are hidden in the defense budget each year. These range from renewable energy projects, such as being required to buy 1500 Chevy Volts when they proved less then popuular with consumers, to breast cancer research. In fact there is so much Congressional mandated medical research spending hidden within the Defense department's budget that $45 million is spent just to oversee spending within this program.
 
fdiaz78 said:
Entitlement spending accounts for much more of our budget than military. Strong military is essential to preserve freedom.
Click to expand...

Every time I read a post like this I imagine a bald eagle screeching in the background.
 
What the US develops and deploys for the military is essential. The problem is how the contracting and expenditures are ALLOWED to be the way they are...the way the government rules are in place for these contract wins. It's these same policies that allow the pricing to be 10 times the cost that they should because the preferential treatment the government MUST give to these defense and supply contractors. Anyone that is bitching about military spending needs to pick up the phone and call their Senators and Representatives to get that changed...The US has accomplished a hell of a lot more with a hell of a lot less in the past (WW2).
 
Uvaman said:
Yeah, manipulated alright, its too small, since that is the 'official' number.. the Irak/Afganisthan wars weren't even counted until Obama.
Nearly all of Social Security's surplus was used for what? Tell you a secret, it wasn't social security.
Click to expand...

Welfare, foodstamps, makework, best in category federal wages and benefits?

Also a newflash for you, the primary purpose of government is defense, the rest is optional fluff.
 
jpm100 said:
Welfare, foodstamps, makework, best in category federal wages and benefits?

Also a newflash for you, the primary purpose of government is defense, the rest is optional fluff.
Click to expand...

No it isn't. The primary purpose of government is to uphold the interests of the majority while at the same time ensure that the rights and freedoms of the minority are protected. Defence is merely one facet of what government does. You could argue that things like 'establishing laws' and 'international trade' are significantly more important than building bigger guns.
 
Spidey329 said:
Pretty much. There's an awful lot of countries that get by with less simply because they don't throw wasteful amounts of capital at silly projects or pork (overpaying .. Like Haliburtons $60k toilets). They train their troops and send them back to a strong civilian populace, investing in health, services, and education. If someone invades, that same populace takes up arms.

We do not need to maintain half of what we do currently. Ever since WW2, the major defense companies realized that being a huge military power is big industry. Thus, we've been in more conflicts and bought more toys. If education had as big a lobbyist power as the defense industry, we might not be ranked 30+ in education, 30+ in healthcare, 20+ in quality of life. Countries that we consider "3rd world" rank higher than us.

But hey, we've got a strong military.
Click to expand...

Those other counties you are referring to are our Allies, they rely on America for support, their forces are barely enough to provide for their countries defense until America shows up to help.

Russia and China would wipe the floor with county's like Sweden, Poland, etc.
 
NeoNemesis said:
No it isn't. The primary purpose of government is to uphold the interests of the majority while at the same time ensure that the rights and freedoms of the minority are protected. Defence is merely one facet of what government does. You could argue that things like 'establishing laws' and 'international trade' are significantly more important than building bigger guns.
Click to expand...

Where did you learn civils? Is this the drivel they are teaching in schools today? The primary purpose of government is to protects us from enemies foreign and domestic while ensuring a civil society. If you want that much government intervention there are plenty of other places where they think for you.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top