Topic: American Military Technology
The world thinks other nations come close to the United States. In truth tech wise there are few who can try to hold a candle.
The AURORA fighter/bomber:
The Aurora is a space capable, scramjet capable of multi-mission taskings. Faster than an SR-71 (I cannot yet find out how much faster, but lets assume an extra 50% minimum) and capable of exiting the atmosphere, it is a one of a kind aircraft. Made with a carbon nano-fiber and epoxy composite, it does not distort under heat or cold until the point where it would break would occur anyhow. This composite is extremely conductive, and absorbs and deflects all manner of frequencies thrown at it. Consider a room filled with rebar (coated in a tar like substance) strewn through out the room randomly, and firing a ping pong ball gun into the room. Most will not come back out the window, the door, or elsewhere, but be stuck in the room.
This fighter/bomber has even inspired the marines into wanting their own version for a troop transport, capable of carrying 7-8 marines into any combat zone in the world. Ideally they want to be able to drop marines, take over an airfield, and be able to evacuate the airfield if needed asap.
A unique aspect of the aurora is the composite it is made out of. A weaker version was used in a limited number of English tanks. This stronger version is tremendously more lighter and thinner than aluminum, but stronger by far than titanium or the best of steels. Exactly how strong is still secret, but information on similarly made composites has yielded strengths 50 times that of common steel.
This fighter is why the United States is not panicked about the Shuttle Program's soon demise, and how come NASA needed a project to keep it funded into the future. It is also the reason the SR-71 was retired without an apparent successor. I would estimate, without any actual information, the payload is approximately 10,000 pounds of ordinance.
The fighter gets it's signature contrail via two unique aspects of the aircraft. 1) It fires fuel out of the wings to boost it's speed. Very little fuel is needed, and the fuel ignites immediately due to the heat coming off of the wings. 2) A form of a "bubble" is created around the aircraft, a bubble that is constantly 'burping' then regrowing. Combined these effects create the "donut on a rope" type contrail observed for the aircraft. The fuel from the wings is designed to push at the wings and the base of the wings to propel the fighter forward, the wings being necessary due to the speed of the aircraft as well since some additional gains are made inside the bubble.
Next Generation Infantry Armor
The same material as the space elevator will be made of will also be incorporated into a weave for combat soldiers. This Carbon-Nanotube technology will result in clothing like armor which will prevent all but anti-armor weapons from penetrating. Sadly there is still the issue of vision, thus a new helmet is being designed to compliment the suit which will incorporate low-light, infra-red, a movement detector and a IFF system into a monitor inside the helmet. The suit will come with a built in radio at the least, with possible options to include full NBC protection, use of a new adaptive camouflage, and individual camera's for other soldiers to download scout imagery to plan missions, in the field with.
Possible additions to the armor include some add-ons created in the old USSR which allow a man to run up to 30mph for about 30 minutes, a exo-skeleton which will greatly enhance the strength of the soldier, and any state of the art electronics as desired.
The battery will be a new type, utilizing a cathode/anode replacement with carbon nanotubes and will be form fitted as additional armor at critical points, as well as carry approximately 50 times more energy than conventional soldiers.
Drones:
The next generation of drones coming out are quite impressive. There is a drone that is insect sized, can fly for about 30 minutes, and can transmit imagery from it's very small camera or microphone. The drone is disguised as a common insect, type not revealed, and will be able to be used in combat environments to scout out enemy positions.
Receivers:
This is a big group, from IR, to Low Light, to Sound, to Radar, etc. However due to Black Silicon they will all be getting a tremendous boost in total capabilities. This is not to be underestimated, as the new low light renders night time with no moon to near full daylight conditions for the operator. This includes color discrimination mind you. No more green screen to look at!
AI:
AI levels are higher than you would expect. A vehicle has been proven to be able to drive in city conditions with no human behind the wheel. It even obeys the speed limit and lights! Additional improvements include the ability to identify even camouflaged soldiers as humans, in combat environments with a near perfect accuracy. The two combined mean enforced 'do not enter' combat zones can be controlled by AI entirely.
Ordinance:
Long known has it been that the United States has a stockpile of Anti-Matter for "scientific purposes". What is not known is the effort to weaponize it has born fruit. Consider bombs much more stronger, and lighter, than even nukes. Or scale it down to a run-way ruiner.
Additionally most ordinance is already known to be "smart" but now they are "Brilliant" in that efforts to decoy them fail, as each new decoy is recorded when it comes into being, and is tracked and avoided, with the munition following the true target. This is via a computer chip that keeps track of speed, bearing, and other aspects.
Then you have the new omni-directional ordinances. These munitions are launched like normal from tanks, mortars, artillery, grenade launchers, and they will head towards where launched to, but actively seek out targets, and adjust their heading to the target. Or they can be programmed to literally side step an obstacle on the way to the desired target.
Yawn, I have talked of the J-SOW weapon, which is a cluster munition designed to destroy armored unit's en mass. A guided munition is accelerated to the point the copper melts upon impact, and is guided by a heat sensor. Dispersed over a moderate area, several of these munitions will easily prevent a massed tank attack from ever succeeding. These munitions can be rocket fired or dropped from an aircraft.
Anti-Personnel Weapons:
How does a flashlight which will make you sick sound? An ion gun sound intimidating? No? Well then the noise around you CAN KILL YOU! Ha, every aspect is becoming a part of the US arsenal.
SAM's:
Surface to Air Missiles. Frankly the United States showed their stuff with a skin to skin impact on a satellite with a "Standard Missile". The world yawned and did not pay attention. This was not the Missile Defense system missiles, this was a SM-2 (or 3?) missile, which we have tons of deployed around the world. It's carried on all our cruisers, most of our frigates, and so forth.
Additionally the old phoenix rocket of old, the over 100 miles to reach out and kill you has been updated into a 250 mile missile capable of downing multiple aircraft. You see it's mirved munitions.
Misc. Stuff:
Boeing is taking it's sweet time 'proving' a laser. They have it built, they know the weight, they know how it runs when fired, so why months between tests? That's so your not alarmed at how fast we get "laserized". Yes the United States built lasers on their home planet! Indeed the secret will probably come out under Obama about facilities already long built (at least the late 80's) which are for defense against attacks. One merely needs to go to a few of the 'under remodel' for 20+ years Federally owned 'ancient forts' and see the power lines going in to make the proper judgment here.
Oh and then there is the special detection equipment. They can detect heart beats and the location of the heart for a distance of 500 feet, or 250 feet if stone and such is in between. A large contraption can scan buildings and determine where and what every centimeter of that building is in relation to the next. What as in what sort of material it is made of. You can only run, you cannot hide. The heart one is being made into a weapon seeker warhead as we speak. Designed to seek out a sniper and eliminate him, it will prove very effective.
You might try to think the US is weak, however you would be worse than wrong. Just because we keep using our old stuff does not mean we do not have new stuff hidden away.
Oh by the way. The Pentagon, and indeed all military scientists were shocked when the stealth fighter went down in Bosnia. You see it cannot be destroyed with any current SAM technologies. Therefore a big issue was made of it, and they found it was condensation in the instruments that caused the crash. Yes I said cannot be destroyed, you see it was one of the first aircraft to be made with the first versions of the carbon nano-fiber and all that current type SAM stuff does not pack the firepower, with exception to a few US made types, of penetrating the 'incidental armor'. A direct skin to skin type munition, with considerable force in the impact, is required to damage one of them. Shrapnel, in general, will not have enough power to do anything beyond incidental damage to the fighter.
Next to come technologies already capable of being produced: Rail Guns, electricity launchers, plasma drives, light absorption, the space elevator, man portable jetpacks, and low level motorcycle sized aircraft (low level as in not capable of much altitude)
Kemp currently not being responded to until he makes CONCISE posts.
Avogardo and Noir ignored by me for life so people know why I do not respond to them. (Informational)