Will America Pull High-Tech Army?

November 11, 2010 10 273 1

The US Navy continues to invest huge amounts of money in high-tech ships, next generation communications equipment and new exotic species. weaponssuch as combat lasers and electromagnetic guns.

According to Vice Chief of Naval Operations Robert Work, this is the only way to maintain a military advantage on the modern battlefield, but if fleet If he fails to keep the costs of new equipment under control, he will expose himself and the country to great danger.

Speaking at the annual Science, Naval Research and Technology Conference in Arlington, Work offered a sailor's perspective on the latest defense developments. He is a strong advocate for the U.S. Navy's technological advancement, but always emphasizes the need for hard-headed economics.

Currently, the cost of maintaining the US fleet of 280 ships is growing faster than inflation. This is a very bad sign for a planned increase in naval forces to 313 ships. Despite emergency measures to save money, in the modern army the problem of equipment maintenance costs remains acute. As a result, the inevitable reduction in the number of combat units (that Today it is observed practically all over the world) may lead to the fact that the fleet will be too small to perform operations in the world ocean.

Robert Work highlights the growing threat from potential adversaries who are finding cheap ways to fight back. The proliferation of precision weapons is a huge problem for the U.S. Navy - one reason sailors are increasingly talking about being stuck in bases - cheap precision weapons missiles will keep expensive warships in the bays.

Thus, during the 2006 war, Hezbollah, which has negligible military potential compared to the IDF, hit an Israeli corvette with a radar-guided missile. Robert Work noted that such threats should be stopped by joint American-Israeli programs such as the David's Sling project to create a missile defense system designed to destroy rockets, artillery shells and mortars. However, this leads to the army having equipment that is very expensive to maintain and use. A perfect system Defense, which hits a cheap guided munition with an expensive guided munition, ultimately leads to those same extraordinary monetary expenses and a reduction in the number of combat units. This, in turn, further increases the vulnerability of the army.

The only way out, according to Robert Work, is the use of the latest technologies, cheap and powerful. For example, combat lasers that develop the Navy. A free electron laser will allow ships to hit any targets, including missiles, and create directional interference. The cost of the shot is equal to the cost of electricity on board the ship, i.e. much cheaper guided weapons.

Another example is a breakthrough electromagnetic rail gun, which can accelerate projectiles to hypersonic speeds and hit targets with a kinetic element at a speed of 5 M.

The head of the United States Naval Research Division, Rear Admiral Nevin Carr, said that the prototype rail gun already gives out 25 MJ of energy, and next month it is planned to achieve a power of 32 MJ. Thus, the projectile will be able to cover a distance of almost 200 km in six minutes. There are plans to increase the energy to 64 MJ, so that the projectile can fly 370 km in six minutes.

Military officials emphasized that weapons, such as a free electron laser and a rail gun, would be universal and the cost of their shot would be relatively low. The latest technology today is the only way to get superiority on the battlefield. There is no alternative - either the army becomes the head of scientific and technological progress, or, in the conditions of the current economic situation, it is unable to protect its country.