U.S. Army Tests Secret Hypersonic Weapon
FOX NEWS Published November 17, 2011
The DARPA Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle (HTV)-2, one of several hypersonic test projects underway by various U.S. military agencies.
The U.S. Army's hypersonic weapon prototype streaked across the Pacific Ocean at several times the speed of sound Thursday, Nov. 17, in a flawless maiden test flight. The success could pave the way for a new military capability to strike targets anywhere on Earth in as little as an hour.
Such a hypersonic weapon concept flies at a relatively flat trajectory within the atmosphere, rather than soaring up toward space like a ballistic missile and eventually coming back down. Hypersonic speed is defined as being at least five times the speed of sound (3,805 mph, or 6,124 kph, at sea level). read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/11/17/us-army-tests-secret-hypersonic-weapon/#ixzz1e4paE2ex.
The Practical Buddhist Responds
The article gushed about the accomplishment: An amazing new weapon that can kill anyone or anything on earth within sixty minutes of pulling the trigger. I read the whole thing. I looked for the standard comparisons to the A-Bomb that leveled Hiroshima, or to the TNT equivalents, so I could delight in the FHTV’s improved destructive capacity.
The article gushed about the accomplishment: An amazing new weapon that can kill anyone or anything on earth within sixty minutes of pulling the trigger. I read the whole thing. I looked for the standard comparisons to the A-Bomb that leveled Hiroshima, or to the TNT equivalents, so I could delight in the FHTV’s improved destructive capacity.
I confess that taken in isolation this new weapon is cool and fascinating, much more than accounts of dreary and endless diplomatic negotiations intended to keep the missile in its bay.
But any way you cut it, this is a Weapon of Mass Destruction on whole new scale. And it’s pictured and praised in the newspaper. Little kids can see it, and maybe be inspired to study engineering or physics, the same little kids we are so careful to shield from seeing naked bodies or two women kissing.
But any way you cut it, this is a Weapon of Mass Destruction on whole new scale. And it’s pictured and praised in the newspaper. Little kids can see it, and maybe be inspired to study engineering or physics, the same little kids we are so careful to shield from seeing naked bodies or two women kissing.
Displaying bare human bodies horrifies and disgusts. Showing and glorifying killing machines? No problem at all.
Even if these machines should exist at all, we should have the decency to rate them triple-X.
Even if these machines should exist at all, we should have the decency to rate them triple-X.
