U.S. Special Forces Are Developing An Underwater Bullet

Popular Mechanics: U.S. Special Forces Take Huge Step Toward Developing an Underwater Bullet

New “supercavitating” bullets could allow SEALs, others to shoot targets underwater.

* Traditional bullets quickly slow to a stop underwater, making the almost completely ineffective..
* A method known as “supercavitation” can allow objects to travel through water at much higher speeds.
* These bullets would work with existing weapons and could make special forces even more lethal.

A new line of specialized bullets could allow U.S. special forces personnel to shoot their weapons submerged, engaging other divers and their underwater vehicles. While traditional bullets are ineffective underwater, the new bullets work by forming a bubble of air around a bullet, allowing the bullet to travel with fewer physical restrictions.

Ordinary bullets are designed to travel through the air at speeds greater than half a mile per second. Traveling through a different medium, well, that’s a different story. Bullets rapidly slow to a stop once they enter another medium—that’s a feature, not a flaw.

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WNU Editor: The Americans are playing catch-up. The Russian military has been working on this tech for years .... Underwater Firearms Are a Thing, and Russia Is Really Into Them (War Is Boring).

This Is How The Pentagon Is Going To Defeat The Threat From New Russian And Chinese Weapon Systems

Russia's new Buk-M3 surface-to-air missiles are built on tank treads and have nearly twice the range—43 miles— of their predecessors. Justin Metz

Popular Mechanics: Threat Report 2017: New Dangers and the American Tech to Beat Them

Russia and China are introducing new weapons of war. ISIS fighters hide among civilians and attack with no regard for casualties. And somehow North Korea has managed to become even less stable than it was before.

THE (NEW) TROUBLE WITH RUSSIA

Surface-to-air-missiles

In modern warfare, owning the sky is everything. And the cheapest way to own the sky is to shoot down, from the ground, anything that tries to fly in it. The Russian military is currently fielding a new midrange surface-to-air missile system, the Buk-M3, that has the potential to change everything. And by change we mean destroy. Start with the eyes: a powerful phased-array radar that steers its beams electronically to track targets. The vehicle has a new digital brain that can accept data from longer-range radar, which means the M3 will be able to shoot before some systems would have even identified the incoming aircraft. It has six radar-guided missiles with a range of up to 43 miles—a huge improvement over the 28-mile range in the older Buk-M2. Then there are the treads: The M3 is built on a tracked chassis, like a tank, making it highly mobile, easy to conceal, and eventually likely to be sold to rogue nations in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. This weapon is having an effect in European air forces without even firing a shot, says Sim Tack, senior analyst for the private security firm Stratfor. It severely limits the potency of Cold War–era aircraft—and of any aircraft whose name doesn't include the word stealth.

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WNU Editor: Move .... counter-move.

Lighter, Newer, Deadlier Gear On The Way For U.S. Soldiers

The XM806 Lightweight .50 Caliber Machine Gun provides vehicle and weapon squads with a lightweight .50 caliber weapon system that is easily dismounted from vehicles for ground mount applications.

Lighter, Newer, Deadlier Gear May Be On The Way -- Army Times

60mm mortar is on the horizon, but.50-cal, new tank ammo face hurdles.

A lighter 60mm mortar is gun-up, new tank ammo is loaded but in a tactical pause, and the lightweight .50-caliber machine gun is clearing a considerable jam. Such is the status of three key weapon and munitions programs.

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My Comment: Another good article to read on lightening the load for US soldiers is .... Soldiers May Soon Have Lighter Machine Gun.

How Defense Research Is Making Troops More Effective in Wartime

From the Washington Post:

When Army patrol leaders in Iraq prepare to go out on missions in Baghdad, their last stop at headquarters is a computerized map on which they outline the area where they will operate. Then they watch as icons emerge, showing, in grim detail, the lurking dangers.

By clicking on those, they can bring up not only sites of past hostile action but also photos and background on local leaders -- some to see and others to avoid -- videos of hostile and safe places, and reports from previous patrols, says Brian Slaughter, a retired Army first lieutenant who served as an armored platoon leader in Iraq in 2004. Slaughter took part in developing the computerized Tactical Ground Reporting System (TIGR).

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My Comment: The development of new technologies and implementing them quickly on the battlefield is having an enormous and pronounce effect in favor of those forces that are using them. Like the ancient Roman Army of the past who knew how to use new discoveries in waging war, the U.S. Arm Forces have raised this level of expertise to an unprecedented level.

When the Iraq War started in 2003, the military pundits were predicting mass casualties (American dead was projected to be 15,000) and that the battle for Baghdad was to be like the battle for Stalingrad.

The great battle never happened. Instead, American forces were effective in isolating Iraqi units loyal to the Saddam Hussein, and to then be in a position to surgically wipe them out with minimum coalition losses. In the past, such a battle with this precision could not happen. In todays world, new technology is not only making it possible to isolate and wipe out the enemy quickly, but to also do it from the comfort of a room thousands of miles away.

As the U.S. continues to develop these new technologies, a certain tipping point will be reached in which almost all military organizations will then realize that to fight the U.S. Arm Forces ..... even a guerrilla war ..... will in the end only result in their defeat. Like the Roman Empire in the past, all of Rome's enemies learned very quickly that it was not in their interest to wage war against Rome when it was at its peak as a super power.