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Dr. Benway posted:The granddaddy of insanely bad ideas has to go to Project Pluto. I can only imagine someone getting to the part in the design document that talks about dumping spent nuclear material over inhabited areas, after flattening them with a month of constant sonic booms, and looking around the room at everyone else before going "hang on a minute fellas... are we sure we're the good guys here?"
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Apr 8, 2015 22:23
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Hey, you see that poo poo? Yeah, that poo poo aaaaaallll the way over there. It would be great if it was on fire. The Flamethrower wikipedia posted:A flamethrower is a mechanical incendiary device designed to project a long, controllable stream of fire. They were first used during World War I, and widely used in World War II.    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmvvEbedHr4
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Apr 8, 2015 22:33
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Here's a pretty simple one in terms of weird design intentions. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutron_bomb Why blow em up, when you can just radiate em instead? A very situational weaon with varying degrees of effectiveness depending on where it hit and environmental conditions, it could also be used for great purposes on the homefront: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgpa7wEAz7I Also, Springfield once 
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Apr 8, 2015 22:38
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cheese-cube posted:Throw money at Rosoboronexport and get a 3M-54E Club-K system: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbUU_9bOcnM I want to see this system vs the Spyder (in it's defensive anti-guided-munitions role) wikipedia posted:The SPYDER (Surface-to-air PYthon and DERby) is an Israeli short and medium range mobile air defence system developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems with assistance from Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI). Rafael is the prime contractor and IAI is the major subcontractor for the SPYDER program. This system achieved a notable milestone in 2005 when missiles were fired against test targets in Shdema, Israel and scored direct hits... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1is-gYc7Jeo Appologies for the bad quality footage and the bad quality presenter, but it does display the concept pretty well.
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Apr 9, 2015 00:28
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blunt for century posted:To redeem my stupid, stupid, very stupid self: Didn't they decide that 100 mt wasn't worth it because an aerial blast (to maximize damage) would have lost a significant amount of its force to space due to the explosion being too freaking large?
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Apr 9, 2015 02:55
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Aleph Null posted:Didn't they decide that 100 mt wasn't worth it because an aerial blast (to maximize damage) would have lost a significant amount of its force to space due to the explosion being too freaking large? The device was too heavy to be delivered by rocket and had to be dropped by plane, and 50-ish megatons was already cutting it a bit close for comfort in terms of not vaporizing flightcrew.
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Apr 9, 2015 03:12
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DumbparameciuM posted:I want to see this system vs the Spyder (in it's defensive anti-guided-munitions role) I don't think the SPYDER is designed to intercept surface-skimming cruise missiles. It's flight altitude is listed as 20-9,000m whereas the 3M-54 is 10-15m. Still you never know what Rafael has up their sleeves.
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Apr 9, 2015 11:02
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cheese-cube posted:I don't think the SPYDER is designed to intercept surface-skimming cruise missiles. It's flight altitude is listed as 20-9,000m whereas the 3M-54 is 10-15m. Still you never know what Rafael has up their sleeves. Hmm! Excellent point there. I got a bit ahead of myself. Also, the terminal phase of that thing is no loving joke. Also I think it might be the best pitch video I've seen since the first MetalStorm videos.
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Apr 9, 2015 11:22
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3 posted:The device was too heavy to be delivered by rocket and had to be dropped by plane, and 50-ish megatons was already cutting it a bit close for comfort in terms of not vaporizing flightcrew. It also had to be dropped by a specially modified bomber because it was so drat big and dumb. The whole point of the bomb was just to show they could do it. I'm pretty sure the soviet knew from day one that flying a slow rear end plane with a giant bomb somewhere it'd be useful to drop it was never going to work. It was just to show the world they built the coolest bomb and that america could suck it. The whole project just seems to be a giant "Why? Because it's cool". And it was so loving cool wikipedia posted:The fireball reached nearly as high as the altitude of the release plane and was visible at almost 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) away from where it ascended. The subsequent mushroom cloud was about 64 kilometres (40 mi) high (over seven times the height of Mount Everest), which meant that the cloud was above the stratosphere and well inside the mesosphere when it peaked. The cap of the mushroom cloud had a peak width of 95 kilometres (59 mi). The base of the cloud was 40 kilometres (25 mi) wide. All buildings in the village of Severny (both wooden and brick), located 55 kilometres (34 mi) from ground zero within the Sukhoy Nos test range, were destroyed. In districts hundreds of kilometers from ground zero wooden houses were destroyed, stone ones lost their roofs, windows and doors; and radio communications were interrupted for almost one hour. One participant in the test saw a bright flash through dark goggles and felt the effects of a thermal pulse even at a distance of 270 kilometres (170 mi). The heat from the explosion could have caused third-degree burns 100 km (62 mi) away from ground zero. A shock wave was observed in the air at Dikson settlement 700 kilometres (430 mi) away; windowpanes were partially broken to distances of 900 kilometres (560 mi).[11] Atmospheric focusing caused blast damage at even greater distances, breaking windows in Norway and Finland. The seismic shock[verification needed] created by the detonation was measurable even on its third passage around the Earth.[12] Its seismic body wave magnitude was about 5 to 5.25.[10] The energy yield was around 8.1 on the Richter scale but, since the bomb was detonated in the air rather than underground, most of the energy was not converted to seismic waves. The TNT equivalent of the 50 Mt test could be represented by a cube of TNT 312 metres (1023 feet) on a side, approximately the height of the Eiffel Tower. I was going to bold the really goddamned cool parts but I realized I'd have to bold the whole thing. It's absurd.
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Apr 9, 2015 13:23
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quote:breaking windows in Norway and Finland 
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Apr 9, 2015 14:12
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Has anyone said anything about Wotjek the War Bear? Wotjek was Woot as gently caress, didn't afraid of anything   See, what happened was there was this little war one time called, oh, I don't know, WORLD WAR 2?! Lots of people got killed in it. The slavs were one of the nationalities fighting, and they were running out of men for fighting. So what they did is one night when they were depressed about their upcoming meaningless deaths is they did some rounds, went to a zoo and were like, "uh, pavlov could train dogs to do whatever, and bears are basically just big dogs so what if we got on of these things to like, hold guns? And shoot the other guys?" So they did that and named the bear wotjek after one of those barbarian legends the slavs have and long story short it didn't really do much but it made for good stories around the bar
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Apr 9, 2015 17:17
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DumbparameciuM posted:Hmm! Excellent point there. I got a bit ahead of myself. Also, the terminal phase of that thing is no loving joke. Concern Agat spend a ridiculous amount on their videos as the bulk of their profits are to countries other than Russia (Via Rosoboronexport of course). Also their boothes at expos are weird and awkward, so much so that an E3 promoter would feel uncomfortable: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxJzl3Xt-m4
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Apr 9, 2015 18:36
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cheese-cube posted:Concern Agat spend a ridiculous amount on their videos as the bulk of their profits are to countries other than Russia (Via Rosoboronexport of course). Did Russia lay off all their orchestras or something? The soothing violin and techno-beat doesn't go at all with the weapons being shown off.
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Apr 9, 2015 19:04
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To shift gears a bit, let's look at an ancient (or maybe just really old) weapon system: Greek fire! If you've heard of it, you probably have the impression it was some Byzantine (ROMAN) wonder weapon that was used to ignite enemy ships and the water around them. Some of this is true and what's also true is that the recipe was such a closely guarded secret that it's been lost to history. However, clues remain to its true origin. Here's what the entire system is thought to have looked like:  Generally speaking, Greek fire is thought to be petroleum-based with some resins incorporated for increased stickyness and as a thickener. It may have also included other chemicals that allowed it to spontaneously catch fire upon contact with air. It was heated below the deck of special ships and kept under pressure. When the valve was opened it was sprayed out of a spout at the bow of the ship (usually on a swivel). But it wasn't used to burn down ships, just their crews.  There's also the aforementioned lighting the water on fire (it's an oil-mixture after all) so it'z either burning on deck or burning overboard! The only known way to put out the flame was sand (good old oxygen deprivation), strong vinegar (like that's common on board a warship), or old urine (also not really common because  ).In essence, it's a flame thrower but who the gently caress had a flamethrower in 7th century BCE? It's noted to have saved Constantinople from the Arabs several times and from the Rus at least once. Eventually, the Arabs learned to just stay out of range and upwind of the Greek fire ships. If you had to engage them, do as the Arabs did and hide behind vinegar soaked felt or hides. Mmmmm, manly.
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Apr 9, 2015 19:13
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Not a weapon per se, but check out the WASP injection knife. The bane of sharks, deflated basket balls, & ah.. apparently vicious watermelons. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sa_NC-_fvKs
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Apr 9, 2015 19:42
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Man with Hat posted:The subsequent mushroom butt was about 64 kilometres (40 mi) high (over seven times the height of Mount Everest), which meant that my butt was above the stratosphere and well inside the mesosphere when it peaked. The cap of the mushroom butt had a peak width of 95 kilometres (59 mi). The base of my butt was 40 kilometres (25 mi) wide. [/quote] Cloud to Butt extension delivers again.
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Apr 9, 2015 20:00
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Dr. Benway posted:Not a weapon per se, but check out the WASP injection knife. The bane of sharks, deflated basket balls, & ah.. apparently vicious watermelons. Always loved this video of it : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMvpmGb0Fcs
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Apr 9, 2015 20:49
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who needs runways?   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-length_launch (it turns out you need runways to land)
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Apr 10, 2015 22:48
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Dear god that would be an uncomfortable takeoff Why's it only have one bomb/fuel tank? I would think that would noticeably change the handling and aerodynamics.
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Apr 10, 2015 22:52
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The TP-82, AKA the Soviet Space Shotgun:  War is Boring posted:There was a time when Russian cosmonauts regularly traveled to space with the gun in tow. But calling it a pistol is slightly misleading—the TP-82 more like a small shotgun.
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Apr 11, 2015 00:31
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blunt for century posted:Dear god that would be an uncomfortable takeoff I think maybe there's a lot about that design they didn't think all the way through  EDIT: Might've been possible to counter it with enough Trim, I have no idea how that poo poo would be manageable without a Fly By Wire system. DPM has a new favorite as of 02:39 on Apr 11, 2015 |
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Apr 11, 2015 00:32
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Vlad the Retailer posted:The TP-82, AKA the Soviet Space Shotgun: You forgot to mention why the USSR felt the need to keep their Cosmonauts strapped in the first place: as all Russian space capsules were designed to land on... well, land, rather than water, there was a nonzero chance that a mishap in reentry could lead to a couple of shivering Cosmonauts fending off wolves in the wastes of Siberia. This wasn't a theoretical concern, by the way.
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Apr 11, 2015 00:49
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One simple, obvious idea that ended up being the most fun you can have with a bruised shoulder. Izhmash, the manufacturer of the AK rifles used by the Russian Army, took a look at the best and worst features of the venerable design. Loose tolerances, reliable function, easily manufactured and scaled? Check. A reputation for inaccuracy past a few hundred meters, awful ergonomics and a round whose terminal ballistics were found lacking? Also check. The solution? Take the design and turn it into a motherfucking Kalashnikov 12 gauge shotgun. Yes, the ergonomics are somehow made worse. Yes, the famous reliability goes out the window when using anything but high brass shot or slugs. But once you magdump ten 1 oz solid lead slugs at a target in one long, barking sequence your cock will be hard enough to shatter a marble bust of Lenin. To top it all off, a competing armory soon saw how everyone loved modifying the Saiga and introduced a factory tacticlol'd version, the Vepr-12, which is more betterer in every way except the obscene price tag. Between Kalashnikov shotguns and the Russian idea of using clapped-out 23mm antitank gun barrels to make pump-action punt guns to put down prison riots it's pretty much understood that Russians have the market cornered in bizarre yet awesome scatterguns.
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Apr 11, 2015 01:52
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The Loudener: suprisingly not a Simpsons joke
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Apr 11, 2015 22:08
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The Obrez. A WW2 invention by Russian troops. During city fighting, they realized their Mosin Nagant rifles were too long for the enclosed areas cityfighting takes place in. Their solution? Take a hacksaw to the Mosin Nagant and chop it into something you could use one handed. The power was such that if you fired it within a few feet of the target, there was a decent chance you'd not only shoot them, but burn them with the muzzle flash too.
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Apr 11, 2015 22:19
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Pondex posted:Not exactly. The airforce (I think) ordered that nuclear jet-engine as a way to keep their nuclear deterrent-bombers airborne for longer stretches of time without refueling. So they weren't entirely out of the loop. No, the proposed bomber reactor was closed-loop and didn't spew radiation out the exhaust. It ran like a ship's reactor, with the steam turbine turning a jet engine instead of a propeller. The Project Pluto engine was a straight-through ramjet with an unshielded nuclear reactor instead of a combustion chamber. And made it to the point of the engine being tested on the ground before ICBMs got good enough and it was cancelled. It wasn't a case of "wait, does this make us the bad guys?" it was "ICBMs are cheaper and easier to build and maintain while being just as effective". Oh, and when you think "cruise missile" you think, like, Tomahawk-sized -- SLAM was to be about the size of an average diesel locomotive.
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Apr 11, 2015 23:24
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Bad Angus! Bad!
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Actually the Obrez was a Russian Civil War creation by bandits and partisans who needed more concealable weapons, because handguns weren't common in Russia. For close-range firepower in WW2, the Russians had the PPSh-41. Sometimes they equipped entire platoons or companies with it, instead of rifles.   quote:A few hundred weapons were produced in November 1941 and another 155,000 were made during the next five months. By spring 1942, the PPSh factories were producing roughly 3,000 units a day.  quote:Its parts (excluding the barrel) could be produced by a relatively unskilled workforce with simple equipment available in an auto repair garage or tin shop, freeing more skilled workers for other tasks. The PPSh-41 used 87 components compared to 95 for the PPD-40 and the PPSh could be manufactured with an estimated 5.6 machining hours (later revised to 7.3 hours) compared with 13.7 hours for the PPD.[9][10] Barrel production was often simplified by using barrels for the 7.62mm M1891 Mosin–Nagant rifle: the rifle barrel was cut in half and two PPSh barrels were made from it after machining the chamber for the 7.62mm Soviet submachine gun cartridge.  The PPS, which augmented and later replaced it, was even simpler, and was even produced inside Leningrad while the city was under siege.  quote:During design, emphasis was placed on simplifying production and eliminating most machining operations; most of the weapon's parts were sheet-steel stamped. These measures reduced the number of machined components to a bare minimum, cutting down machining time by more than half, to 2.7 hours of machining instead of 7.3 hours for the PPSh-41. There were also savings of over 50% in raw steel usage, down to 6.2 kg instead of 13.9 kg, and fewer workers were required to manufacture and assemble the parts. Thanks to the improvements in production efficiency, the Soviet planners estimated that the new gun would have allowed an increase in monthly submachine gun output from 135,000 units to 350,000 weapons.
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Apr 11, 2015 23:24
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You post all that about the PPSH and fail to post the best thing its ever done? Screw bombs, lets just strap a shitload of submachine guns in the bomb bay. Hell, they were cheap enough they could drop the whole payload on the second pass and hope one of them brained a german and still come out ahead costwise. not actually true but I wish it so Crunkjuice has a new favorite as of 00:54 on Apr 12, 2015 |
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Apr 12, 2015 00:52
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C.M. Kruger posted:Actually the Obrez was a Russian Civil War creation by bandits and partisans who needed more concealable weapons, because handguns weren't common in Russia. You should also note that it was such a good gun, the Germans had a production run rechambering captured PPSh's for 9x19 parabellum.
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Apr 12, 2015 01:05
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C.M. Kruger posted:Actually the Obrez was a Russian Civil War creation by bandits and partisans who needed more concealable weapons, because handguns weren't common in Russia. it also came in airbourne varieties   Edit; gently caress serves me right for ending up reading wiki crap mid-post. Pound_Coin has a new favorite as of 01:15 on Apr 12, 2015 |
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Apr 12, 2015 01:06
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Pound_Coin posted:it also came in airbourne varieties Two posts above yours.
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Apr 12, 2015 01:08
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Tiberius Thyben posted:You should also note that it was such a good gun, the Germans had a production run rechambering captured PPSh's for 9x19 parabellum. They also just used them with 7.63x25mm Mauser ammo, which is dimensionally the same as 7.62x25mm Tokarev but loaded to lower pressures. And that's another thing the PPSh/PPS had going for them, 7.62mm Tokarev was a relatively hot cartridge for it's time, as I recall it's more in the range of a magnum or .30 Carbine than a 9mm or .45 ACP, which would have given Soviet submachine gunners better killing ballistics at range.
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Apr 12, 2015 01:49
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.45 ACP US Army Ball FMJ is around 477 joules at the muzzle out of a five inch barrel. Tokarev out of a similar length barrel averages between 500 and 700 (the Czechs were notorious for edging towards the latter -- google "tokarev czech load", you'll probably see some stories about Russian TT33s blowing the gently caress up because someone shoved Czech ammo in them). I think .30 Carbine is ~1300 J. I could open a tab to wikipedia but 
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Apr 12, 2015 02:07
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Hijo Del Helmsley posted:The Obrez. I have a Mosin. Shooting it one-handed would take some serious getting used to.
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Apr 12, 2015 02:45
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Zeroisanumber posted:I have a Mosin. Shooting it one-handed would take some serious getting used to. I would guess you get a significant decrease of muzzle velocity with a three inch barrel.
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Apr 12, 2015 03:01
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Bip Roberts posted:I would guess you get a significant decrease of muzzle velocity with a three inch barrel. Still the same amount of gunpowder. Though a LOT of it would burn outside the barrel (hence the massive fireball).
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Apr 12, 2015 03:06
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blunt for century posted:To redeem my stupid, stupid, very stupid self: They actually made it at 100mt, but at the last minute swapped out half the uranium with lead tamper because of the likelihood of it potentially killing the crew of the plane that'd drop it.
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Apr 12, 2015 03:17
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Hijo Del Helmsley posted:The Obrez. I always wondered why they made the wrist-crippling stock instead of leaving the full shoulder stock on it... it would still be 90% better in close quarters. Also the cute little front sight
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Apr 12, 2015 03:56
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Sappo569 posted:I always wondered why they made the wrist-crippling stock instead of leaving the full shoulder stock on it... it would still be 90% better in close quarters. Because even when cut down it's still pretty huge. They made these things so they could hide them under coats, not just for close-quarters fighting. 
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Apr 12, 2015 05:30
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Billmac posted:who needs runways? This reminds me of Operation Credible Sport which was a plan to rescue hostages held in Iran during 1980: quote:The Credible Sport concept called for a modified C-130 Hercules cargo plane to land in the Amjadien Stadium across the street from the U.S. Embassy and airlift out Delta Force operators and the rescued hostages. The aircraft would then be flown to and landed on an aircraft carrier for immediate medical treatment of an expected 50 wounded. They planned to do that by fitting rocket motors from missiles to a C-130's airframe: quote:The resulting XFC-130H aircraft were modified by the installation of 30 rockets in multiple sets: eight forward-pointed ASROC rocket motors mounted around the forward fuselage to stop the aircraft, eight downward-pointed Shrike rockets fuselage-mounted above the wheel wells to brake its descent, eight rearward-pointed MK-56 rockets (from the RIM-66 Standard missile) mounted on the lower rear fuselage for takeoff assist, two Shrikes mounted in pairs on wing pylons to correct yaw during takeoff transition, and two ASROCs mounted at the rear of the tail to prevent it from striking the ground from over-rotation. However, it didn't work out quite so well in testing (It sure looked badass though): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSFjhWw4DNo Pile Of Garbage has a new favorite as of 10:47 on Apr 12, 2015 |
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Apr 12, 2015 10:44
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