Post amazing pics of military ordinance
Discussion
Yertis said:
Tartan Pixie said:
there's only so much of this stuff you can see before bacon becomes a smell you associate more with Iraq than lunch?
Iraq is a muslim country and you'd be pretty hard pushed to find any bacon there at all.But since you ask I never tire of looking at this gear of war. I think it's in the blood though – my Uncle Les, for example, fought from Normandy to the Baltic with the 43rd Wessex Division, helping relieve the Paras at Arnhem and seeing horrible things along the way – but he kept a Bren Gun on his living room mantlepiece as an ornament.
nellyleelephant said:
It's a funny thing. I've worked in defence for 15 years now, you don't think about the death. Personally I think about those that are saved.
hidetheelephants said:
I work peripherally in the oil&gas industry; if I spent much time pondering the people that have died either extracting the stuff from under the ground and beneath the sea(never mind those that have died fighting wars about it) I would be weeping into my bacon butty at breakfast, possibly not pay attention while on watch, the main engine would explode or the engine room would flood, I would lose my annual bonus and the Chief Engineer would be cross with me. It's part of the human condition to disassociate bad things(war, death, Big Brother) from neutral or good things(weapons, heavy engineering, Haribo, advances in trauma medicine).
Interesting answers, I guess there's a whole language of targets, marks and objectives used to disassociate yourself from the bad things. As a civilian I'm always intrigued by the events which happen in our national interest, interests which are created by the wants of myself and the other 60 million or so people on these islands.Anyways, don't mind my navel gazing.
Tartan Pixie said:
Interesting answers, I guess there's a whole language of targets, marks and objectives used to disassociate yourself from the bad things. As a civilian I'm always intrigued by the events which happen in our national interest, interests which are created by the wants of myself and the other 60 million or so people on these islands.
Anyways, don't mind my navel gazing.
Nope, your navel gazing is entirely appropriate, and welcomed on PH, and I'd imagine would be welcomed on this thread.Anyways, don't mind my navel gazing.
This is primarily about things that awe us (and as mostly a male audience, this is easily don by means of things that a previous poster said, go whizz boom).
As an engineer by trade, I am fascinated by things that do what they say on the tin, moreso if they follow function with form. As a former military participant, I can state that the most sobering thing I ever saw was a Claymore demonstration. Ugh. However, the entire point of military force is to force an end to conflict, and more efficient weaponry does precisely that, with the minimum of loss of friendly forces.
randlemarcus said:
Tartan Pixie said:
Interesting answers, I guess there's a whole language of targets, marks and objectives used to disassociate yourself from the bad things. As a civilian I'm always intrigued by the events which happen in our national interest, interests which are created by the wants of myself and the other 60 million or so people on these islands.
Anyways, don't mind my navel gazing.
Nope, your navel gazing is entirely appropriate, and welcomed on PH, and I'd imagine would be welcomed on this thread.Anyways, don't mind my navel gazing.
This is primarily about things that awe us (and as mostly a male audience, this is easily don by means of things that a previous poster said, go whizz boom).
As an engineer by trade, I am fascinated by things that do what they say on the tin, moreso if they follow function with form. As a former military participant, I can state that the most sobering thing I ever saw was a Claymore demonstration. Ugh. However, the entire point of military force is to force an end to conflict, and more efficient weaponry does precisely that, with the minimum of loss of friendly forces.
it's something about inert materials engineered, machined and combined to create something unimaginable to most folk. the consequences are mostly detatched from reality, it's more of a how it happened thing.
randlemarcus said:
As a former military participant, I can state that the most sobering thing I ever saw was a Claymore demonstration.
Ditto; targets fall when hit! Although the Challenger lobbing armour piercing rounds through the target 2km away was equally awe inspiring, and the noise something to behold. If you ever get the opportunity to go and see a weapons effects display at Warminster, or anywhere really, grab it with both hands! The ground will move for your viewing pleasure!The reason why military engineering is usually the best is becasue the objective is to be better than any opponent full stop. There are no artificial rules like in most engineering based sports like F1. OK there are cost constraints, but even so, military r&d is usually at the cutting edge of the engineering discipline.
dr_gn said:
The reason why military engineering is usually the best is becasue the objective is to be better than any opponent full stop. There are no artificial rules like in most engineering based sports like F1. OK there are cost constraints, but even so, military r&d is usually at the cutting edge of the engineering discipline.
As James May put it, men do their best work when they are trying to kill each other. marksx said:
dr_gn said:
The reason why military engineering is usually the best is becasue the objective is to be better than any opponent full stop. There are no artificial rules like in most engineering based sports like F1. OK there are cost constraints, but even so, military r&d is usually at the cutting edge of the engineering discipline.
As James May put it, men do their best work when they are trying to kill each other. 'War makes rattling good history; but peace is poor reading'
davepoth said:
Let's face it, we'd all stop and watch a Spitfire overhead, or the Vulcan, or indeed the Red Arrows. And yet all of them are killing machines.
I admit the sameI did find it slightly weird at the recent Royal Wedding, the Lancaster bomber going over head
what could be more romantic than a flying truck designed to scatter heavy explosives over sleeping cities?
Metal Storm
Capable of firing at 250,000 rpm.
no moving parts, the barrels are pre-loaded with ammo, in the picture are x2 barrels with 9mm rounds and 1 micro grenade launcher barrel.
multiple modes of fire completely customisable due to being microprocessor controlled
awesome
ans scalable
Capable of firing at 250,000 rpm.
no moving parts, the barrels are pre-loaded with ammo, in the picture are x2 barrels with 9mm rounds and 1 micro grenade launcher barrel.
multiple modes of fire completely customisable due to being microprocessor controlled
awesome
ans scalable
dr_gn said:
The reason why military engineering is usually the best is becasue the objective is to be better than any opponent full stop. There are no artificial rules like in most engineering based sports like F1. OK there are cost constraints, but even so, military r&d is usually at the cutting edge of the engineering discipline.
Perhaps in war time. In peacetime it's not in the majority of cases IME.
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