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The Navy plans to fire 5-inch diameter non-explosive projectiles from deck-mounted railguns:
The Navy plans to fire a high-speed, long-range rail-gun Hypervelocity Projectile from its deck-mounted 5-inch guns to destroy enemy drones, ships, incoming missiles and even submarines, service officials said.
The effort is led by a special Future Naval Capability program.
Navy officials say the program is leveraging commercial electronics miniaturization and computational performance increases to develop a common guided projectile for use in current 5 inch guns and future high velocity gun systems. The HVP effort will seek to increase range and accuracy of the 5-Inch Gun Weapon System in support of multiple mission areas, service developers told Warrior.
Developed initially for an Electromagnetic Rail Gun next-generation weapon, The Hyper Velocity Projectile, or HVP, can travel at speeds up to 2,000 meters per second when fired from a Rail Gun, a speed which is about three times that of most existing weapons.
BAE Systems Hyper Velocity Projectile. 5-inch gun. Found at NBF.
Related: U.S. Military Increasing Development of Directed Energy Weapons
U.S. Navy's New Mach 6 Electro-Magnetic Railgun Almost Ready for Prime Time
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday October 25 2017, @09:42PM (11 children)
That comes with the opportunity cost of not giving each homeless person a $644,000.00 luxury home.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 25 2017, @10:02PM (1 child)
Or just shy of $1,300 each for every person in the United States.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday October 25 2017, @10:15PM
Such banknotes are still in circulation.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 26 2017, @12:43AM (5 children)
With all this money going into renewable energy research, every homeless person could receive $500,000 homes!
With all this money going into education programs, every homeless person could receive $500,000 homes!
With all this money going into foreign aid, every homeless person could receive $500,000 homes!
With all this money going into space exploration, every homeless person could receive $500,000 homes!
With all this money going into UN programs, every homeless person could receive $500,000 homes!
With all this money going into food subsidies, every homeless person could receive $500,000 homes!
With all this money going into transportation infrastructure, every homeless person could receive $500,000 homes!
With all this money going into e-commerce, every homeless person could receive $500,000 homes!
With all this money going into $big_money_thing, every homeless person could receive $500,000 homes!
Your statement, and you're dumb for bringing it up.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday October 26 2017, @12:55AM (3 children)
Houses fall into disrepair if no one lives in them.
Why doesn't the government purchase them all, then use them for the homeless?
Just a rhetorical question. Why? Because Lockheed-Martin's lobbyists have deep pockets.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by MindEscapes on Thursday October 26 2017, @02:37PM
Complete homelessness is not a solvable problem without locking up some of them in mental wards and could ultimately create a worse life for them than they currently have.
True there are homeless that are capable of maintaining a home if they only had one, some just fell on hard times, it could help with those type.
Many others deal with untreated schizophrenia or related illnesses and their flight mechanisms kick in and they are homeless again. Unfortunately, without treatment, they will nearly always end up back on the streets :(
The cuts to mental health resources in this country has certainly not been a net positive.
Need a break? mindescapes.net may be for you!
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 26 2017, @03:57PM (1 child)
Homes must be maintained. Water quickly rots them out if the roof or shower tile fails. One must respond quickly, with money and effort.
Think of it like a dirty pot of beans in the refrigerator, but worse. It's something that needs to be dealt with. At least the beans won't make holes through bottom of the pot.
So then as each home is destroyed, it gets abandoned, and somebody needs to bulldoze it. Soon there are no homes.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 27 2017, @03:27PM
> Homes must be maintained.
As the GP said, this is true even for houses that are uninhabited. Banks and mortgage companies don't always do a good job of it [sun-sentinel.com].
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Thursday October 26 2017, @01:33AM
Are you also believe taxation is theft?
If not, then the issue is "appropriate allocation", not "spend all money on one issue"
Maybe you think weapons *are* more important than homeless, education, space, etc spending, but maybe big, stupid, expensive weapons are big and expensive, and the F35 is an example of money that could have been better spent?
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 26 2017, @01:21AM (1 child)
But for how long after you hand over the keys will they still be luxury homes? I can just imagine someone moving in who wipes his ass with newspapers. Next thing you know, the shitter is clogged. But they don't call a plumber, and the place becomes a nest of filth. If you come to visit, you have to choose between stepping on broken glass, used needles, or human excrement. At some point, the inhabitants start fires for heat, because the utilities were shut off. It's only a matter of time before the whole place burns down. If you're a neighbor in another building, you're relieved, but if you're in the same condo structure, you might pay with your life. Maybe the F-35s would have been a better choice.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Thursday October 26 2017, @02:47AM
The F-35 is a piece of crap no matter how you look at it. It was conceived, designed, furnished, negotiated, bought and sold by committees. It's a compromise between sometimes conflicting goals. It will cost American service men's lives, and result in failed missions. There really aren't very many ways in which that money could have been worse used. Even the drug heads you speak of could have found better uses for the money. Not to mention, the coroner and undertaker can always use the business.
(Score: 4, Funny) by krishnoid on Thursday October 26 2017, @01:32AM
Why not? 644k should be enough for anyone.