![\"rapidfabaflytox\"](\"pic\/rapidfabaflytox.jpg\")
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A few days back I caught a link somewhere to Defense Tech’s article “Tomorrow’s Insta-Weapons” (Link)<\/a>. That of course brought to mind my own posts on the subject here, like “The Kirkyan Weapon” (reLink<\/a>). But the article – and most of the comments on it – are, in my opinion, too focused on CNC (computer numerically-controlled) machining. Not that many of the comments aren’t valid; they are. Fabbing metal components just isn’t commonplace in today’s world. But it’s just a matter of time until metal rapid-manufacturing units do<\/em> make their way to the battlefield. One last thought that struck me was that the thinking of the people commenting (who I suspect are defense industry employees) was very Macro. That seems shortsighted to me. As I stated in my comment on the Defense Tech site, it’s not the big stuff that seems most applicable, but the Micro things; a “swarm of wasp-size robots carrying lethal doses of poison (which) could wreak havoc on an enemy<\/strong>“, for example. Why make jets that carry people when you can make remotely-controlled drones?<\/p>\n Which leads me to the above image, courtesy of sculptor Lewis Tardy’s very cool website (Link)<\/a> brought to my attention by the Make: blog<\/a>. That’s kind of what I was imagining right there. Imagine setting up a container-sized weapon fabrication lab that cranked out hundreds or thousands of those things. Imagine that they had short-range Wi-Fi capability to permit them to use a swarming algorithm<\/a>, and a receiver that could pick up a long-range transmission (and by long-range I’m talking a couple of miles) for local control.<\/p>\n That’s the issue. Not fabbing an F-18 Hornet, but something more like a real<\/em> hornet. With teeth. And lots of ’em.<\/p>\n {Update:<\/strong> some related entries:<\/p>\n “SkyNet Rising” – reLink<\/a> There are more floating in here, but that should suffice.}<\/p>\n {Image Copyright \u00a9 Lewis Tardy<\/a>}<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A few days back I caught a link somewhere to Defense Tech’s article “Tomorrow’s Insta-Weapons” (Link). That of course brought to mind my own posts on the subject here, like “The Kirkyan Weapon” (reLink). But the article – and most … Continue reading
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\nAdditionally, some of the comments seemed ignorant of the fact that the crystalline lattice structure that makes forging so necessary (cited by some as a reason battlefield fabrication is over-hyped), is somewhat matched by the metal laser melting fabbing tech. In fact, some of the most difficult components, jet turbine blades, are already being rapid-fabbed using MLM and tested. These critical components may not have long-term durability, but then it’s a weapon. We kind of expect fabbed weapons to be short-lived, don’t we?<\/p>\n
\n“The Ultimate ARG (or This Is Not A Videogame)” – reLink<\/a>
\n“The Tracking SWARM” – reLink<\/a><\/p>\n