Don't forget this isn't the first time the U.S. Military is testing military hardware out of Scotland.

RAF Macrahanish (not sure on it's current status) used to be an official Navy SEALs deployment post. Scotland has also seen the arrival and departure of F-117as as well as rumoured testing of the Aurora.

Scotland does have some varying whether conditions which from my experience in both places, doesn't occur much in the States. Perhaps the environmental factor (fog, low level moisture, rain, general boggy weather) is something that the military want to test their new laser systems in. It would make sense to test such equipment in practical conditions.

An electromagnetic weapon would certainly be suspect to travelling through bad weather, dissipating the beam/projectile.

Originally posted by SimonGray
Don't forget this isn't the first time the U.S. Military is testing military hardware out of Scotland.

RAF Macrahanish (not sure on it's current status) used to be an official Navy SEALs deployment post. Scotland has also seen the arrival and departure of F-117as as well as rumoured testing of the Aurora.

Scotland does have some varying whether conditions which from my experience in both places, doesn't occur much in the States. Perhaps the environmental factor (fog, low level moisture, rain, general boggy weather) is something that the military want to test their new laser systems in. It would make sense to test such equipment in practical conditions.

An electromagnetic weapon would certainly be suspect to travelling through bad weather, dissipating the beam/projectile.

That was my guess also Simon.
I am currently trying to find more information to confirm this but have not been successful as of yet.

regards
seekerof

We are testing weapons in Scotland because no country has spy satellites fixed on that area, whereas China and Russia both have spy satellites photgraphing the Arizona desert everyday.
In Scotland there will be no before pictures, no after pictures and no easy way to see heat differences on the tested terrain unlike the Arizona dessert which shows clearly what was affected.

[edit on 15-1-2005 by Potsdamer]

[edit on 15-1-2005 by Potsdamer]

[edit on 15-1-2005 by Potsdamer]

Originally posted by ADVISOR
Perhaps it's more safe there, as well as secluded. After all, testing it in States would draw alot of attention from people trying to investigate the "UFO Flack cannon" or something along those lines. I can just foresee the problems now...

I dont really buy this because we have areas in the US the size of Scotland where nobody lives. We also have friends like Australia which much larger and more remote areas.

I think I would have to go with it being a joint project between the US and UK.

Originally posted by ShadowXIX

I dont really buy this because we have areas in the US the size of Scotland where nobody lives. We also have friends like Australia which much larger and more remote areas.

I think I would have to go with it being a joint project between the US and UK.

Yeah its probably a joint US/UK program.
The two countries have done similar stuff before.

TRUE,

This weapon IS a RAILGUN.

I have seen this before on somewebsites (i will find links soon when im half assed)

people have been making these in there BEDROOM and i had a video of a bedroom rig fiering it, S H I 'T HOT.

ITS simple to build and don't think for a second this is advanced tech.

all you need is a home made electromagnet a large capacitor (i think)

and a projectile and stuff,
as i said i will try to fing it again now.



this can be done whith a quick trip to radio-shack and some spare time.

acctually I think it was called a gause gun

[edit on 15-1-2005 by TrentReznor]

these should be entirely employed by the navy by 2011

I read somewhere that US considers using fuel cells on battle ships that not only can deliver the mechanical power for moving the ship, but also very high momentary elictrical peak-power for on board defense lasers EM guns.

Railguns are easy to make, but once you get to a certain energy level you have to worry about the material from the projectile becoming welded to the barrel due to the high temperatures created by the large currents. However, that's if you're using a solid projectile, I haven't ever heard of using mercury before, but I doubt that would happen, the environmentalists are already pissed enough with the DU the military uses, if it started using mercury they would go ballistic, not to mention all the military personnel who would be exposed.

Originally posted by jetsetter
Also it is getting harder to test weapons in the United States. There is always some person worried about the enviroment. Damn "enviromentalists"

I don't buy that one. Scotland has become very environmentally aware in the last few years. They're trying to get the Faslane naval base removed (where Britain's nuclear weapons are stored and put aboard the Vanguard submarines) and they've refused to have any new nuclear power stations constructed, for instance. I would imagine it would be a joint project, since the US has huge tracts of unused land... and there are other, much larger nations that the DoD could use too.

why cant u.s. test their own weapons in their own country. i mean they are just trying to find new ways to kill people. if u wanna do that do it in your own country ffs

I also think it is a joint coop with the british navy, they've been working with these rail guns for some time..
But why would they use shells coated with depleted uranium? its the velocity thats creates the big bang.. you could even use a golf balls for these guns..

[edit on 28-6-2007 by Foppezao]

Originally posted by dahl
why cant u.s. test their own weapons in their own country. i mean they are just trying to find new ways to kill people. if u wanna do that do it in your own country ffs

Got anything intelligent too add besides your Anti-American rant? Maybe you should ask yourself why is the UK government permitting this project on its soil.

Originally posted by dragonrider

The MoD has faced complaints over its use of the range to fire thousands of shells coated with depleted uranium into the Solway Firth. There are fears the tests could be damaging the health of locals and the environment.

Wow, not used to hearing them talk about DU munitions so blase' like that. I remember RENSE all a-buzz about the US's supposed usage of them in Iraq.,... but that was RENSE . I put RENSE slightly above Indiadaily.

According to the link they're tungsten shells with a DU coating...
So how thick is the DU shell? I thought DU munitions were just hunks of depleted uranium, seems though they have a tungsten core surrounded in a DU shell... So if the DU isn't dramatically adding weight why coat the shells with it at all?...

I'm sure I'm missing something here

btw

Powerful magnetised coils create an electric pulse which can fire a shell at 7500mph - around two miles a second - and kill a target more than five miles away.

So how heavy are those shells???

Anyone watch Future Weapons on
the Discovery Channel?

I know they test ALOT of those weapons
over in Scotland and England.