Why the puppet show? If you are going all out, hit the City of London, or the survival bunkers under Zurich. Go for the head, not for the twitching tail.
Meh, nobody will bat an eye at Russia bombing something in Ukraine.
By turning the EU complex into dust however, Russia would accomplish several goals.
1: Becoming more popular with a wide swath of the EU public.
2: The EU would be forced to throw reconstruction funds at Belgium and apparatchik relatives instead of Ukraine.
3: Most importantly: It would expose the EU as the paper tiger it is. What exactly would they do? Declare war and realize that nobody is signing up? Send the Belgian army (lol!) and a few hundred German tanks, their entire inventory?
Thank you for this very well explained article on the novel mechanisms and chemical reactions of various metals at extremes of high temperature, pressure and shock, Mike.
Trying to recall all the two component exothermic alloying reactions. As an example, alloying one mol of iron with on mol of chromium releases 18kj of energy, producing a kilogram quantity of such an alloy releases nearly 180kj.
Not a gigantic output but provides a bit more heat for some applications (like underwater thermitic cutting tools using mixed iron and chromium oxides + aluminum as a reducing agent & Teflon to decompose and "pressurize the effluent"). See:
Trump's task is a war with Iran. That's what he promised in order to be allowed to be elected, and that's what he will deliver. The Syria coup was the prelude to that, Turkey and the Syrian jihadists will provide the boots on the ground, and US and Israel the air supremacy and satellite surveillance. What is conspicuously missing, though, is functional AD---that expected air supremacy might prove a mirage.
The Syria coup wasn't the prelude to anything. It was the end of Syria and US and partners spend decades over it. But happened because Syria collapsed not because Biden (and certainly not Trump) pushed that much harder for it in 2024.
If anything Turkey was the only country making an effort.
If Israel or USA determine to attack Iran it will be rapidly the end of Israel. and probably the US relationship with Saudi. Might happen, but not because Syria blew over after 5 years flapping in the wind.
Expect slight radioactivity, about 10-20x background gamma and residues of short lived neutron activation products, also enriched Uranium. Temperature of the cold fusion reaction is in excess of 5000degrees. Material is deuterium in Uranium. Technology has been and is used by Israel in Lebanon and Gaza.The enriched Uranium was detected and reported by my organization for Lebanon, Gaza and Fallujah and also in a 2021 Nature paper. System is described approximately in Emilio del Guidice and Maurizio Torrealta: The secret of the three bullets.
Interesting take on the topic. One would expect some ceramic outer layer to reduce oxidation as it travels through the atmosphere,seeing as metals are generally quite reactive at such high temperatures.
1. The projectile's travel time is just seconds; for oxidation to diffuse through solid material, even at these temperatures, takes orders of magnitude longer. Ablation would be a problem, but there is little ceramics can do about that, and they have lower density than metals. a crucial consideration.
2. I do not think oxidation is even possible at such temperatures, 3000K or thereabout; dissociation of molecules is more likely than combination.
It is interesting that just six hits out of 36 showed the "volcano" effect. My take on that is that one of the six compound warheads was loaded with a different, experimental payload than the remaining five, which were presumably six solid tungsten penetrators each. After all, this was a field test of the Oreshnik, so it is reasonable that they tested the more experimental warhead at the same time.
Thanks Mike for your work and sharing your insights.
Today I read about another super weapon from China.:China’s Metal Storm poised to shred hypersonics
“China has unveiled a hyper-fast machine gun that could revolutionize defense against hypersonic missiles, posing a bold challenge to conventional missile defense systems.
This month, South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported that Chinese scientists are developing a groundbreaking machine gun, dubbed the “Metal Storm,” capable of firing bullets at an unprecedented rate of 450,000 rounds per minute per barrel.”
Oh FFS. I own stock in the original Australian Metal Storm. The technology was demonstrated over 20 years back, nobody in the Western "defense" industries cared to utilize it back then. Superposed rounds in a multi barrel cluster with high speed electronic firing.
Wonder if my stock has gone up any on that news? (It was not worth much, a penny stock when last I looked).
A brief back-of-excelope calc shows that 450k rounds per minute per barrel, assuming round length + round separation of no less than 50 mm, gives 375 m/s. That's not exit speed, which due to expansion of propellant would need to be much higher---that's just how fast the thousands of bullets would need to be FED INTO the gun. And no, you cannot just prepack them; they would need to be moving already prior to discharge, to avoid the mother of all jams. In other words, bullets would have to be fed into the barrel at supersonic speed. The only conceivable way to do that is to shoot the rounds into the barrel with another gun, but that gun would face the same absurd technical barrier.
Myth busted.
Not to even mention the fact that alternating bullet and propellant in the barrel would cause backward impulse as well as forward impulse from the propellant expanding.
Go spend the time to learn what the original MS technology was about.
Yep, multiple rounds were in motion inside the same barrel at the same time, with multiple barrels in a matrix. That was the technique for attaining the cyclic rates advertised, which you can still find videos online showing this worked (for a VERY short time). Nope, there was no reciprocating breech, the barrels did not load additional rounds. Once fired, the reload process for an MS unit as prototyped took quite a while and was done by hand on those demonstration weapons. Think a large bundle of high tech Roman candles... The effect was more like a burst capable Claymore mine than a belt fed machine gun.
OK, the Roman candle concept does make more sense. If you consider that the firing time for the whole package is on the order of .01 s, that would mean 75 rounds packed per barrel, marginally possible. More likely half that number.
But then the whole package of 10 barrels or so just fills the air with 750 slugs, a sort of a super blunderbuss. To intercept a hypersonic projectile within a .01s window with a non-correcting shrapnel cloud, you'd need Wuxia targeting skills.
Please Putin! Do the EU parlament next!
Why the puppet show? If you are going all out, hit the City of London, or the survival bunkers under Zurich. Go for the head, not for the twitching tail.
The ideal target would be the huge underground natgas storage silos in the west of Uke, around Lviv.
In an instant, 25% of EU strategic natgas reserves would go up in a monster fireball, and collapse the economy
Meh, nobody will bat an eye at Russia bombing something in Ukraine.
By turning the EU complex into dust however, Russia would accomplish several goals.
1: Becoming more popular with a wide swath of the EU public.
2: The EU would be forced to throw reconstruction funds at Belgium and apparatchik relatives instead of Ukraine.
3: Most importantly: It would expose the EU as the paper tiger it is. What exactly would they do? Declare war and realize that nobody is signing up? Send the Belgian army (lol!) and a few hundred German tanks, their entire inventory?
Don’t worry the melting is already going.
Thank you for this very well explained article on the novel mechanisms and chemical reactions of various metals at extremes of high temperature, pressure and shock, Mike.
Thank you.
I'm including it in the post I'm composing. Thank You again.
Excellent analysis of this underwrap super terrifying weapons capabilities
As always, as great read Mike. H/T to Piquet too!
Is Russia stockpiling Oreshniks or are they delivering to their friends (re: Sanaa)?
Thank you
Fascinating science. People who care are the ones who think novel thoughts I’d say.
Haven’t seen any evidence for the novel in NATO.
Trying to recall all the two component exothermic alloying reactions. As an example, alloying one mol of iron with on mol of chromium releases 18kj of energy, producing a kilogram quantity of such an alloy releases nearly 180kj.
Not a gigantic output but provides a bit more heat for some applications (like underwater thermitic cutting tools using mixed iron and chromium oxides + aluminum as a reducing agent & Teflon to decompose and "pressurize the effluent"). See:
https://patents.google.com/patent/US5372069A/en
Since the West is convinced that Russia will not use this weapon on them, they do not care.
Deterrence is worthless if your enemy know you never will use it.
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2025/01/to-avoid-fighting-large-conflicts-trump-is-creating-smaller-ones.html
Trump seems to be seeking to avoid conflict with Russia or even China and talking up small conflicts like Panama or Greenland.
For the exiting leaders of the west (pretty much all of them) denial is actually a sensible policy.
Trump's task is a war with Iran. That's what he promised in order to be allowed to be elected, and that's what he will deliver. The Syria coup was the prelude to that, Turkey and the Syrian jihadists will provide the boots on the ground, and US and Israel the air supremacy and satellite surveillance. What is conspicuously missing, though, is functional AD---that expected air supremacy might prove a mirage.
The Syria coup wasn't the prelude to anything. It was the end of Syria and US and partners spend decades over it. But happened because Syria collapsed not because Biden (and certainly not Trump) pushed that much harder for it in 2024.
If anything Turkey was the only country making an effort.
If Israel or USA determine to attack Iran it will be rapidly the end of Israel. and probably the US relationship with Saudi. Might happen, but not because Syria blew over after 5 years flapping in the wind.
Trump is weak, stupid and easily manipulated.
@Feral Finster
No disagreements there. What are YOU going to do about it?
No no no, it’s the greater Israel in the making, US, Canada, Alaska, Greenland, Panama, Palestine, Jordan, Iran, Taiwan.
Hilarious
Expect slight radioactivity, about 10-20x background gamma and residues of short lived neutron activation products, also enriched Uranium. Temperature of the cold fusion reaction is in excess of 5000degrees. Material is deuterium in Uranium. Technology has been and is used by Israel in Lebanon and Gaza.The enriched Uranium was detected and reported by my organization for Lebanon, Gaza and Fallujah and also in a 2021 Nature paper. System is described approximately in Emilio del Guidice and Maurizio Torrealta: The secret of the three bullets.
Useful, thanks!
So no antimatter used at all?
No mention of plasma ... at all .... nothing to see here folks!
Interesting take on the topic. One would expect some ceramic outer layer to reduce oxidation as it travels through the atmosphere,seeing as metals are generally quite reactive at such high temperatures.
Time will tell.
1. The projectile's travel time is just seconds; for oxidation to diffuse through solid material, even at these temperatures, takes orders of magnitude longer. Ablation would be a problem, but there is little ceramics can do about that, and they have lower density than metals. a crucial consideration.
2. I do not think oxidation is even possible at such temperatures, 3000K or thereabout; dissociation of molecules is more likely than combination.
@RalfB
You don't work in pyrotechnics and energetic materials, very clearly.
Thank you, Mike, for this brilliant explanation of how Oreshnik works. It is a fascinating article and I learned so much from your report.
Thank you.
It is interesting that just six hits out of 36 showed the "volcano" effect. My take on that is that one of the six compound warheads was loaded with a different, experimental payload than the remaining five, which were presumably six solid tungsten penetrators each. After all, this was a field test of the Oreshnik, so it is reasonable that they tested the more experimental warhead at the same time.
Depleted uranium (U238) does not have significant residual gama radiation, there is only weak alfa-radiation, half-life is about 4,5 billions years.
Density of D.U. is a bit smaller than wolfram.
It is self-igniting upon penetration, so I assume it can explode after impact when compressed.
Thanks Mike for your work and sharing your insights.
Today I read about another super weapon from China.:China’s Metal Storm poised to shred hypersonics
“China has unveiled a hyper-fast machine gun that could revolutionize defense against hypersonic missiles, posing a bold challenge to conventional missile defense systems.
This month, South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported that Chinese scientists are developing a groundbreaking machine gun, dubbed the “Metal Storm,” capable of firing bullets at an unprecedented rate of 450,000 rounds per minute per barrel.”
https://asiatimes.com/2025/01/chinas-metal-storm-poised-to-shred-hypersonics/?utm_source=The+Daily+Report&utm_campaign=6430bebd36-DAILY_08_01_2025&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1f8bca137f-6430bebd36-671750674&mc_cid=6430bebd36&mc_eid=e92934e304
Oh FFS. I own stock in the original Australian Metal Storm. The technology was demonstrated over 20 years back, nobody in the Western "defense" industries cared to utilize it back then. Superposed rounds in a multi barrel cluster with high speed electronic firing.
Wonder if my stock has gone up any on that news? (It was not worth much, a penny stock when last I looked).
Company went bankrupt in 2012..
"SCMP mentions that Australian inventor Mike O’Dwyer proposed the Metal Storm concept in the 1990s, but his company declared bankruptcy in 2012"
A brief back-of-excelope calc shows that 450k rounds per minute per barrel, assuming round length + round separation of no less than 50 mm, gives 375 m/s. That's not exit speed, which due to expansion of propellant would need to be much higher---that's just how fast the thousands of bullets would need to be FED INTO the gun. And no, you cannot just prepack them; they would need to be moving already prior to discharge, to avoid the mother of all jams. In other words, bullets would have to be fed into the barrel at supersonic speed. The only conceivable way to do that is to shoot the rounds into the barrel with another gun, but that gun would face the same absurd technical barrier.
Myth busted.
Not to even mention the fact that alternating bullet and propellant in the barrel would cause backward impulse as well as forward impulse from the propellant expanding.
@RalfB
Go spend the time to learn what the original MS technology was about.
Yep, multiple rounds were in motion inside the same barrel at the same time, with multiple barrels in a matrix. That was the technique for attaining the cyclic rates advertised, which you can still find videos online showing this worked (for a VERY short time). Nope, there was no reciprocating breech, the barrels did not load additional rounds. Once fired, the reload process for an MS unit as prototyped took quite a while and was done by hand on those demonstration weapons. Think a large bundle of high tech Roman candles... The effect was more like a burst capable Claymore mine than a belt fed machine gun.
OK, the Roman candle concept does make more sense. If you consider that the firing time for the whole package is on the order of .01 s, that would mean 75 rounds packed per barrel, marginally possible. More likely half that number.
But then the whole package of 10 barrels or so just fills the air with 750 slugs, a sort of a super blunderbuss. To intercept a hypersonic projectile within a .01s window with a non-correcting shrapnel cloud, you'd need Wuxia targeting skills.
This sort of reminds me of Isao Machii.
Go look at the goddamn videos and quit wasting my time?
https://youtu.be/wKlnMwuCZso?si=PozZr25hf9lmv2yg
Always, all~ways, appreciate your expertise. Thank you, for the Love of the Mother/Fatherland(s)❤️🐈⬛
thank you.