View Single Post
Old August 6, 2012, 12:24 AM   #17
Auto426
Senior Member
 
Join Date: November 24, 2007
Location: South Louisiana
Posts: 1,323
I also feel that the next big jump in firearms technology will be with the ammunition and not the firearms themselves. The metallic cartridge has been in use for over 150 years now and is the main limiting factor in modern weapons design. I believe the military is already spending money on research and development to replaced brass cased ammunition with either polymer cased ammunition or a switch to firearms that used caseless ammunition. Either case would result in a weight savings for your typical soldier, which is likely to be offset by carrying more of the new lighter ammo.

I believe that lasers and rail guns are still a good ways off, and won't become common place until some major advancements are made in power generation and storage. The military has working prototypes of rail guns, but their major drawback is the massive amounts of electricity they require to operate. The results of the tests are extremely promising though, since the guns can fire projectiles faster and farther than any current gun in the Navy's arsenal. We very well could see a return to vessels that resemble and fight like battleships.
__________________
"Si vis pacem, para bellum" - If you want peace, prepare for war.
Auto426 is offline  
 
Page generated in 0.03416 seconds with 8 queries