daemon@ucbvax.UUCP (07/25/84)
From @MIT-MC:JLarson.PA@Xerox.ARPA Wed Jul 25 00:46:45 1984
Arms-Discussion Digest Volume 2 : Issue 48
Today's Topics:
Robots Against War
Soviet blast
Amusing article
Aviation Week Railgun Article
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Date: 22 Jul 1984 16:30-EDT
Sender: WDOHERTY@BBNG.ARPA
Subject: Robots Against War
From: WDOHERTY@BBNG.ARPA
To: prog-d@MIT-MC.ARPA, arms-d@MIT-MC.ARPA, poli-sci@RUTGERS.ARPA
CPSR (Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility) Boston
and HTPFP (High-Tech Professionals for Peace) are co-sponsoring a
demonstration outside a seminar on "AI/Robotics in the
Battlefield" scheduled to occur at Howard Johnsons in Cambridge
(777 Memorial Drive). Join us on MONDAY, JULY 30TH, from NOON to
1PM. Lots of parking at the nearby supermarket. We hope to have
a real live draft resisting robot at the demo too!
For more info, call Reid Simmons at 253-6032 or 734-7656.
Brought to you by Will Doherty
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Date: 22 July 1984 21:35-EDT
From: Herb Lin <LIN @ MIT-MC>
Subject: Soviet blast
To: pur-ee!Physics.els @ UCB-VAX
cc: ARMS-DISCUSSION @ MIT-MC
From: pur-ee!Physics.els at Berkeley (Eric Strobel)
I wonder if anyone knows of some group (high school or college, etc.)
that routinely monitors rain water just for the heck of it. The point
being that if the rain water is checked for radioactivity, perhaps they
may have detected whether or not some nuclear weapons were involved in the
explosion at the Soviet naval base.
I am quite sure that the defense nuclear agency or some other part of
DoD monitors it, but if you're aksing for classified information,
you're probably out of luck (which I'm sure this would be). Jane's
Defense Weekly cites informed sources as saying that it looked like a
low yield nuclear explosion at first, but that a huge part of the
conventional ammo for the northern Soviet fleet exploded.
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Date: 24 Jul 84 07:52 PDT
From: Richard B. August <AUGUST@JPL-VLSI.ARPA>
Subject: Amusing article from Computer Electronics Monthly
To: arms-d@MIT-MC.ARPA
FROM the July 1984 edition of Consumer Electronics Monthly....
The LASTWORD
by
Mel Buchwald
Soviets and the Olympics:
Put the blame on video
A usually well-informed source advises that the Soviet Union
moved to withdraw from the Olympic Games for electronic reasons,
not political ones.
Very simply, the overlords of the KGB feared there would be
a mass defection of Soviet athletes in Los Angeles when the
Olympians were exposed to the joys of America's secret weapon -
consumer electronics- and, in particular, that most fearsome
instrument of all - video recording equipment.
The facts are that the Soviet populace appears to be hungry
for the forbidden fruit of videotape recording, which their
masters have steadfastly denied them. But the word has been
spread by returning members of the Soviet elite who, while
traveling abroad, have been dazzled by the profusion of
recorders, cameras and tape in the morally decadent West.
Forbidden Fruit
News correspondents have reported the following vignettes as
word of VCR seeps through the Iron Curtain into Mother Russia
herself:
o The premiere attraction in the lavishly furnished home
of a millionaire black market queen in Minsk is a smuggled VCR on
which visitors can watch "Swedish" tapes, underground jargon for
pornographic films.
o At a bar in a Black Sea spa, after-hours guests line up
to pay admission for an opportunity to watch a TV screen in the
corner flickering with showings of such forbidden tapes as
CLOCKWORK ORANGE and The GODFATHER, which portray the joys of
life in the West.
These scenes exemplify the problem bedeviling Soviet
authorities as they try to stifle the blossoming underground
activity - the smuggling of video machines and the copying and
distribution of American and European films. Who knows how many
VHS and Beta machines a returning Olympic team might try to
conceal from the prying hands of border guards?
Calling it "ideological subversion", the masters of the
Kremlin really mean "videological" subversion as they throttle
the importation of VCRs, cameras and software. As a result, in
Moscow, a secondhand VCR can cost $4,900; a color monitor,
$9,800; one blank tape, $130; and a prerecorded Hollywood film,
$250. And the average monthly wage is $234.
Stockings And Yo-Yos
As leader of the free world, out nation can certainly use
Russian video hunger to turn the tide of the cold war in our
favor. Back in 1951, we are told, a covert U.S. project dumped
tons of nylon stockings, permanent-wave kits, yo-yos and
wristwatches upon Russian cities from Voronezh to Vladivostok,
resulting in wild rioting as the citizenry clawed and scratched
for a taste of Western goodies.
Why can't we repeat the attempt again - only this time
shower the videotape-starved Soviet masses with VCRs, 13-inch
color sets, blank tapes and prerecorded films? As an incentive
toward genuine detente, it would be a lot cheaper and more
effective than building more MX missiles, B-1 bombers and Polaris
submarines.
And can't you just imagine the sudden mellowing of the
Politburo as they emerge from a private viewing of The Devil In
Miss Jones?
[This has been brought to you with tongue-(firmly)-in-cheek!]
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Date: 24 Jul 1984 8:32-PDT
From: dietz%USC-CSE@ECLA
To: arms-d@MIT-MC.ARPA, space@MIT-MC.ARPA
Subject: Aviation Week Railgun Article
The latest Aviation Week has the fifth (and final) article in their
series on ballistic missile defense. The article discusses
hypervelocity launchers, such as railguns. Some tidbits:
Railguns have accelerated small (a few grams) lexan cubes to 10 km/sec
with an energy efficiency of 40%. The next expermients are shooting
for 20 km/sec and 50% efficiency. The ultimate goal is 100 km/sec at
100,000 gee's (with an accelerator 500 meters long), using a laser to
drive a projectile with an ablative rear surface. (An aside: by
launching deuterium-tritium pellets at one another at >= 100 km/sec one
can possibly generate significant fusion energy.)
In tests against actual ICBM components, gram size projectiles moving
at 10 km/sec have been found to cause considerable damage (they can
penetrate quarter-inch steel plate). The article includes a picture of
a metal cylinder with a large, blackened hole in the side.
Rail erosion problems during projectile startup have been solved by
using gas injection.
Studies have shown that hypervelocity launchers with homing projectiles
deliver more energy per area at the target than lasers, particle beams,
25 KT nuclear ABMs or nuclear-pumped X-ray lasers (I'm not sure what
systems they're comparing here).
The military is considering using railguns as gatling gun replacements
for close-in defense of ships against cruise missiles, and as long
range artillery (50 miles) with terminally guided shells. Advances in
active cooling are making very high velocity projectiles feasible in
the atmosphere (this technology is borrowed from military reentry
vehicle research).
***
These things look much more technically feasible than laser BMD systems.
At 100 km/sec you can reach LEO from GEO in under six minutes, which is
fine for mid-course intercept.
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[End of ARMS-D Digest]