The American military has worked on a brand new super weapon that it is now seriously considering adding to its arsenal to counter recent military ambitions that Russia has worked toward. This news just adds to growing tension with Russia and the fact that the U.S. has just dropped its largest non-nuclear bomb.
A new super weapon?
The American military has been in the process of considering to add a new super weapon to its arsenal. This new super weapon is a kinetic energy weapon that is called the Kinetic Energy Projectile. The Kinetic Energy Projectile is a tungsten-based warhead that is launched at a speed that is over three times faster than the speed of sound.
Then the warhead will burst into innumerable metal fragments and will be able to easily pierce through most conventional types of vehicle armor. The United States Army is already looking at fitting this kinetic energy weapon on already existing launch platforms that are able to give out enough charge to shoot the warhead at the required speed.
Army Director of Strategy, Major General William Hicks, has compared the weapon to a giant shotgun shell. The weapon would obliterate any vehicle and personnel inside that does not have top of the line armor protection. Even if a targeted vehicle did have such protection, its personnel might survive but it would be non-mission capable.
Still in testing
The Kinetic Energy Projectile was first tested back in 2013 in New Mexico at Holloman Air Force Base.
Since the super weapon is still in its conceptual phrase, with it only having been tested by using focused experiments with advanced computer simulations. This also means that the weapon has most likely not had its ownership taken over by the American military, since it is still early in its development. With increased tension with Russia, there is speculation that this would give the U.S.
more incentive to develop the weapon.
Countering Russia
The reason that this new super weapon is being considered is because of Russia. The hope is that the Kinetic Energy Projectile would be able to counter recent and future Russian advances in nuclear technology, as the American military is worried that their tactical military dominance could be threatened.
This is because the Russian military has moved toward making a nuclear warhead that is so miniaturized that it would be fired by tanks.
The country has already designed the T-14 Armata tank, which has been reported to be the most revolutionary achievement in tank design in decades. The follow-up tank to this will be the one with the 152-millimeter gun missile launcher that could also have nuclear capability.
