The great strength of American capitalism is also its great weakness, namely, its extremely high weapons productivity. A number of factors have produced increases in productivity, like, the mechanization of the production process that got under way in England as early as the 18th century. In the early 20th century, then, American industrialists made a contribution in the form of automatiion. ..Amor Patriae
Thursday, July 22, 2021
The Defense against Russia's hypersonic missile capable of destroying an aircraft carrier! Japan fires world's most powerful laser to produce energy equal to 1,000 times the planet's power consumption
LFEX device produced 2-petawatts (2 quadrillion-watts) of energy
The energy used for the laser beam itself would only be powerful enough to run a microwave for around two seconds, the Osaka researchers claim
The high output was produced by firing the beam for just 1 pico-second
Japan claims to have fired the most powerful laser ever created.
Researchers in Osaka were able to produce a 2-petawatt laser beam using a device known as the Laser for Fast Ignition Experiment (LFEX).
The power of the 'Death Star'-like beam is equivalent to 1,000 times the world's total electricity consumption, the scientists claim.
The 328ft (100 metre)-long LFEX device has strategically-placed glass panels that are used to amplify the laser beam. The team were able to produce such a high output by concentrating the power to 1 pico-second, or around a trillionth of a second
While it produced a huge amount of power, the energy required for the beam itself is equivalent to that needed to power a microwave for two seconds.
The team were able to produce such a high output from low energy by only firing the laser beam for 1 pico-second, or a trillionth of a second.
To amplify the beam's power, energy was applied to strategically-placed glass panels along the 328ft (100 metre)-long LFEX device.
These glass lamps were able focus the beam to boost its energy as it passed through.
In the experiment, energy was applied to glass sections using devices similar to fluorescent lamps. These glass lamps were used to boost the energy of the beam as it passed through
HOW POWERFUL IS IT?
The device produced a 2-petawatt - or 2 quadrillion-watt - laser beam.
This is equivalent to 1,000 times the world's electricity consumption.
To put that in context, Rheinmetall Defense was recently able to shoot a drone down a mile away using a 50kW laser.
The 50kW laser was 10 billion times less powerful that the one used in Japan.
Up until today's announcement, the world has only ever within a 1-pettawatt laser created by the University of Texas, Austin.
'With heated competition in the world to improve the performance of lasers, our goal now is to increase our output to 10 petawatts,' said the institute's Junji Kawanaka, an associate professor of electrical engineering at the university
To put that into context, according to Popular Science, a 50,000 watt laser successfully took down a drone just a mile away.
That 50kW laser was 10 billion times less powerful that the one used in Japan.
Up until today's announcement, the world has only ever witnessed a 1-pettawatt laser created by the University of Texas, Austin.
Not only did the Japanese laser generate twice as much power, but the team says it also has 100 times as much energy as its Texas rival.
The laser, liked to the Death Star laser in Star Wars, is currently mainly of scientific interest rather than having any real-world purpose.
Researchers in Osaka were able to produce a 2-petawatt - or 2 quadrillion-watt - laser beam using the Laser for Fast Ignition Experiments (LFEX). This is equivalent to 1,000 times the world's electricity consumption, causing the laser to be compared to that on the Death Star in Star Wars (pictured)
Russia has built a hypersonic missile capable of destroying an aircraft carrier with a single impact, it has been reported.
Kremlin chiefs claim to have constructed a Zircon cruise missile which travels between 3,800mph and 4,600mph - five to six times the speed of sound.
Experts warn the 'unstoppable' projectiles could spell disaster for the Navy's new £6.2billion aircraft carriers, the HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales.
Russia has reportedly built a Zircon hypersonic missile which is capable of traveling up to six times the speed of sound, making it 'unstoppable'
The Zircon is capable of traveling twice as fast as the Royal Navy's Sea Ceptor missile (pictured) which would be responsible for shooting it down
Current Navy anti-missile defenses are only equipped to shoot down projectiles traveling 2,300mph, meaning they would be useless against the Zicron.
This would force aircraft carriers to anchor outside of their estimated 500 mile range
That would make it impossible for the carrier's jets and helicopters to reach their target, carry out their mission, and return without running out of fuel - effectively rendering them useless.
Pete Sandeman, a naval expert, told the Sunday People: 'Defence against hypersonic missiles presents a huge challenge to surface ships.
'There is so little time to react that even if detected, existing defences may be entirely inadequate.
'Even if the missile is broken up or detonated by close-in weapons, the debris has so much kinetic energy that the ship may still be badly damaged.'
The new weapon has entered the testing phase, according to reports, and could be fitted to Russian carrier Pyotr Velikiy by 2022
The missile could render the Navy's new £6.2billion aircraft carriers the HMS Queen Elizabeth (pictured, artist's impression) and HMS Prince of Wales redundant, experts have warned
Lockheed test Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system
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The weapon entered testing earlier this year, and could be fitted to nuclear-powered cruiser Pyotr Velikiy as soon as 2018, Russian state media reports.
It can be fired from land, sea and submarines carrying payloads ranging from high explosive to nuclear.
The Zicron uses Scramjet technology which mixes fuel with air and allows it to burn at hypersonic speeds.
That means the projectile can travel at astonishing speeds - covering 155 miles in 2.5 minutes, which is faster than a sniper's bullet.
The setback is just the latest in a long line of problems with the Royal Navy's new carriers after a report earlier this month found they were beset with technical issues, facing delays and could go over-budget.
ZIRCON MISSILE
Role: Offensive, capable of carrying explosive or nuclear payloads
Speed: 3,800mph to 4,600mph
Range: Up to 500 miles
Status: In testing, deployed by 2022
SEA CEPTOR MISSILE
Role: Defensive, designed to take out incoming missiles
Speed: 700mph to 2,300mph
Range: 15 miles
Status: In use by the Royal Navy
However these missles can be neutralized by the US Navy new 150 kw lasers by 2020. These flying ships can carry 6 F35 or more depending on the designed size. For armaments and defense,150 kw lasers with, some form of energy storage can be acommodated. The demands of a pulsed load on the order of hundreds of kilowatts lasers in this amphivious flying crafts,with a system for storing power for on-demand use by a laser weapon that can fire indefinitely. Rechargeable by batteries or flywheels.
The service would ideally be able to recharge a laser's energy reserves almost instantaneously, allowing the laser to fire indefinitely.While that would be the ideal scenario one of the firms developing the technologies has a system that can fire 'well over 100 shots' before needing to be recharged.
See how the huge footprint of a modern Aircraft Carrier navigating with its armada of escorts in the Persian Gulf would be a tempting target for enemy missles. 20 equivalent cost of an aircraft carrier by these flying ships carrying fighter jets with its array of laser weapons can do a much better job of dominating the Persian Gulf.
As American sailors watched the first Revolutionary Guard vessels appeared on the horizon of the Strait of Hormuz, beginning a daylong face-off that has become familiar to both Iranian paramilitary and U.S. naval forces that pass through the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf.
But these routine, if tense encounters may soon grow even more perilous.
President Donald Trump has warned that Iranian forces will be blown out of the water if they challenge U.S. naval vessels, while American commanders describe the Guard as increasingly unprofessionally with rocket launches and provocative actions.
Saturday, July 17, 2021
he Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World
THE FIFTEEN DECISIVE BATTLES OF THE WORLD
It is an honourable characteristic of the Spirit of this Age, that projects of violence and warfare are regarded among civilized states with gradually increasing aversion. The Universal Peace Society certainly does not, and probably never will, enrol the majority of statesmen among its members. But even those who look upon the Appeal of Battle as occasionally unavoidable in international controversies, concur in thinking it a deplorable necessity, only to be resorted to when all peaceful modes of arrangement have been vainly tried; and when the law of self-defence justifies a State, like an individual, in using force to protect itself from imminent and serious injury. For a writer, therefore, of the present day to choose battles for his favourite topic, merely because they were battles, merely because so many myriads of troops were arrayed in them,and so many hundreds or thousands of human beings stabbed, hewed, or shot each other to death during them, would argue strange weakness or depravity of mind. Yet it cannot be denied that a fearful and wonderful interest is attached to these scenes of carnage. There is undeniable greatness in the disciplined courage, and in the love of honour, which make the combatants confront agony and destruction. And the powers of the human intellect are rarely more strongly displayed than they are in the Commander, who regulates, arrays, and wields at his will these masses of armed disputants; who, cool yet daring, in the midst of peril reflects on all, and provides for all, ever ready with fresh resources and designs, as the vicissitudes of the storm of slaughter require. But these qualities, however high they may appear,are to be found in the basest as well as in the noblest of mankind. Catiline was as brave a soldier as Leonidas, and a much better officer. Alva surpassed the Prince of Orange in the field; and Suwarrow was the military superior of Kosciusko. To adopt the emphatic words of Byron:-- "'Tis the Cause makes all, Degrades or hallows courage in its fall."..
Excerpt: Two thousand three hundred and forty years ago, a council of Athenian Officers was summoned on the slope of one of the mountains that look over the plain of Marathon, on the eastern coast of Attica. The immediate subject of their meeting was to consider whether they should give battle to an enemy that lay encamped on the shore beneath them; but on the result of their deliberations depended, not merely the fate of two armies, but the whole future progress of human civilization.
Excerpt: ... the ancient Persian empire, which once subjugated all the nations of the earth, was defeated when Alexander had won his victory at Arbela.
Excerpt: That battle was the determining crisis of the contest, not merely between Rome and Carthage, but between the two great families of the world...
Excerpt: ..no one who appreciates the influence of England and her empire upon the destinies of the world will ever rank that victory as one of secondary importance.
Excerpt: ..the struggle by which the unconscious heroine of France, in the beginning of the fifteenth century, rescued her country from becoming a second Ireland under the yoke of the triumphant English.
Excerpt: The England of our own days is so strong, and the Spain of our own days is so feeble, that it is not easy, without some reflection and care, to comprehend the full extent of the peril which England then ran from the power and the ambition of Spain, or to appreciate the importance of that crisis in the history of the world.
Excerpt: Had it not been for Blenheim, all Europe might at this day suffer under the effect of French conquests resembling those of Alexander in extent and those of the Romans in durability.
Excerpt: The decisive triumph of Russia over Sweden at Pultowa was therefore all-important to the world, on account of what it overthrew as well as for what it established
The Saratoga Campaign was an attempt by Great Britain to gain military control of the strategically important Hudson River valley in 1777 during the American Revolutionary War. The primary thrust of the campaign was made by an army of 8,000 men under the command of John Burgoyne from Quebec that moved up Lake Champlain and down the Hudson to Saratoga, New York, where the bulk of the army was forced to surrender after the climactic Battles of Saratoga in September and October.
Excerpt: The exertions which the allied powers made at this crisis to grapple promptly with the French emperor have truly been termed gigantic, and never were Napoleon's genius and activity more signally displayed than in the celerity and skill by which he brought forward all the military resources of France...
The book is a product of the Victorian era, and Creasy's descriptions of the battles and their impact on history are from a decidedly Eurocentric, and specifically Anglocentric, point of view. There is also significant emphasis placed on the events of, at the time, recent history: one-third of the battles are from within a century and a half of Creasy's writing.
In 1899 The Colonial Press published Decisive Battles of the World by Edward Shepherd Creasy with a Special Introduction and Supplementary Chapters On the Battles of Gettysburg 1863, Sedan 1870, Santiago and Manila 1898, by John Gilmer Speed (Revised Edition)
In 1908 Harper & Bros published an edition with 8 battles added. Quebec; Yorktown; Vicksburg; Gettysburg; Sedan; Manila Bay; Santiago; and Tsushima.
In 1920 the Viscount D'Abernon published The Eighteenth Decisive Battle of the World: Warsaw, 1920, in which he claimed that the next battle on the list was the battle of Warsaw, fought in 1920 by the Polish and Bolshevik forces during the Polish-Bolshevik War.
was given an inscription that echoed Wharton's view: "Measured by its results, San Jacinto was one of the decisive battles of the world. The freedom of Texas from Mexico won here led to annexation and to the Mexican-American War, resulting in the acquisition by the United States of the states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, California, Utah and parts of Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas and Oklahoma. Almost one-third of the present area of the American Nation, nearly a million square miles of territory, changed sovereignty."
In 1954-1956, British historian J.F.C. Fuller published The Decisive Battles of the Western World and their Influence upon History.
In 1956, historian and author Fletcher Pratt published The Battles that Changed History, stories of conflicts that forever changed the course of world events. He listed 16 battles from Arbela to Midway.
In 1964, American historian Lt. Col. Joseph B. Mitchell published Twenty Decisive Battles of the World, an update of Creasy's list with five additions:
First Battle of the Marne, 1914. The British and French prevented a German assault of Paris and an early German victory in World War I.
Battle of Midway, 1942. The beginning of the United States offensive in the Pacific Ocean during World War II and the devastating loss of four Japanese aircraft carriers.
Battle of Stalingrad, 1942-43. The defeat of the German attempt to conquer the Soviet Union and a significant loss of German resources in World War II.
The Battle of Marathon took place in 490 BC, during the first Persian invasion of Greece. It was fought between the citizens of Athens, aided by Plataea, and a Persian force commanded by Datis and Artaphernes. The battle was the culmination of the first attempt by Persia, under King Darius I, to subjugate Greece.
2 Defeat of the Athenians at Syracuse, B.C. 413 (51 KB)The Sicilian Expedition was an Athenian military expedition to Sicily, which took place during the period from 415 BC to 413 BC . The expedition was hampered from the outset by uncertainty in its purpose and command structure—political maneuvering in Athens swelled a lightweight force of twenty ships into a massive armada, and the expedition's primary proponent, Alcibiades, was recalled from command to stand trial before the fleet even reached Sicily—but still achieved early successes. Syracuse, the most powerful state on Sicily, responded exceptionally slowly to the Athenian threat and, as a result, was almost completely invested before the arrival of a Spartan general, Gylippus, galvanized its inhabitants into action. From that point forward, however, as the Athenians ceded the initiative to their newly energized opponents,the tide of the conflict shifted. A massive reinforcing armada from Athens briefly gave the Athenians the upper hand once more, but a disastrous failed assault on a strategic high point and several crippling naval defeats damaged the besiegers' fighting capacity and morale, and the Athenians were eventually forced to attempt a desperate overland escape from the city they had hoped to conquer. That last measure, too, failed, and nearly the entire expedition surrendered or was destroyed in the Sicilian interior.and the Athenians were eventually forced to attempt a desperate overland escape from the city they had hoped to conquer. That last measure, too, failed, and nearly the entire expedition surrendered or was destroyed in the Sicilian interior.and the Athenians were eventually forced to attempt a desperate overland escape from the city they had hoped to conquer. That last measure, too, failed, and nearly the entire expedition surrendered or was destroyed in the Sicilian interior.
Continuing distrust led to the renewal of hostilities in the Second Punic War when Hannibal Barca attacked a Spanish town, which had diplomatic ties to Rome. Hannibal then crossed the Italian Alps to invade Italy. Hannibal's successes in Italy began immediately, and reached an early climax at the Battle of Cannae, where 70,000 Romans were killed. In three battles, the Romans managed to hold off Hannibal but then Hannibal smashed a succession of Roman consular armies. By this time Hannibal's brother Hasdrubal Barca sought to cross the Alps into Italy and join his brother with a second army. Hasdrubal managed to break through into Italy only to be defeated decisively on the Metaurus River. Unable to defeat Hannibal himself on Italian soil,the Romans boldly sent an army to Africa under Scipio Africanus with the intention of threatening the Carthaginian capital. Hannibal was recalled to Africa, and defeated at the Battle of Zama. Carthage never managed to recover after the Second Punic War and the Third Punic War that followed was in reality a simple punitive mission to raze the city of Carthage to the ground. Carthage was almost defenceless and when besieged offered immediate surrender, conceding to a string of outrageous Roman demands. The Romans refused the surrender, and the city was stormed after a short siege and completely destroyed. Ultimately, all of Carthage's North African and Spanish territories were acquired Carthage never managed to recover after the Second Punic War and the Third Punic War that followed was in reality a simple punitive mission to raze the city of Carthage to the ground. Carthage was almost defenceless and when besieged offered immediate surrender, conceding to a string of outrageous Roman demands. The Romans refused the surrender, and the city was stormed after a short siege and completely destroyed. Ultimately, all of Carthage's North African and Spanish territories were acquired Carthage never managed to recover after the Second Punic War and the Third Punic War that followed was in reality a simple punitive mission to raze the city of Carthage to the ground. Carthage was almost defenceless and when besieged offered immediate surrender, conceding to a string of outrageous Roman demands. The Romans refused the surrender, and the city was stormed after a short siege and completely destroyed. Ultimately, all of Carthage's North African and Spanish territories were acquired Ultimately, all of Carthage's North African and Spanish territories were acquired Ultimately, all of Carthage's North African and Spanish territories were acquired by Rome.
in 9CE between Arminius and multiple allied Germanic tribes against three Roman Legions led by Publius Quinctilius Varus. It would prove to be one of Rome's greatest losses. A defeat that would redefine the borders of the Roman Empire for centuries and set the path for Europe's linguistic future.
It is a battle that would leave great parts of the Rhine as the border between Germania and a young Imperial Rome ruled by its first Emperor Augustus.
The battle of the Catalaunian Plains (also known as Battle of the Campus Mauriacus, Battle of Maurica, Battle of the Catalaunian Fields or Battle of Chalons) that was fought in 451 between the alliance led by the Western Roman General Flavius Aetius, king of the Visigoths Theodoric I and the king of Alans Sangiban against the Hun Alliance commanded by Attila, the king of Ostrogoths Valamir and the king of Gepids Ardaric. With the addition of dozens of other tribes, the battle of the Catalaunian Plains can be rightly considered the first pan-European clash. It is equally complicated and controversial, as our info on the battle between the Last Roman Aetius and the Scourge of God Attila, is both limited and conflicting. In any case, this battle was decisive for the history of the Roman Empire and Europe and influenced events of the next centuries.
12 The Battle of Pultowa, A.D. 1709The Battle of Poltava (or Pultowa) on 28 June 1709 was the decisive victory of Peter I of Russia over Charles XII of Sweden in the most famous of the battles of the Great Northern War. It is said to have started the end of Sweden's role as a Great Power and the Russians took their place as the leading nation of northern Europe. This also meant the rise of Imperial Russia
The Battles of Saratoga marked the climax of the Saratoga campaign, giving a decisive victory to the Americans over the British in the American Revolutionary War. British General John Burgoyne led a large invasion army southward from Canada in the Champlain Valley, hoping to meet a similar British force marching northward from New York City and another British force marching eastward from Lake Ontario; the southern and western forces never arrived, and Burgoyne was surrounded by American forces in upstate New York. He fought two small battles to break out which took place 18 days apart on the same ground, 9 miles south of Saratoga, New York. They both failed. Burgoyne found himself trapped by superior American forces with no relief, so he retreated to Saratoga and surrendered his entire army there on October 17. His surrender,says historian Edmund Morgan, "was a great turning point of the war because it won for Americans the foreign assistance which was the last element needed for victory."14
Scene inspired by the Battles of Alexander the Great" - Attributed to Panayiotis Douxaras (1662-1729)
“…the Maiden lets you know that here, in eight days, she has chased the English out of all the places they held on the river Loire by attack or other means: they are dead or prisoners or discouraged in battle. Believe what you have heard about the earl of Suffolk, the lord la Pole and his brother, the lord Talbot, the lord Scales, and Sir Fastolf; many more knights and captains than these are defeated.” -Letter from Joan to the citizens of Tournai
“…the struggle by which the unconscious heroine of France, in the beginning of the fifteenth century, rescued her country from becoming a second Ireland under the yoke of the triumphant English”
Alexander the GreatNy Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen.
