Microwave Gun

choi

Electromagnetic weapons  |  Frying Tonight; Warfare is changing as weapons that destroy electronics, not people, are deployed on the field of battle. Economist, Oct 15, 2011
http://www.economist.com/node/21532245
(If that point [of microwave] coincides with an incoming missile or aircraft, the target’s electronics will be zapped")

My comment:
(a) cavity magnetron
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetron
(b) Boeing EA-18G Growler
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_EA-18G_Growler
(c) The article says, "BAE Systems, a British defence firm, is building a ship-mounted electromagnetic gun. The High-Powered Microwave, as it is called, is reported by Aviation Week to be powerful enough to disable all of the motors in a swarm of up to 30 speedboats."

(i) David Fulgham, HPM, High-Energy Lasers To Arm U.S. Warships. Aviation Week, Apr 12, 2011
http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/g ... ml&headline=HPM,%20High-Energy%20Lasers%20To%20Arm%20U.S.%20Warships
(John Perry, BAE Systems’ manager of business development for advanced systems: "Unlike lasers, HPM beams don’t need a lot of accuracy. With a fan [of HPM energy] you can target 10-30 small boats. If you can knock out 50-75% of the engines in a swarm, you can then concentrate on the remainder with lasers or kinetic [cannons].”

(ii) The Aviation Week report mentioned "Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space Exposition." That is of Navy League in US.

(A) Various nations have its Navy League, a non-government organization (NGO). World's earliest was British, formed in 1894,  followed in 1898 by the corresponding
German Navy League (Flottenverein). The Navy League mearged with Marine Society and later Sea Cadet Corps, all of UK, to form Marine Society & Sea Cadets in that nation.

Navy League
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navy_League
(B) Navy League of the United States
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navy_League_of_the_United_States
(commonly referred to as The Navy League; a national association made up of former members of the United States Navy, United States Marine Corps, the United States Coast Guard and the United States Merchant Marine, and civilians interested in supporting the sea services; founded, at the suggestion of Theodore Roosevelt, in 1902)
(C) Navy League Sea Air Space Symposium.
http://www.seaairspace.org/

(d) foil (n, vt): "DEFEAT"
, whose definitions and etymology are different from foil (n): a thin metal sheet.
(e) The Economist states, "EMP-tronic, a firm based in Morarp, Sweden, has developed such shielding, initially for the Gripen, a Swedish fighter jet. It will shield buildings too, though, for a suitable consideration."

consideration (n): "RECOMPENSE, PAYMENT <a consideration paid for legal services>"  

(f) thereabouts (adv):
"1: near that place or time
2: near that number, degree, or quantity <a boy of 18 or thereabouts>"
(g) I knew laser guns, but did not know of microwave gun (except on humans) until today.


------------------------------------------Separately
(1)  Matthew Stibbe, Aircraft Carrier Hotel. Forbes, Oct 25, 2011 (blog).
http://www.forbes.com/sites/matt ... e-aircraft-carrier/

My comment:
(a) The ultimate source of the reports, including Forbes, is
First aircraft carrier hotel in China. Xinhua, Aug 9, 2011.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/usa ... ontent_13079133.htm

So, go shead and read Xinhua ONLY.
(b) Presidential suite of Tianjin Aircraft Carrier Hotel in Tianjing  天津航母酒店 (天津基辅号航空母舰内) 总统套房

* presidential suite
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidential_suite
(US president Woodrow Wilson)

(2) James M Acton, The "Underground Great Wall": An alternative explanation. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Oct 25, 2011.
http://www.carnegieendowment.org ... ve-explanation/67ry

Quote:

"Given the extent of Chinese fears, the idea that Beijing might build 3,000 miles of tunnels to protect a small nuclear force [ie, "300 or so warheads estimated by the U.S. intelligence community"] should not be beyond belief. After all, it’s not exactly unprecedented for China to try to protect itself from external threats by building a gargantuan defense line, it is?

"President Jimmy Carter eventually approved an alternative: the 'shell game.' The United States planned to construct 4,600 silos for the 200 missiles it was going build—yes, that’s right, 23 silos for each missile. The missiles would have regularly been shuttled back and forth between different silos so the Soviet Union would not have known where any of them were.  * * * Not completely dissimilar from the Underground Great Wall, is it? In the event, the shell game was never constructed. President Ronald Reagan rejected it in favor of the traditional one-silo-per-missile model. But, had the United States—like China today—not have had to bother with the 'inconvenience' of democracy then perhaps not even the Journal could have professed such amazement at Chinese tunneling.

My comment:
(a) The article contrasted "inaccurate Chinese [ICBM] missile" with American ones, whose "delivery systems are exquisitely accurate."

exquisite (adj; Middle English exquisit, from Latin exquisitus, past participle of exquirere to search out, from ex- + quaerere to seek):
"marked by flawless craftsmanship or by beautiful, ingenious, delicate, or elaborate execution <an exquisite vase>"
www.m-w.com
(b) Quotation 1, alluding to the historic Great Wall above the ground, should end with "is it?" rather than "it is?"--in my view.

Indeed, preceding the quotation is this sentence: "In fact, the crowning irony is that those who argue that the United States should pursue a war-winning capability against China (some of whom regularly opine in the Journal) generally show the least recognition that this would concern China and prompt to it to take countermeasures."

The "prompt" is a transitive verb, so the first "to" in prompt to it to take" is gramatically wrong--and should not have been there.
(c) LGM-118 Peacekeeper
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGM-118_Peacekeeper
(also known as  the MX missile (for Missile-eXperimental); a land-based ICBM; A total of 50 missiles were deployed; In service 1986-2005)

Quote: "In 1976, Congress refused to fund MX using a silo-based system on grounds of vulnerability, and the project was halted. * * * Eventually, the program was resinstated in 1979 by President Carter, who authorized deployment of 200 missiles in of a system of multiple protective shelters linked by underground or aboveground roads, the so called 'Racetrack' proposal. However, local opposition in Nevada was intense, and the concept gained a powerful enemy in the form of Senator Paul Laxalt [R-Nevada].