PhilCon Notes “Weapons of the Future”

Friday evening

Speakers: Eric Katani (Yoji Kondo), Dr. Charles E. Gannon, Tom Purdom (mod), Alexis Gilliland, and Jay While (sp?)

What does each feel is the critical weapons of the future:

Jay – Sound Wave Weaponry (since air is a hinderance for most other weapons, air is a help with sound weapons)
Gannon – ROV (Remote Operated Vehicles, since this does not endanger a soldier) and Penetration (both personal armor and base fortifications).
Kotani – Rebuildable Launch Vehicles (as opposed to reuseable launch vehicles) (since each ICBM is like having a 747 scrapped after each use.  A reusable costs more since most or all has to come back and there’s a higher fuel cost. A rebuildable is a mix of the two, lowers the cost of a reusable and while lowering the cost of each construction.
Purdom – increased accuracy, ROVs and Armor.

Random points
Jay – Energy weapons are unusable as an offensive weapon for quite some time but they can be a defensive weapon.  It requires much less energy to alter the trojectory then it does to destroy something.
Gannon – Nanite tech can do quite a bit for sensors.  Spread some nanites and they can detect if something is in the air. 
Purdom- Non Violent Weaons
Gannon – Military wants less violent weapon since it takes 4 men to carry a wounded man off the battlefield, soldiers want a higher powered weapons since they want to go home alive and see their kids. 

I asked about EMP Weaponry
Katani and Gannon – It can be a weapon, but its going to be large, cumbersome and devistating to the local infrastructure. 

Jay – Sat defene could involve nano beads to deflect incoming attack.

Once its fully developed and implemented on a ship, it can launch warheads, mines, drones, do a “soft drop” of a payload.