Air Weapons: March 1, 2003

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The U.S. Naval Surface Weapons Center has developed what it calls a "flying plate weapon" that can "reduce concrete structures to rubble or perforate steel." This is something that has long been needed for destroying bridges. The major problem with destroying large concrete or steel bridges is not hitting them with a bomb, but hitting one of the incredibly robust portions of the bridge that holds the whole thing up, with a large enough bomb to do significant damage. The "flying plate weapon" weapon (no more information was released) appears to do just that, and would be useful against bunkers and large buildings as well. The "flying plate weapon" developed by the navy is apparently small enough to be carried by a UAV. This makes sense, as the navy has also developed a new, more powerful, explosive (CL-20) to make smaller bombs as effective as older ones using existing explosives.