# Scalar weapons now a reality **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 3, 2012, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scalar-weapons-now-a-reality/608244 "2012-01-03T07:35:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2012, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scalar-weapons-now-a-reality/608244/1 "2012-01-03T07:35:01Z")
> **[New "scalable effects" warhead demonstrated in flight test](https://newatlas.com/scalable-effects-warhead/20983/)** > > Aerojet has conducted a successful demonstration of its "scalable effects" warhead. The flight test was carried out on November 30, 2011, at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico using Lockheed Martin's new Guided Multiple Launch Rocket... 1. Turns out it just means that the amount of boom is set on a dial. Or input. 2. 2020s style death rays here we come. 3. Hi Opal. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2012, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scalar-weapons-now-a-reality/608244/2 "2012-01-03T07:51:43Z")
I’m extremely skeptical of the need for something like this. Attach a scalable warhead to a 20’ rocket motor that going to smash into the target at hundreds or thousands of mph, and so what if you can dial down the explosion by half? It’s going to be hurling shit everywhere. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2012, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scalar-weapons-now-a-reality/608244/3 "2012-01-03T11:37:21Z")
These go to 11 ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2012, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scalar-weapons-now-a-reality/608244/4 "2012-01-03T18:14:05Z")
You don’t scale down weapons. You scale them up. The down stuff is just propaganda to get the pacifists to think that it might be acceptable. ---
**Author:** ![DarrenS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/977dab/32.png) [@DarrenS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DarrenS)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2012, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scalar-weapons-now-a-reality/608244/5 "2012-01-03T18:50:22Z")
I wonder how far it does on the lower end of the scale? The warhead arrives and gives the enemy a firm rap on the knuckles, or a good telling off, or a barrage of harsh language? ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2012, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scalar-weapons-now-a-reality/608244/6 "2012-01-03T19:07:13Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > 1. Turns out it just means that the amount of boom is set on a dial. Or input. This has existed for a while. For [example](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W80_(nuclear_warhead)): _Armorers have the ability to select the yield of the resulting explosion in-flight, a capability sometimes referred to as “dial-a-yield” but more properly variable yield. At one end of the scale, perhaps using just the boosted fission primary, the W80 has destructive power equivalent to around 5 kilotons of TNT; at the other end, the yield is equivalent to around 150 kt._ Though this appears to be a conventional weapon, so that’s new. ---
**Author:** ![Lukeinva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lukeinva/32/17872_2.png) [@Lukeinva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lukeinva)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2012, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scalar-weapons-now-a-reality/608244/7 "2012-01-03T19:07:25Z")
> [@DarrenS](#): > > I wonder how far it does on the lower end of the scale? The warhead arrives and gives the enemy a firm rap on the knuckles, or a good telling off, or a barrage of harsh language? A strongly worded letter. ---
**Author:** ![DarrenS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/977dab/32.png) [@DarrenS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DarrenS)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2012, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scalar-weapons-now-a-reality/608244/8 "2012-01-03T19:38:04Z")
> [@Lukeinva](#): > > A strongly worded letter. …or, in line with the theme of the Dope, it can be configured to deliver everything from a roll-eye emoticon, through a mod note, to a mod warning, to a banning. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2012, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scalar-weapons-now-a-reality/608244/9 "2012-01-03T22:30:33Z")
One thing is for certain. You can’t cross them with a cruise missile. ---
**Author:** ![Jimson\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/838e76/32.png) [@Jimson\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jimson_Jim)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2012, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scalar-weapons-now-a-reality/608244/10 "2012-01-04T13:26:46Z")
Wow now we’ve spent untold millions to develop an artillery round that can give you a small medium or large boom. How is this much different that tasking different bore size artillery units with different missions? You know, use the little 102mm’s for close support (they’re all ready there anyway) and using the bigger 155mm’s for long range deep engagements. You know a battalion 6 round mission is a pretty big boom. (3 batteries of 6 guns fire six rounds 100lbs each that’s 10,800 lbs of high explosive.) A battalion 6 round from the old M-110’s (eight inch guns with 200lb rounds) was like watching the hand of God (14,400 lbs of high explosive with a 50 meter burst radius dropped on a target. ) I never understood the Pentagon’s love for MLRS. They’re expensive, slow to reload once the original pack is expended and of equal accuracy as tube artillery. The rounds cost considerably more than conventional rounds. I understand the man power cost was lower than tube artillery but with modern electronics being adapted to existing guns man power could be equal. It seems like a massive waste of money and resources. And now we’ve come up with a way to make it even more waste full. Let’s pay full price (likely extra) for a round but only use 25% of its explosive to shoe horn it into a close support roll. They’re ruining the artillery damn it… Ok it’s official. I’m a cranky old man. You kids get off my lawn……. ---
**Author:** ![enomaj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/59ef9b/32.png) [@enomaj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enomaj)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2012, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scalar-weapons-now-a-reality/608244/11 "2012-01-05T17:01:28Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > These go to 11 Why don’t you just make the boom bigger and call it 10? ---
**Author:** ![Pops1963](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9de053/32.png) [@Pops1963](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pops1963)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2012, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scalar-weapons-now-a-reality/608244/12 "2012-01-10T07:06:52Z")
Yes but,these go to 11 ---
**Author:** ![si\_blakely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@si\_blakely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/si_blakely)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2012, 9:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scalar-weapons-now-a-reality/608244/13 "2012-01-10T09:19:12Z")
The UK has been using the [Brimstone](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brimstone_(missile)) Tandem Shaped Charge warhead for a while. There is a video of it being used against a hidden taliban rifleman about a year ago. The pilot was able to set the warhead to low-blast to reduce collateral damage, given the size of the target. A Tandem shaped charge is used to trigger active armour before the second penetrator charge goes off. However (according to my recollection of the Daily Mail article), the second detonation can be disabled for a low-yield explosion. The explosives get disrupted by the first charge and burn, but do not actually detonate. I’m guessing that this is how the dial-a-blast bomb referenced above works, too. Si