ASK DR. SCHUND (C)1989 Alan M. Schwartz Dr. Schund, where do we stand versus the armed aggressive capability of our enemies? In the beginning there were soldiers and they were armed with cutlery called swords. During armed conflict, forcibly conscripted slaves of the opposition would be bloodily hacked at by our brave, loyal, patriotic, forcibly conscripted boys until our leaders decided a resolution of conflict had been achieved. This was sufficient to keep resident populations in primitive political thralldom and crudely regulate the economy, but there was little affluence to be had for all the effort. Money was to be made and extreme political control was to be achieved only if the support of armed conflict entailed a vast economic base of support -- the totality of the hearts, minds and wallets of all people forever fearful of national and personal extermination. Jacketed lead bullets kill soldiers at a distance and, shot for shot, are rather inexpensive even given their poor hits/tries ratio. This is an opportunity to go to your starving automakers and say, "put some steel plate around a Chevy so that it deflects bullets." The enemy then funds its munitions barons and says, "make a bullet that goes through steel plate." And so they did. Your military, with holes through its steel-plated Chevys, then goes to the moribund steel industry and says, "We need some really thick, really strong steel plate that will deflect solid steel bullets." The enemy goes to its chemists and says, "we need propellants that will zoom Teflon-covered steel bullets trough really thick, really strong steel plate." Your military, Chevys riddled with holes like Emmenthaler cheese, unlimbers its vast technological resources and at enormous expense procures thousands of vice presidents, project directors, project managers, research directors, group leaders, accountants, auditors, estimators, technical writers, MBAs, secretaries, architects, interior decorators, gardeners, mailroom boys, consultants, two engineers and a scientist, and they work for many years and advance the concept of steel plate all the way to armor plate. Precipitation hardened tungsten steel subtly interwoven with a ductile metal matrix and impenetrable ceramic inclusions stops steel bullets absolutely. The enemy returns to jacketed lead bullets, but puts a little tungsten penetrator pin in the center of each one, which zings right through armor plate and bounces around inside the vehicle, homogenizing the folks within your Chevy. The enemy fires Mach 3 depleted uranium slugs which impact the thick armor, creating a super-penetrating hypersonic jet of incandescent metal vapor, ruining the Chevy's sheepskin seat covers by flash immolating the soldiers sitting in them. Drat. You cover your tanks with multiple layers of metal and ceramic armor to deflect any penetrator. The enemy fires homing missiles with shaped charge warheads, turning the armor itself into internal shrapnel and white-hot death. This is getting serious, and very expensive. Shaped explosives can concentrate energy densities beyond the molecular bonding strength of matter. No physical construct can resist or even deflect such destruction. Has the enemy won? Will all those lucrative defense contracts go the way of the passenger pigeon? Will the Chevrolet Homes for Retired Military Personnel in Tahiti, the Bahamas, Hawaii, the Azores, the Seychelles, and Bermuda be forced to close? We must have more taxes! The enemy is on the run and all but defeated! An illicit fireworks manufacturer in Pacoima discovers reactive armor. Little independent shaped charges are glued outside the layered conventional and ceramic armor. When the enemy shaped charge warhead hits and detonates inward, the corresponding piece of shaped charge reactive armor detonates in turn, outward. Hellfire meets hellfire and the occupants of the Chevy are saved, albeit with severe headaches. We win! Forever and forever, we win! The enemy makes missiles with two warheads, one behind the other. The missile hits and the first warhead detonates to kill our brave soldiers. The reactive armor detonates to kill the enemy warhead. The second missile warhead slides down and detonates, ramming through layer after layer of ordinary armor, vaporizing our boys. We make tanks with three layers of reactive armor, and forget to tell the enemy that the tanks are now so big and heavy they cannot even move. The enemy makes giant homing missiles with four consecutive warheads, forgetting to tell us that the missiles are now so big and heavy they cannot even fly. A summit conference is held and both sides pledge to reduce their stocks of tanks and missiles to achieve a small inventory to be used strictly for self-defense against third party aggressors. The Nobel Peace Prize is jointly conferred. Chemical warfare is invented.