Re: Kra'vak Railgun & Technology!!!!

Mr. Deakin asked:
>Is there a precedent for complex system duplication in recent years.
IRAQ's nuclear program? How would that compare with duplication of an
ancient alien races metallurgy?

In respect to Iraq, you have to admit that A) they are not overall very
advanced and B) don't have the resources (money, equipment, talent) that
a
more advanced country has access to.  So if the aliens are
demonstratably
more advanced (not just different) and the country that is researching
is
decidedly poor (like PAU or NSL) then perhaps you could expect decades,
but
for rich countries (NAC,ESU,FSE, etc.) that time frame would be much
less.
The laws of metalurgy and physics are extremely democratic.  Assuming
that
new branches of material science did not need to be invented you could
expect a lot of systems to be 'decoded' and eventually replicated.  You
might, say, identify a Fire Control system for a rail gun.  You don't
have
to duplicate it because you already have your own FireCons - you would
be
better off adapting one of them to the purpose for example.

--Pete