Tag: WEAPONS

A high-tech form of miniaturized radar capable of detecting incoming fire will be added to some soldiers' arsenals starting later this month. The Army just announced plans to ship 13,000 of the card-deck-sized Individual Gunshot Detectors to troops in Afghanistan. Four sensors detect soundwaves emitted by distant gunfire, while a monitor transmits information on its origins to the soldier. ...

Science and wanton destruction go together like peas and carrots. Just ask the Myth Busters. The guys and gals at Google got together with The Citadel, a military college in South Carolina, to organize the "Storm The Citadel Trebuchet Competition." The event puts engineering, math and science knowledge to work building medieval weapons of mass destruction. Nineteen teams, 13 of them culled from ...

Later this year, U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan will have a new method for detonating improvised explosive devices (IEDs). According to The Daily Mail, troops will expand their arsenals with a device called The Stingray, which uses H20 and a small amount of munition to create a 'blade' of water capable of penetrating steel. The Stingray, small enough to be carried by robots, can be placed far away ...

Burning-laser tag, anyone? At the Pitchess Detention Center on Friday, guards from the Castaic complex of the Los Angeles County Jail demonstrated their very own Assault Intervention Device, a 7.5-foot-tall laser weapon that produces burning pain at whomever it's directed. The beam emitted by the device can reach up to 100 feet, and is about as big around as a CD. Prison officials hope that the ...

Just last month, the Pentagon confirmed that its 'pain ray' weapon had been sent to Afghanistan. However, nobody would say whether or not the non-lethal device, also known as the Active Denial System, had been tested or deployed. Now, according to BBC News, Raytheon's 'pain ray,' which uses a focused invisible beam to generate an intolerable burning sensation, is being carried by U.S. troops in ...

Lockheed Martin and Berkeley Bionics have been developing a super soldier exoskeleton for approximately five years, and the gear's Human Universal Load Carrier (HULC) acronym already surpasses the requisite geeky abbreviation expectations. With the technology, which resembles ordinary leg braces, soldiers can effortlessly bear 200 pounds and execute "deep squats, crawls and upper-body lifting ...

How in the hell is this thing legal? We're a bit confused, because the Spyder III Pro Arctic Series laser pointer is marketed as a "home theater projector" and yet the lightsaber-shaped implement will also set your skin on fire. The manufacturer Wicked Lasers proudly boasts that the Spyder III is "the most dangerous laser ever created," and requires customers to sign a Class IV Laser Hazard ...

The Navy has successfully tested an automated laser cannon that could one day zap anti-ship missiles out of the air. The Laser Weapon System, or LaWS, is being proposed as a replacement for the Close In Weapon System (CIWS), or Phalanx gun, which currently serves as the last line of defense against anti-ship weapons. The Phalanx gun consists of a radar tracking system and a Gatling gun, which has ...

According to Wired, a new U.S. Army aircraft takes the best elements of helicopters, drones and snipers, and wraps them into one package. Dubbed the Autonomous Rotorcraft Sniper System (ARSS), it's an unmanned Vigilante helicopter with a high-powered sniper rifle mounted onto a highly stabilized turret. Originally, the ARSS was designed for urban warfare, since it can hover down small streets ...

Here's the thing about heavy metal. There comes a time in some young men's lives when we they realize they suck at football, don't know anything about cars, are not "intelligent" in the conventional sense and are less than admired by the ladies. At that point, possibly as a function of biology, their hair grows longer, their lips turn to sneers, and their ear drums demand thunderous bass lines, ...

When you think of cyber warfare, you probably picture highly trained hackers, sitting in the dark corners of military bases, surrounded by monitors, infiltrating the systems of rogue governments. The Navy, on the other hand, imagines a world where cyber weapons don't behave much differently from traditional ones. According to Military.com, the seafaring branch of our armed services is looking ...

Despite its wares being billed as "non-lethal," we'd rather not find ourselves on the business end of a product from Taser International, which designs weapons that use a strong dose of electricity to incapacitate people. After learning about the company's latest venture, we don't think we'll change our minds any time soon, either. According to New Scientist, Taser is set to deliver prototypes of ...

Although the tools of war have evolved at an astonishing rate over the course of the modern age, the classic man with a gun hasn't changed much since the 1700s. Now that we've finished building bigger and bigger guns, however, we've turned our research muscle back towards doing our best to improve that basic unit of battle: the infantry man. The Land Warrior system is currently getting its ...

Taser, maker of the controversial "less-lethal" weapon that zaps people with incapacitating levels of electricity (described as torture by the U.N.), has just released its latest tool for taking out the odd student protester and great-grandmother. The X12 Taser shotgun combines the occasionally lethal fun of electrocuting people with the also occasionally lethal impact of "non-lethal" shotgun ...

Although we seem to daily hear reports of stupid criminals being foiled by technology, some deviants have devised some clever uses for their tech, including turning cell phones into weapons and hiding places. According to Newsday, an incredibly common way to smuggle a weapon in a cell phone (specifically a T-Mobile Sidekick) is to hide a razor blade within the battery compartment between the ...