New Rifle Tech Offers Variable Muzzle Speed 443
Ponca City, We love you writes "A gun that fires variable-speed bullets that can be set to kill, wound, or just inflict a bruise is being built by a Lund and Company Invention, a toy design studio that makes toy rockets powered by burning hydrogen obtained by electrolyzing water. The company is being funded by the US Army to adapt the technology to fire bullets instead. The new weapon, called the Variable Velocity Weapon System or VWS, lets the soldier use the same rifle for crowd control and combat, by altering the muzzle velocity. It could be loaded with 'rubber bullets' designed only to deliver blunt impacts on a person, full-speed lethal rounds, or projectiles somewhere between the two. Bruce Lund, the company's CEO, says the gun works by mixing a liquid or gaseous fuel with air in a combustion chamber behind the bullet. This determines the explosive capability of the propellant and consequently the velocity of the bullet. 'Projectile velocity varies from non-lethal at 10 meters, to lethal at 100 meters or more, as desired,' says Lund. The existing VWS design is a .50 caliber (12.7 mm) rifle weapon, but Lund says the technology can be scaled to any size, 'handgun to Howitzer.'"
Re:Wikileaks says Army prototype has 16 settings: (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Interesting... (Score:5, Informative)
It would be useless for trap shooting. You need higher velocities so you don't have to lead the clay as much, and so you break it when you hit it.
Re:Overuse again... (Score:3, Informative)
Remember the bean bag to the head that killed the girl celebrating the Red Sox victory?
That wasn't a beanbag. It was something like a compressed pepper bullet. It's less than lethal when it hits something a hard, a little less so when it enters through the eye socket and splatters over the back of the skull.
Sort of like, say, the bullets fired from the gun this article talks about.
Ever wonder why you have to wear a face mask when playing paintball?
A nonlethal shot to the gut can become a lethal shot to the eye.
This worries you? (Score:5, Informative)
That gun is nothing. Take a look at this clip of Raytheon's latest toy. It's a pain-ray that when used properly will leave no permanent damage or marks of any kind:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1w4g2vr7B4 [youtube.com]
I wish I could find the entire 60 Minutes segment on this technology. What is incredibly disturbing is the angle 60 Minutes chooses to take; they do not address EVEN BRIEFLY the controversial implications of the existence of a weapon like this: the potential for physical harm (trampling in crowds), the possibility of it's use as a "perfect" torture device, philosophical questions about authority, etc.
Instead they immediately side with the proponents of this technology and frame the Pain Ray as the victim of a lot of governmental bureaucracy: "the soldiers/police are dying every day while this tool sits behind a lot of red tape".
Re:those of you who played Top Secret will remembe (Score:1, Informative)
Top Secret? The Gyrojet is a real gun.. But still nothing to do with the story..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyrojet
Re:those of you who played Top Secret will remembe (Score:3, Informative)
The gyrojet was a solid propellant round which gained velocity as the propellant was burned; a missile rather than a bullet.
See:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyrojet [wikipedia.org]
From TFA:
So this would seem to work more like a conventional firearm, only one would select the explosive power rather than relying on different types of ammunition.
Re:Set the howitzer to stun! (Score:4, Informative)
Multiple Round, Simultaneous Impact is a feature that has been implemented on a number of artillery systems in recent years. The US armys Crusader (cancelled) project was one I remember, and there was a German one, and the Swedish Archer. Big howitzers have used different powder charges for high angle indirect fire for a long time. So do mortars.
I look forward to seeing this weapon system on upcoming episodes of Future Weapons (Discovery and Military channel)
Re:Interesting, but perhaps not what it seems. (Score:3, Informative)
As for the use of liquid propellant, the canceled Crusader artillery system was suppose to have played around with liquid propellant. I can't remember what happened to that.
Re:Interesting... (Score:3, Informative)
Hmm you must not know much about shooting. Ad Topperwein shot quite a few without missing.
Actually, I know quite a bit about shooting, having gone clay, trap, skeet, and pistol shooting many times. My point was that the average person on the sporting range (even the guys who go weekly or whatever) aren't going to be able to hit a clay with a rifle. Sure, there are master marksmen, but they are master marksmen for a reason - because it's impossible to do unless you are skilled far beyond any normal person.
Also, even if your article is accurate in every detail, it states that "The assistants tossing the targets were to stand between 25 and 30 feet in front of the shooter" and "The targets were to be thrown into the air at a height of 25 to 30 feet." Many clay courses have the targets flying much, much further than that.
Too many variables (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Oh, good. (Score:4, Informative)
What a bunch of BS. Here in Oregon, the cops outright murdered a number people by using excessive force. One was just peeing on the sidewalk and ran away. Officers chased him, caught him, and beat him so severely that it killed him. Several others were mildly psychotic and instead of just tackling them or using a taser, they shot them dead.
A few years ago a person known to the police to be unarmed was fired at by 21 rounds of bullets as he ran away. Amazingly none of the bullets hit him. And if you are in a car and try to get away, the officers will later say that they were afraid that they were going to be hit by the car and killed, so they sprayed 50 rounds of bullets into the car as self defense.
This kind of stuff goes on all over the US. Its not just local to here.
Re:Life or Death Violation of K.I.S.S. (Score:3, Informative)
Amazing. I'm actually speaking from experience - we had an incident a few years back where troops were loading their magazines from a pile of "loose" rounds, in the middle of the night, without using any illumination. Unfortunately, a live round had somehow found it's way into the pile. I had a chance to examine the rifle afterwards - the live round hitting the BFA literally blew the weapon apart.
They mention in the article that such a catastrophic failure is the usual result, but judging by the Pendleton experience it's clearly possible for them to fail in a different fashion.
Thanks for the info.
Absolutely. It's the kind of thing that seems wonderful to paper-pushers looking to cut costs. It usually gets shitcanned the first time any experienced soldier/LEO looks at the proposal. I'd be shocked if these rifles ever saw active service anywhere in the world, except maybe in North Korea. Those bastards seem crazy enough to try it.
Re:Rule #1 of Marksmanship (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Phazers set to stun... (Score:3, Informative)
Germany was a disaster after WWI, and something was bound to happen. Without Hitler, WWII might have been even messier. Or maybe WWII would never happen, and many great things (like computers) that we take for granted would never have been invented (necessity being the mother of invention).
If I were given the option to go back in time and kill Hitler I wouldn't, since I cannot predict the consequences.
Yay for offtopic :)
Re:Oh, good. (Score:2, Informative)
Same to you, buddy.
I've had cops burst into my house at 2AM without a warrant claiming the back door was open (it wasn't). Wasn't charged with anything, just made to look like a criminal in front of my neighbors. Oh, sure, it's illegal, but I was 20 at the time and having a hard time making rent - do you think I had the cash to take them to court? I've seen a guy get the shit beaten out of him (in plain view of a bunch of civilians) and charged with assault for kissing his girlfriend before getting booked in. I've seen cops tase a homeless man RUTHLESSLY (5-10x) while he was SLEEPING. The kicker? When they stopped, the homeless guy got up and gave them a pretty severe beating.
Maybe you have some fantasy wherein the policeman is a humble, nice guy, but that's a damn lie and you know it. You want facts? How about some video?
I didn't link to the mentally challenged polish guy getting tased to death, because I don't really like watching it. I didn't link to the guy getting tased for asking John Kerry a question, either, because everyone has seen it 30 times.
These took me about 2 minutes to come up with. And this is just a tiny percentage of the stuff that is caught on tape! I could make this 20 pages long if you'd like to see some news items.
I guess since you were a cop, you're used to your anecdotes being taken at face value and modded to +5 insightful, but I still think you're full of shit. Maybe you'd like to show some evidence that police brutality ISN'T a widespread concern?
...that is, unless you don't know what you're fucking talking about.
Logic (Score:3, Informative)
More importantly I know about logic. A = B, B = C, does not mean A = C.
Apparently you don't know logic because that is exactly what it means [wikipedia.org].
Re:Oh, good. (Score:3, Informative)
I agree, although the emphasis placed on the religion in your post is misplaced (for Egypt - you are spot on for Saudi). Egypt's dictator does not care much for religion, besides showing up for annual religious festivals..etc to court the media. Egypt actually employs some of the most draconian measures of torture on its Islamist dissidents, and is well known for sweeping-style arrests and continuous civil rights violations under the Emergency Law (their gory version of the patriot act). There are places in Egypt that have refused work for women wearing a head-scarf/hair-covering, and in general, the governmental attitude is fairly secular. Whenever you hear about anything favoring religion coming from the government in places like Egypt and Syria, you should know that this is plain propaganda to please the local population. It is the people who are becoming fanatic, not the governments. Dictators want only one thing: to stay in power.