Weapons

Inventions that changed the world: Mikhail Kalashnikov's AK-47

By Loz Blain

21:38 July 22, 2009 PDT

It's the most effective killing machine in human history - a gun that, on its 62nd birthday, is still killing as many as a quarter of a million people every year, in every corner of the globe. Invented by a gifted tank mechanic to save Russia's motherland from the invading German hordes in WW2, the AK-47 went on to rise to global prominence during the proxy battles of the Cold War. Even today, a poorly trained militia group can become a force to be reckoned with once it finds a supply of AK-47s - such is its simplicity, reliability, affordability and sheer killing power. Abhorrent - yes, but with reference to its impact on humanity it is, sadly, among the greatest inventions of the 20th century. We take a look at this amazing weapon's history, its significance and its brutal dominance of world politics. Listen to the Podcast or Read More

High-tech TASER X3 multiple shot stun-gun

By Jeff Salton

05:41 July 21, 2009 PDT

A new Taser that fires three shots before it needs recharging is soon to be released. Billed by the company as its most innovative handheld electronic control device (ECD) since the Taser X26 was released in 2003, the high-tech Taser X3 can be simultaneously used on multiple targets and boasts a range of additional features including laser sights for both top and bottom probes, improved monitoring and data recording and the ability to survive harsh environments. Read More

Gizcast 7: Great Inventions - the AK-47

By Loz Blain

05:31 July 17, 2009 PDT

This week, we take a look at the fascinating story of how Mikhail Kalashnikov's AK-47 assault rifle came to be the world's most popular firearm, with as many as 75 million units currently in service around the globe. Throw an AK-47 into a combat zone, and David suddenly starts beating Goliath - it's become a powerful political symbol of strength in the face of invasion or repression. It's the most successful killing machine in history, which is a horrifying achievement and obviously not something to be applauded, but with reference to its impact on humanity it is, sadly, among the greatest inventions of the 20th century. Also, Geoffrey Baird has been surfing away in his sound booth this week, and he's dug up 5 oddball gadgets for our weekly roundup. Read More

What would happen if your town got nuked?

By Loz Blain

21:03 June 28, 2009 PDT

Not that it's particularly likely, but as long as nuclear bombs exist, there's the chance - however slim - that one might go off somewhere near you. This little Google Maps overlay might be a bit morbid, but it's also pretty fascinating. It shows you the heat, pressure and fallout spread of a range of different nuclear bombs detonating anywhere in the world. It's particularly sobering to get a sense of the scale of the devastation caused by the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs in World War 2 - and then see how tiny those bombs are compared to the USSR's enormous Tsar Bomba, the biggest nuke ever detonated. Read More

Robotic ferret to sniff out hidden drugs, weapons and people

By Michael Mulcahy

03:25 June 15, 2009 PDT

It won’t be cuddly, but it’ll certainly be efficient. The University of Sheffield is developing what it calls a cargo-screening ferret that uses a combination of laser and fiber-optic technology to sniff out the tiniest traces of drugs, weapons, explosives and even illegal immigrants. Read More

XM-25: The US Army's first smart shoulder-fired weapon

By David Greig

03:16 May 27, 2009 PDT

The XM25 Individual Air Burst Weapon is looking likely to be the shoulder-fired weapon of choice for the US military to kill or neutralize hidden targets. Due for field test this summer, the lightweight XM-25 "smart weapon" uses High Explosive Air-Burst (HEAB) munitions that can be programmed to detonate at a precise point in the air without the need to impact, spelling trouble for elusive targets, be they behind a wall, inside a building or in a foxhole. Read More

The soldier helmet that pinpoints enemy snipers

By David Greig

00:28 April 30, 2009 PDT

Imagine being able to pinpoint an enemy shooter in difficult terrain with such deadly accuracy that you can see whether they are kneeling or standing and not only what kind of weapon they are firing but the caliber too. Well, engineers at Vanderbilt University's Institute for Software Integrated Systems (ISIS) have developed such a system by turning soldiers' combat helmets into "smart nodes" in a wireless sensor network. Read More

The Carl Gustav Recoilless Rifle - 60 years and still going strong

By David Greig

18:30 April 23, 2009 PDT

In the world of military technology, new weapon capabilities quickly supersede the old. With the United States expenditure for the 2009 fiscal year at US$515.4 billion, it's rare to find a very old weapon still cutting it with the best on the battlefield, but the Carl Gustav recoilless rifle (CG) has proved the exception to this rule. First produced in 1946, the Carl Gustav remains in widespread use today. Read More

ONR demonstrates new counter-mine cloaking technology

By David Greig

00:07 April 22, 2009 PDT

Naval mine strikes are cited as the root cause of almost 4/5ths of U.S. Navy ship casualties occurring since 1950, so any device that either detects mines or cloaks the ship to avoid detonation will aid in the reduction of these alarming statistics. This new technology developed by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) consists of a high temperature superconducting (HTS) degaussing coil which acts to form a cloaking device which eliminates the magnetic signature of the ship. This interferes with undersea mines' ability to detect and detonate when a large magnetic field – like the one created by a ship – comes within close proximity. Read More

High-level concerns flagged over Chinese naval weapon

By David Greig

23:11 April 19, 2009 PDT

After years of speculation, details are beginning to emerge of a "kill weapon" developed by the Chinese that is capable of targeting and destroying US aircraft carriers. The Dong Feng 21 anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM) can carry a warhead big enough to inflict significant damage on a large naval vessel, such as a supercarrier, with a single strike. The missile employs a complex guidance system, using low radar signature and a maneuverability that makes its flight path unpredictable. This increases the odds that the missile can evade tracking systems to successfully reach its target. It is estimated that the missile can travel at mach 10 speed and reach its maximum range of 2,000km in less than 12 minutes. Read More

AA-12 combat shotgun

By Loz Blain

02:50 April 3, 2009 PDT

Assault rifles are all well and good, but when you really need to tear a person to pieces, nothing fills the air with metal quite like a combat shotgun. And for those times when a regular combat shotgun isn't generating enough flying body parts, connoisseurs turn to what must be the most outrageously devastating hand-held anti-personnel murder machine in existence: the Atchisson Assault Shotgun, or AA-12. Fully automatic and drum-fed, the AA-12 fires five 12-gauge shotgun shells per second, with extreme reliability and so little recoil that strong men can shoot it Arnie-style with one hand. And if that hail of hot buckshot isn't enough to make both shooter and target need a change of underpants, consider this: it has been developed in conjunction with the FRAG-12 - a new type of shotgun cartridge in which each round is a small, flighted high explosive or fragmentation grenade accurate up to 175 metres. Read More

Boeing unveils F-15 Silent Eagle configuration

By David Greig

22:51 March 17, 2009 PDT

The Boeing Company has unveiled the F-15 Silent Eagle (F-15SE), a new F-15 configuration designed with a range of improvements over the previous F-15 variants including improved stealth coatings, redesigned conformal fuel tanks, a canted vertical tail to improve aerodynamic efficiency and much more. The prototype will be ready for its first test flight in early 2010. Read More

This battle station is fully operational - the world's largest laser nears completion

By Darren Quick

15:36 March 5, 2009 PST

Lasers, is there anything they can’t do? If they’re not shooting down UAVs, they’re fighting AIDS or bringing us the next generation of HDTVs. That’s all well and good, but when it comes to lasers there’s none bigger than the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in California - an instrument capable of delivering 500 trillion watts of power in a 20-nanosecond burst which is now nearing completion. Its myriad uses will include providing fusion data for nuclear weapons simulations, probing the secrets of extrasolar planets and could even lead to the holy grail of energy production - practical fusion energy. Read More

The electric cannon delivers shells over 200 miles at Mach 5

By Mike Hanlon

13:16 February 18, 2009 PST

Think of the electromagnetic railgun as an electric cannon which uses electrical energy instead of chemical propellant to launch projectiles at hypervelocities. First conceived nearly a century ago, the concept was investigated by Germany during WWII, but has really only stepped out of science fiction and into reality in the last 12 months. With shells travelling at Mach 5 on impact, and accurate to within five metres at a 200 mile range, such weapons maximize the damage they do through kinetic energy, and hence don't need explosive payloads. Accordingly, they are ideal for naval warfare as they minimise the risk to warships which do not need to carry explosive warheads or propellants. Earlier this week, the US Office of Naval Research (ONR) awarded a USD 21 million 30-month contract to BAE Systems for the detailed design and delivery of an Innovative Naval Prototype (INP) Railgun. As previously warned, if the Daleks don't get here soon, they'll have a serious fight on their hands. Read More

Metal Storm 3 Shot Grenade Launcher Certified

By Mike Hanlon

02:39 February 4, 2009 PST

February 4, 2009 Defence technology specialist Metal Storm has successfully certified its semi-automatic 3GL grenade launcher as a safe shoulder-fired weapon. Metal Storm’s weapon technology uses computer-controlled electronic ignition and a system of stacked projectiles, to achieve a light, small non-mechanical gun with a very high firepower to weight ratio. The three-shot 40mm grenade launcher is light and compact enough to attach as an accessory to an assault rifle, while also providing a three-shot, semi-automatic firing capability, effectively trebling the reactive grenade firepower of an infantry squad. Read More

Laser-equipped ground vehicle used to shoot down UAV

By Noel McKeegan

16:26 January 28, 2009 PST

January 29, 2009 Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are now a well established tool in modern warfare, having proved their worth in both in reconnaissance and increasingly, combat roles. As with all weapons however, this success might not be viewed so glowingly if you happen to be on the receiving end. In developing ways to combat the threat of UAV platforms, Boeing has demonstrated for the first time that a laser equipped Avenger ground combat vehicle can shoot down a UAV. Read More

F-35 Lightning II breaks sound barrier

By Kyle Sherer

13:30 November 18, 2008 PST

Lockheed Martin has promised that its fifth gen F-35 fighter will allow pilots to “do things that were previously considered impossible, and to think things that were previously unthinkable.” Almost two years after its maiden flight, the F-35 Lightning II has reached another development milestone – supersonic flight. Test pilot Jon Beesley accelerated the F-35 AA-1 to Mach 1.05, with a full internal load of dummy weapons. Read More

Northrop Grumman delivers compact high-energy laser to USAF

By Noel McKeegan

18:02 October 8, 2008 PDT

Northrop Grumman has delivered the first production-line high-power, solid-state laser to the US Air Force. Called Vesta II, the transportable 15kW device is an add-on to the Joint High Power Solid State Laser (JHPSSL) program and will be used as a "testing device for lethality, atmospheric propagation, long-range imaging and laser weapon applications". The push-button laser is a further step towards the 100kW power level goal set by the U.S. military for combat purposes which will see weapons capable of shooting down rockets and missiles. Read More

ArmoRight: buoyancy vest meets lightweight body armor

By Kyle Sherer

18:35 March 24, 2008 PDT

March 25, 2008 Designed and engineered by a retired Navy SEAL, ArmoRight™ is a lightweight body armor system for use in marine environments that combines protection from from handgun, rifle and shrapnel threats with neutral or positive buoyancy capabilities. Read More

Boeing-led test successfully intercepts target missile

By Darren Quick

07:18 October 4, 2007 PDT

October 4, 2007 The Boeing Company, working with industry teammates and the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, has successfully completed a missile defense flight test resulting in the intercept of a target warhead to demonstrate the capability and reliability of the nation's only defense against long-range ballistic missiles. Read More

Airborne Laser project achieves development milestones

By Shaun McKeegan

01:28 September 5, 2007 PDT

September 5, 2007 Successful testing of an aircraft mounted laser weapon system has been carried out by the US missile defense agency and industry partnership team at Edwards Air Force base in California. The Airborne Laser (ABL) team has demonstrated the ability to point and focus the Lockheed Martin developed Beam control/Fire control system on an airborne target. Read More

B-2 Bomber with Massive Penetrator weapon

By Gizmag Team

July 23, 2007 Just how important does someone have to be to have their own 30,000 pound bomb delivered by a billion dollar aircraft? We'll soon know. We have written about the Massive Penetrator weapon before here and detailed the awesome firepower and effectively infinite range of the US$1.157 billion B-2 here. The B-2 is a multi-role bomber capable of delivering both conventional and nuclear munitions through previously impenetrable defenses. The B-2’s low-observable technologies with high aerodynamic efficiency, large payload and an unrefueled range of approximately 6,000 nautical miles (9,600 kilometers) give it the unique ability to penetrate an enemy's most sophisticated defenses and threaten its most valued, and heavily defended, targets. Read More

Advanced Gun Systems for U.S. Navy's futuristic new destroyers

By Loz Blain

June 21, 2007 The role of the Navy has changed with the U.S. "War on Terror" - it is seldom involved in direct naval battles and much more often relegated to support of invading (liberating?) land and air forces. Thus, munitions are being designed to suit. BAE Systems' Advanced Gun Systems (AGS) are currently under construction and will redefine the state of the art for naval firepower. The vertically loaded, pivoting gun towers will launch 155mm standard and guided munitions to a range of approximately 100 miles, with accuracy between 20 and 50 metres and at a rate of up to 12 rounds per minute. Read More