Nice. Another great tool to blow the human race into total oblivion. Keep up the good work!

paul-from-belgium

@ddtx2:

You're exactly right. It's a timed launcher that fires 25mm grenades

The preserved head of Richard Nixon in a jar

This could be a mini grenade launcher with ajustable timing. The "bullet" explodes in a preset distance in the middle of the air, hitting the target at 90 degrees.

ddtx2

Leaping ahead in lethality.

Thanks, North Central Positronics!

strider_mt2k

is that vanessa williams under the helmet?

dave the wet sprocket

so is it like a modified rail gun? and please let's not put this thing on America's streets and neighborhoods, there is enough bloodshed for 100 lifetimes already!

hindsight2020

@Optimus-Prime: I think you would use the 5.56 carbine part of the weapon then. After all, you don't want to waste your grenades when you can use good old fashioned FMJ bullets.

Git Em SteveDave loves this guy-->

@Optimus-Prime:

It just bounces off them and doesn't arm. But if they die from the impact, you get an achievement

The preserved head of Richard Nixon in a jar

@doublehelix: They probably took the idea from Perfect Dark on the N64. I know one of the alien weapon's secondary function was exploding bullets. I think it was the Callisto.

Optimus-Prime

While I find that killing up close with a tool,
like a knife or your hands,
is better for everyone involved,
and generally speaking, a much more satisfying experience,
I can appreciate the rich tech involved in this device's creation.

I don't really have any people I need killed, right now, thanks.
But, I suppose if Lethality is what gets your gun off,
then this might be your new gizmo.
Lethality! -Not what it's cracked up to be.

Rev. Eaton Yorke Hunt

@doublehelix: Look for OICW which stands for Objective Individual Combat weapon, which was the code name for the original project I believe. In looking for videos, I found a lot of videos of it featured in FPS games.

Git Em SteveDave loves this guy-->

So what happens if you have a straight shot at someone. Do you just set the additional range to 0 and let it explode inside the person? Seems like overkill, pun intended.

Optimus-Prime

"What we're talking about is a true 'leap ahead' in lethality, here. This is a huge step."

In what direction I wonder? 'Cause we all know, if the good guys have it, the bad guys will get it eventually.

stryder100

@paul-from-belgium: Um, that was done in '40s. This will just obliviate a few at a time.

unspellable

OK, I finally found video of something similar to it. It's a Korean version.

+ Watch video

Git Em SteveDave loves this guy-->

Forget 'real world testing'...can we bring it to FPS multiplayer games...?

Cause we need more n00b tubes...

doublehelix

Clearly it's using the weirding way.

qbrad

Yeah, this was featured on Future Weapons or something similar a long time ago. Looks like to took a while to go through testing.

SrsRevo17

The prototype for this has been around for almost a decade. It was one of the components of the OICW program.

It fires a rocket with a range (time) delay fuse, that is set by range finding a target, then adjusting for a few meters beyond it. So aim at trench, set fuse for 1.5m past trench, fire. Detonates above the trench, or inside a building.

You can play with a futuristic one in Battlefield 2142 if you feel like it, it's one of the assault unlocks.

mmmiles

@ddtx2: It is. It uses a range finder to locate the distance to the target. If the are behind a wall, the user can add on an extra foot or two, and they fire over the wall. When it hits the distance set, it explodes, so it explodes behind the wall, instaed of in front of it. If I was more awake, I'd be able to find some videos. I think Captian Mack Hyperbole on FutureWeapons did a spot on this.

Git Em SteveDave loves this guy-->

The full story is already there, for those who are interested.

As pointed out above, it's basically shooting bullets overhead and having them explode right when they're over their targets.

papaguru

+1 for the Dark Tower reference.

GarretEnemasity

if it leaks to the streets and you can hit more then 1 with one bullet then be afraid of your life and blame the weapon industry, the lobbies and the government

TBM-Fan

@takashimiike 7: People wonder?

nachobel

"below a trench"? Wouldn't that be underground? If they are already buried, why kill them more?

JDisnidiet

@qbrad: Bullets explode with activation from your VOICE

nachobel

@Rev. Eaton Yorke Hunt: is that a poem?

yogibimbi

WANT

EVEs_Mako

Looks like the plastic guns from X-Men Last Stand

SonicFury

@Optimus-Prime: You have it explode 1 foot before the target. How's that for morale? You're standing a few feet away from your buddy and his top half vaporizes. You either run away or start waving your (now empty) hands. Yea it's overkill, but sometimes that's exactly what's called for. We didn't need to nuke Japan, we could have used conventional bombs, for a few more months, eventually we'd have gotten the same result, but with more casualties on both sides. You take away the enemy's desire to fight, and things go better for both sides.

Barry99705

a true 'leap ahead' in lethality - o yes, technical progress, I love thee.

yogibimbi

@ddtx2: I believe you are right, in which case this isn't exactly new technology. Anyone that follows gun developments have know about this type a long time.

Jesse Mrozowski

And they wonder why we can't have world peace.

takashimiike 7

"it shoots through schools"

a point to the person who names thig movie

DeepFriar

@Git Em SteveDave loves this guy-->:
I know I walk down the street every day in fear of getting picked off by some sniper wielding a $9000 Barrett M82, theyre all over the place now.

brent98

@Git Em SteveDave loves this guy-->: It's true, I remember watching a FutureWeapons about this type of weapon.

highfloydelity

@windowi: So more people could afford to go to college if we laid off the people who make these weapons? Wouldn't that mean those people would have less money? And what does developing a weapon have to do with the country's IQ? If you post is any example, then I think the IQ slipped way before this event.

Git Em SteveDave loves this guy-->

/me sings: "Reach out and touch someone..."

It'll be in the next Halo game.

Krrong

@TBM-Fan: Your argument depends on two things. One the weapon hitting the street. The second is the round hitting the street. I'm sure these rounds will be very expensive, albeit a little less than the gun itself. So which would be more pratical for your street killer. A Uzi and 100 rounds of ammo for $500, or a $2,000 gun and one round at $500.

Git Em SteveDave loves this guy-->

**rolls eyes** way to go military lets kill more people seriously we need more weapons ohh and not just any kind we need EXPENSIVE kinds yeah hmm we can kill people invest in the manufacturer and make a shit ton of money hmm doesnt that sounds good? Ohh wait the military can't afford these weapons.. fuck it we'll just print more its like having a money tree ahh man that makes it real nice n' easy ohh the dollar slips another couple points? whatever.. people can't afford to go to college because the dollar is so weak ... whatever.. the IQ of the country slips another couple points .. whatever..

windowi

It's a "true leap ahead." And it's "a huge step." Which is it?!?!

Armstrong woulda said: "One small step for man. One giant leap for lethality."

scarbrtj

Yep, this will reach the streets and get used in crimes just like Javelin antitank missiles and M134 miniguns. Come on...who are you kidding? No one uses this stuff in criminal activity. I'd like to hear of the last documented instance of a friggin' AK even being used (gangsta rap bragging does not count).

Jeb_Hoge

Dear Xrist, another baby step forward in lethality is more like it. We put men on the moon, why can't we have a weapon that will kill all Husnock everywhere, all at once?

PastorDoodah

Until EVERYONE in the world wants peace, not just the hippies, it's the bigger gun and the better trained soldier that will minimize conflict. If you kill one person who had the intent to kill hundreds, you just saved lives.

closhedbb

@papaguru: Not so much. An air burst is a two-part explosion; first, flammable material is dispersed by the round, which is subsequently ignited by a much smaller explosion. This is, on a more rifle-ey scale, the same thing that the Russians were claiming several months ago as the "largest explosion ever" ([en.wikipedia.org]).

Thermobaric weapons are crazy and scary and crazy scary.

koolatron

@Jeb_Hoge:
Some time ago, a police woman got killed going out on a routine patrol. She got shot by a criminal using a AK47. He shot right through the van she was sitting in. She was like 25 years old and died right there. It happened not far from where I live. And I'm not kidding.

paul-from-belgium

I was going to respond to your obvious gun-wussery, but I don't even have the energy to do it anymore.

nomayo

@stryder100: but Iron Man will come and save us all

bohn002

@Stryder100:

"What we're talking about is a true 'leap ahead' in lethality, here. This is a huge step."

In what direction I wonder? 'Cause we all know, if the good guys have it, the bad guys will get it eventually.

What makes you think that not giving it to the good guys will keep the bad guys from getting it anyway? Better the good guys get it first, so that there are fewer bad guys to use it later when they do get it.

Synthfilker

they have this weapon in the metal gear solid 4 game.

kpm

@Jesse Mrozowski: I believe it's the first time it has been used in a personal sized weapon however.

LastAndLeast

The article says "AnyONE behind walls..." Looking at the video, EVERYONE seems more appropriate. That's the really scary part.

AudreyEscardon

@koolatron: Not in Mercenaries 2. Fuel Air RPGs are just fun, fun fun!

Chromeo

@strider_mt2k: Dark Tower...why did it take so long for me to get that?????

And now that I know you've read the books, you're 50% cooler than almost everyone that hasn't.

Chromeo

@hindsight2020: guns don't kill people - it's the people who misuse them that do. The gun doesn't decide who pulls the trigger, you do.

evangelistc01

@hindsight2020:

It is nothing like a rail gun, as the air burst grenade does not go through anything. Instead, the grenade is set to detonate at a certain distance such that it can explode after going through a window, flying over a trench, etc.

Also, this will never be available to the public.

alannigelz

@LastAndLeast: incorrect. the army has been evaluating individual air burst weapons for years. they even let the discovery channel fool around with one 2-3 years ago already.

stre

@mdmadph: @Suttin: @stre:

Holy hivemind

Suttin

@clipseGTS:

They would go find a knife

Suttin

@clipseGTS: They'd use a knife. Duh. Banning guns aren't the answer -- you have to get to the root of why someone feels the need to kill to get ahead (usually poverty).

mdmadph

@closhedbb: This is why we need the troops to revolt, not just the voters.

Rev. Eaton Yorke Hunt

@clipseGTS: they'd do it with a knife. face it, guns are here and they're not going away.

stre

@evangelistc01:
so what would happen if the person didnt have a gun to misuse?

clipseGTS

@DeepFriar: It's an 88 Magnum.

You don't want to hang me on a hook. My sister hung me on a hook once. Once!

I am handicapped. I'm psychotic.

I just downloaded Johnny Dangerously last weekend.

Git Em SteveDave loves this guy-->

I'm guessing that his parents had no idea what career he was going to choose as an adult when they named their son "Christian." That's like naming your son "Dick" and then hearing that he had a sex-change operation.

"This is my son, Jesus. He's a pagan!"

Munch the BanNail

Who are these "Bad Guys" I keep hearing about?
Is it the guys from "Them"?
I've been hearing a lot about "Them" these days too.

Rev. Eaton Yorke Hunt

@Optimus-Prime: fantastic reference. it was that little pea shooter pistol that they had, but i don't remember what it was called. callisto sounds about right though

stre

@JDisnidiet: haha, i was thinking the same thing!

stre

@mmmiles: not a rocket, a small grenade. but the right concept

stre

@koolatron: technically an "air burst" is just an explosion in the air as opposed to on the ground. there is no mention anywhere of this being a fuel air detonation. in fact, the article calls the ammunition "grenades" which are not fuel air explosives. fuel air weapons are great for producing shockwaves that kill people, not so great for throwing shrapnel at soldiers, which is what they're trying to do here.

stre

XM25 you say?

The important thing I want to know is if it will be interoperable with SIRIUS.

AlexTheSane

@takashimiike 7: Yea... like we had so much world peace before guns came along and ruined it for everyone.

MaxRC

Ahhhh, nature's way of dealing with overpopulation! Gerrrrreat!!

banmojo

@clipseGTS:
He's right! Before the advent of the firearm, there wasn't a single murder or war!

Bluesk1d

@Bluesk1d:
And before the advent of the firearm, it took a small army to slaughter an entire school-worth of kids. Now it only takes one person (in poverty, according to mdmadph). The only way out of this is to arm the students so that they can shoot back, though we'd have to warn them sternly not to shoot anyone who wasn't a trailer-spawn. Or better yet, lets give teachers XM25s so they can kill ghetto kids through the walls before they can get one shot off! Well, they'd probably let that kid kill the principal first. Of course, the majority of citizen XM25 owners will be law-abiding folk who would only use it to mine for fairy dust in their back yards.

dennitzio

Particularly convenient that it kills around 'coroners'...

Stem_Sell

@Git Em SteveDave loves this guy-->: I'm saying why the fuck is our government focusing on developing high tech expensive weapons that cost HUGE quantities of capital when we have MUCH more important things to focus on at home.. If we took the money that we are using to develop weapons and made college more affordable the US would be in a much MUCH better position both in the worlds eyes and at home.

windowi

@mdmadph: EXACTLY! That is why the NRA is at the forefront on social justice issues and reducing pover... ty... err... wait. Never mind.

mpjohnst

@yogibimbi: In the original Russian, it rhymes. Check page 143 of the "So You've Decided To Join the KGB" handbook.

Killjoy

@windowi: Why not make colleges lower their prices then? That would seem to make more sense.

Git Em SteveDave loves this guy-->

@Barry99705: Except if we wouldve used conventional bombs we wouldve had considerable losses and so would they.

Thanatos

@evangelistc01: And that's why we're working hard on outlawing people.

Killjoy

I'm probably going to get dissemvowled for this, but I want one of thses.

thefutureisnow

@hindsight2020:
I'm usually one of the first guys to jump on the whole "guns don't kill people...." kick however in this case, MASS KILL weapons have no place in the hands of civilians.

You have the right to bear arms...not the right to weapons of mass destruction....hehehe...

Anyone that wants to take away my right to own a gun will get punched in the face. However, at the same time, I don't want fully automatic weapons available at my local pawn shop! Nor do I want this weapon there either.

I doubt this will ever get used. So many wepons are developed for the military and we see most of them. Yet to this day only a fraction of them are in use.

JEmlay

"Increase my killing power you say..."

mcjake

Remember, Stem cells are BAD!

Duc

@stryder100: True true, As soon as Russia or China has it in production, they'll sell to highest bidder.

I would say it is in reference to warfare in general. Can never have enough ways to kill people... right?

Duc

@stryder100: True true, As soon as Russia or China has it in production, they'll sell to highest bidder.

Duc

@ddtx2:

yeah that my guess,

it's probably a cheaper version of the OICW, remember that weapon.

br4nd0n

Message to gizmodo it's not EASY to tell where the comment reply's end, can you fix that please!? And buy me a pony while you're at it!

beekerstudios

@Killjoy:

Finally a solution I can get behind!

BigPanda

@Suttin: They would go find a knife

Or hit em with a car

Or a baseball bat.

Or golf clubs.

Or a chainsaw.

Or molotov cocktails

Or a BBQ Skewer

Or a fork

a plastic fork

turned into a shiv

[www.designobserver.com]

lordargent

@Barry99705: No, won't work, if the enemy is smart, they'll put a commissar in all of their squads, that increases morale, and, in a fully reinforced squad with all of the weapons, it makes a deadly force. But, don't use the commissar with your Ogryns or Kasrkins.

Con Seannery

At least if someones going to kill me with a knife they have to be a little bit more badass about it. Any jackass can shoot someone with a gun. Try and stab Mr. Miyagi and see what happens.

Holyelephant

@Spliner: My bad, that was directed at clipseGTS not evangelistic01, who I actually agree with!

Spliner

@JEmlay:

The lethality of a weapon should have no merit on its legitimate uses. They are ALL OK or none of them are.

este

@hindsight2020:

Hey Douche... go ahead then and vote for Obama and his 1938/Nazi-esc Gun Control Laws (Yes, thats 1938 when the Germans disarmed all the jews... coincidentally the first year a concentration camp opened up)

Guns are available to protect YOU from a corrupt government. It is your right and responsibility to pick one up if you are oppressed by your government.

More people are killing by cars then firearms every year. BAN CARS!!!!

este

@clipseGTS: Only the criminals would have them. That's what would happen.

No offense evangelistic01, but it amazes me how many people think that criminals got their guns by legal purchase and registration. Hmmm... none.

The right to bear arms.. isn't that our constitutional right? What other parts of the constitution could we mangle while we're at it? Sorry.. old argument, but I felt it needed to be said.

Spliner

"XM25 Carbine Kills Bad Guys Behind Walls, Beyond Hills, Below Trenches"

But it never explained how the gun tells the Bad guys from Good guys - THAT'S the amazing part!

EricAlder

@Git Em SteveDave loves this guy-->: Because that doesn't involve an irrational hatred for the man and his machine! Duh!

Enochrewt

@dennitzio: When was the last time you saw a military-issue M16 or M4 on the streets? Read about it in a newspaper? None? Yeah, I thought not. Yet there's something like 13 million of them in the world. So why is this rifle going to be out murdering school children??

Eat lead hippy.

Enochrewt

Killing people behind walls... Wow, the future is here.

Kind of like COD4. Love walling people.

CmdrHunt

They've really slimmed it down.

Are they really sticking with the 20mm round? I thought they'd went to the 25mm, cause the 20mm just couldn't carry enough payload.

Sian

@hindsight2020: holy shit 19 replies!

unkpku is think that new comments are like iPhone 3G pre 2.1, yeah it sucks

@Enochrewt:

I took my AR out yesterday :) Walked a couple blocks down to a buddies house to get his AK and a SIG 550 then we walked back to my place.... Good thing we didn't pass by any schools or we would have had to stop and destroy the place... whew.... disaster averted!

este

Ah, so it's some sort of gun with bullets. You guys got me all hyped this was some sort of rail gun or rocket launcher.

Mr.Wilson

@MaxRC:

We don't have world peace because idiots like you blame guns for being the problem.

Arm everyone and see what happens to crime... in fact, just look a Switzerland where there is an automatic rifle in almost every home.

este

@nachobel:

"BOOM HEADSHOT" actives the round

este

@Git Em SteveDave loves this guy-->:

LOL! You let me know where I can get a $500 uzi !!! I'll buy 10 right now! You obviously have no idea about weapon prices.

This gun would not be $2000, hell, a UMP is $3500 right now, and that's a run of the mill .45 carbine. A Styer AUG is $4000 for an A2. The HK PSG1 rifle is currently hovering around 16,000 if you can find one. An HK MP5 in full auto / registered receiver maxes out around $25,000.

If anyone thinks this gun or this ammo would be a gang bangers weapon you are a f#(|

este

@Rev. Eaton Yorke Hunt:

lol spoken from a man who has killed? no sorry...video games dont count.

theres a reason that vets make up a huge part of our nations homeless...doing this shit will f**k you up, theres nothing cool about killing a man who is defending his homeland, and more importantly, his friends, family, and way of life (providing of course that he wants to...obviously this can get tricky)

join the marines if you're so damn tough dude. I have been offered a position as a marine twice now...turned em down both times. know why? I dont wanna kill, or be killed.

jrghoull

@Git Em SteveDave loves this guy-->: I would agree with you in terms of private institutions, their prices are astronomical (partly blamed on the weak dollar/ inflation/ genera rising tuition costs) BUT public institutions are funded by the government (think every state school) so if the government didn't spend so much on warfare and put that money into giving more grants/scholarships the US would be better off.

windowi

@Barry99705:

actually we fire bombed japan not too long before we nuked em and killed a hell of alot more of them that way

jrghoull

This is to everyone who spasms when they hear about a new way to kill people.

I'm an enlisted soldier in the US Army, and have been for three years. I appreciate anything my country can do to improve my chances of survival and success in the event that I find myself in combat. Now, this weapon doesn't apply to our current mission in Iraq in a big way, because all we basically do there anymore is guard our roads and camps...and perform presence patrols.

But there's still the chance that Iran might decide to lob missiles at our bases in Iraq and Kuwait, or that North Korea might attack some country once they've found a new charismatic leader. And if either of those things ever happen, I'm going to be a part of the ground war.

Are you saying that you would rather have me put down my M16 and fight with a machete? Or better yet, a .22 rifle? Pellet gun?

The same people who hiss and moan about dead soldiers are the ones who hiss and moan about the things meant to keep them alive.

jamesuschrist

@unspellable:

the ak 47 has killed far more people than nukes have. why? because aks are easy to put together and are pretty reliable. between those two factors it has been one of the halmark weapons of the 21st century.

@paul-from-belgium:

humanity: thank you, thank you very much. its a slow work in progress but we hope that before the next mellinium we will have wiped out our entire species. also, Bush is awesome.

jrghoull

@Git Em SteveDave loves this guy-->: lol chris rock actually made a similar argument a while back. he said the hell with trying to keep guns out of peoples hands and to just charge like 5000 dollars a bullet.

if it werent for the black market it would've been a decent argument.

jrghoull

@Optimus-Prime:

lol i'm guessing the actual origins of this gun came from something else..but then again who the hell knows, ideas can come from anywhere.

jrghoull

@Mr.Wilson:

i think this kind of is like a rocket launcher..

jrghoull

@mcjake:

haah best comment on this thread by far.

jrghoull

@closhedbb:

actually its tactics, not bigger guns

also one of the next big things in warfare isnt guns so much as sleep. if they can figure out how to realistically reduce a mans need to sleep down to an hour or two a day, then their worth goes up by (and i know how weird this sounds) a half a solider (statistically speaking)

jrghoull

@paul-from-belgium:

i'm almost inclined to say AKs dont count. those thing are the Mcguyvers of automatic weapons. no one is going to be putting one of these things together anytime soon. AKs however...a person with the right skills and tools could probably make one in his garage (though a basement would be better).

jrghoull

@jamesuschrist:

they want no soliders at all...rather to just talk things out. what they dont realize is that eventually sides run out of things to stay, and start spouting off lines such as "well my army is bigger than yours".

good luck at your post dude. but FYI, this thing isn't even going to even begin coming out until 2014

[www.military.com]

jrghoull

@Chromeo: I loved that series LOL, but I couldn't place that name till I read your comment, thanks Chorme :)

Hand_O_Death

Funny how we're spending billions on all these advanced weapons, yet we can't create a good rifle for our GIs.

mergedwarrior

@Enochrewt:
I live in LA. We read about guns like that - and worse - in our newspapers. Come on, most of the guys with military grade weapons in this country are a) in the military, b) criminals, or c) "collectors". Of course murdering school kids is a bit of a Godwin, but my point is not that people don't kill people. Of course they do - heck, death threats appear to come easy to some. It's that guns make it a lot easier to kill people. Pretty much every weapon short of a car requires actually, physically striking someone - which, as some have learned the hard way, is not that easy. I'd put down money that some of the posters in this thread could shoot someone with a gun in the back, but would they have the stones to do it with a knife? To look that pimply 14-year-old quarterback jerk in the eye before ramming a knife into his throat?

Any yet, if I were attacked by a guy, I would want yo be the one with the deadlier weapon. "That's not a gun. THIS is a gun..."

dennitzio

@jrghoull: Good for you.

Rev. Eaton Yorke Hunt

I't just a simple grenade launcher type deal. Nothing revolutionary.

They figured out that by launching these these things a little slower with air, you can be more accurate and lethal with it.

Like a short range mortar.

dcartist

@este: it is only fitting that you make your reference to a Nazi Concentration Camp and I am voting for OBAMA gay boy! and, I want to see you ban cars to make the world a safer place...IDIOT!

hindsight2020

I would like to thank everyone for the 22 replies!

hindsight2020

@mdmadph: Better watch out for that knifing crossfire.
ohh....wait.

Rev. Eaton Yorke Hunt

@este:
Says who? You?

So you think it's ok to go hunting with a fully automatic 30 round bazuka? Maybe play around with a few M203's at a gun range?

Sorry to break it to ya, but black and white is not a world we live in.

The "right to bear arms" is our RIGHT however, it was not given to us when these levels of weapons where in existance.

JEmlay

the episode of Futureweapons i remember involved the Bushmaster, which is a vehicle-mounted version of this type of air-burst weapon, firing 40mm burst projectiles of various types (fletchette, HE, AT, WP, etc). pretty effective shredder, especially against baddies using a vehicle for cover, or against a known target inside a building (the used it to destroy brick, cinder block and wood walls).

DonataJalope

its a 20mm cannon the shell and weapon developed from the OCWI, its like a mini LAV canon, 10 shots lots of explosions. very deadly. rather then pair with with a machine gun which the OCWI was this is just the "grenade" lanucher part of the gun, but its really a cannon with air burst programmable projectiles and a laser

RodolfoTobias

The "bullet" calculates when it will explode based on the number of times it spins after leaving the barrel ofthe gun. The soldier uses a built in range finder(visible in picture on scope) to tell it the distance. It has enough power to go through some walls...It is really cool. I saw a demonstration. It is really shooting miniature grenades.

VerdaTerpsichore