Unlike the Milkor, which is the classic grenade launcher, MetalStorm 3GL doesn’t have multiple barrels. Just a single one which is electronic-controlled — running on two AA batteries that will last for the entire life of the barrel itself. That makes it half the weight of the Milkor while using the same standard 40mm x 46mm grenades which can be quickly loaded in the barrel one after the other.

The barrel can launch 720 grenades a minute which is quite an unbelievable number. Of course, you can only feed it a small number of grenades, but it’s still impressive. Too bad it’s made to kill people. [Firearm Blog]

There is a known risk of severe injury from impact projectiles, either from blunt force at short ranges or from hitting a sensitive part of the body.

That’s what security researcher Neil Davison says. Given the strength of the grenade launcher, it sounds logical. On the other side, Wes Burgei — an engineer at the US Department of Defense’s Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate — says that the device is designed to “reduce the projectile’s mass and mitigate the impact forces on the target through innovative projectile-nose design.” Whatever. I bet the target would prefer this to a bullet round.

The development cost for the military taser is $US2.5 million, but it’ll be totally free for soon-to-be-incapacitated victims worldwide. [New Scientist]

Indian defence scientists are planning to put one of the world’s hottest chili powders into hand grenades.

The chili, known as Bhut Jolokia, is said to be 1,000 times hotter than commonly used kitchen chili.

So it can disperse crowds, but the real question is—can I cook dinner with it? Like a fire and forget nuclear spice bomb or something? [BBC via Geekologie Image via Flickr]

EMP grenade technology is out there, but I’ve never had my hands on one. The Army needs to have its own on-the-ground assets to complement our abilities, to get the enemy first or stop them from getting us on the ground.Electronic warfare is going to be fought on the ground, not just in the air, and you have to have an attack from the ground point of view.

Those are the words of Col. Laurie Buckhout, chief of the new Electronic Warfare Division, Army Operations, Readiness and Mobilization, during a conference in Washington last Tuesday. Buckhout-who I can only imagine looks like Starbuck-said that they need selective ground electronic attacks because attacks from the air or ground with jammers can interfere with friendly signals as well. Using portable jammers or EMP grenades, then can take out the enemy electronic capacity as needed, with less problems than wide attacks. [DODBuzz]

It doesn’t look like too much effort is needed, but a basic description of the build can be found in the following link if you are interested in a little DIY project. The bonus is that it is also a sure-fire way to get cavity searched at the airport—if you are into that sort of thing. [Flickr via NYC Resistor via Make]

Which is, of course, interestingly ironic since the Abrams M1 typically doesn’t use reactive armour, neither does its UK equivalent main battle tank the Challenger 2—they rely on advanced solid armour instead. And you’d need either a very lucky strike, or many impacts to seriously damage one of these beasts with any type of RPG. Russian tanks, like the T72 and T80, on the other hand, do rely on reactive armour and sometimes employ active defence systems like Arena. Would be interesting to see the RPG-30 pitted against the Future Combat System’s Quick Kill defenses, don’t you think?

Still, makers Bazalt got some military chaps to demonstrate the system recently on TV:[Wired]

When your pasty, sweaty hand is gripping this instrument of death turned into a cuddly gadget, enduring the minor misery in your lower arm caused its frankly horrifying ergonomics, you’ll feel like a badass. You totally won’t be, but for that brief second, it’s not like anyone could tell you any differently. Except for you know, Rambo, who would punch your heart out. [Modding.ru via technabob]