[BudW]

Originally Posted by gorknoids

And people say that songs, paintings, and sculptures are beautiful!
Great concept, but a money-pit. It's exponentially cheaper to use drones or even tactical aircraft heaving Hellfires, LGB's, Rockeye, etc... because of the area you can cover per dollar spent. One F/A-18 can bring much more death on a single Combat Air Patrol mission than this Willie Wonka Wonder Weapon ever could. Whizz-Bang technology that should never see the light of day, IMHO.
Pretty damned kewl, though!

You forget few patrols will have continues air cover,so a weapon you can tote at squad level like that would be effective.

[diggsbakes]

Seems like a good idea to myself. Keeping it simple is just fine if that's working, but if the troops are unable to penetrate a structure in order disable an adversary, then it sure would be an asset to have one of these in the mix.

Wonder what the MSRP is gonna be on one of these???

[gorknoids]

Originally Posted by diggsbakes

Seems like a good idea to myself. Keeping it simple is just fine if that's working, but if the troops are unable to penetrate a structure in order disable an adversary, then it sure would be an asset to have one of these in the mix.

Wonder what the MSRP is gonna be on one of these???

The story says $25K, and that's just for the gun. You can buy 40 of them for $1M, but you can't shoot them for that price. I'm guessing the ammo is going to run about $100.00 per round if it ever goes into production, but that's a SWAG.
I DO think it's a great SPECWAR assasination tool, but not something you'd want to put in the field as a common item.

[gorknoids]

Originally Posted by BudW

You forget few patrols will have continues air cover,so a weapon you can tote at squad level like that would be effective.

Back in the 90's there was a bread factory in Baidoa, Somalia where Aidid's maggots had their headquarters, right next to a girl's school because maggots always use human shields. The SEAL Team Leading Chief asked me if there was anything we could put into the building from the air that wouldn't destroy everything on the whole block, and we didn't. We knew where the bad guys were, knew what the schedule was for the kids being in or out of the school, but aside from breaching the roof with satchel charges and going in through the top, (And who in their right mind...) the place was not going to be taken down. And as far as I know, it never was.
This weapon would have been useless, also. While I do see your point that the situation could potentially arise when this expensive mofo might be the only way to kill a couple of guys, how is a squad going to be able to determine that there's an over-riding concern for the safety of non-combatants during a firefight? If they're not exposing themselves to fire at you (Aside from slits, etc.....), fix them, call for air support, and play FAC.
Lose a couple of these and a pallet of ammo and THAT would be a game-changer.

[NPD5946TSW]

The best way to find out what works and what doesn't, is trying stuff out. I'm sure if these things are junk, they will junk the project. One of my close friends told me that the problem with air support is, it's never RIGHT there. If soldiers didn't say they needed something like this, I doubt someone would have thought of making it. Besides, do we have too many terrorist killing weapons????? I vote to make the things, and listen to the fireworks......

[Rick1967]

If I was still in I'd take one...in addition to an M4.

[Tackleberry1]

Anyone know how much it weights?

Anyone know if it can "direct fire" bullets?

Looks like a whiz bang re-birth of the M79 grenade launcher which was quickly phased out for the M203, rifle mounted grenade launcher.

6 years of light infantry experience talking here. If it weights more than an M249 SAW and does not have direct fire capability, I don't see soldiers embracing it.

It could find a niche in the SOCOM community were a small footprint is necessary and CAS may not be available.

TACK

[spittinfire]

The big questions is....where can I get one?

[Mack Bolan]

Originally Posted by Tackleberry1

Anyone know how much it weights?



TACK

that article says 14lbs with a 4 rnd mag, sounds kind of heavy.

[allout13]

To those who said give it to our boys if it gives em an advantage.. thats exactly the point. I want the soldiers to have every advantage they can. But if the batteries run out and their gun can not fire they have a disadvantage not an advantage. The intended suggestion was to create an alternate source of energy that would be more reliable.