These are the game-changers.
But there are still some weapons the rest of the world doesn't have.
Weapons like the MQ9 Reaper Drone, the Laser Avenger and the MAARS
Robot give U.S. troops the advantage on any battlefield around the
world.
Some of these weapons have been around for several years but were recently modified, and some are still in production.
Manufactured by: General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI)
Release date: 2001
The Reaper has been around for over 10 years, but was used largely for intelligence and reconnaissance until recently.
Today, squadrons of F-16's are being transitioned into fully unmanned drone fleets.
The Reaper is the largest of the UAV's in the U.S. arsenal with a
wingspan of 84 feet, a takeoff weight of 7,000 pounds, a payload
capacity of 3,000 pounds and a flight time of 36 hours.
The drone climbs up to 52,000 feet, and reads a license plate from over two miles away.
Capable of carrying 500 pound bombs, air-to-ground, and air-to-air
missiles the UAV fleet is poised to perform the lion's share of American
air support.
As of March 2011 the Air Force has more personnel training to operate its burgeoning drone fleet than for any other weapon system in its arsenal.
defense review
Manufactured by: Maxwell Atchisson
Release date: 2005
The AA12 can fire five 12-gauge shells per second and because the
recoil is engineered at just 10 percent a normal shotgun, it can be
fired from the hip with only one hand.
The Atchisson also fires a high explosive or fragmentation grenade called a FRAG-12 round to 175 meters with equal efficiency.
Designed for long-term combat use, tests have shown the AA12 can fire up to 9,000 rounds without being cleaned or jamming.
All the user needs to do is hold the trigger down for four seconds to empty the 20 round drum at a target.
Manufactured by: the Department of Defense (DOD)
Release date: 2007
The Personnel Halting and Stimulation Response (PHASR) rifle is a
handheld laser array, called a dazzler, capable of blinding and
disorienting anyone caught in its sights.
While weapons
to cause blindness were sagely restricted by the 1995 United Nations
Protocol on Blinding Laser Weapons (a ruling the U.S. didn't agree to until 2009) the PHASR causes only temporary blindness, thus escaping the ban.
Dazzlers were originally mounted devices to U.S. soldiers rifles as a
non-lethal way to halt Iraqis who failed to stop at checkpoints.
The PHASR uses a green laser array to calculate its targets distance and ensure its non-blinding intensity.
Manufactured by: TASER
Release date: 2008
The Taser model will electrocute a crowd of people at the touch of a button.
Creating an "area of denial" the Taser can be stacked up and strung together almost indefinitely. It will also mount to any vehicle.
The Shockwave has an effective distance of 25 feet and can be seen in action on this company video at Gizmodo.
Manufactured by: BAE Systems (BA.L)
Release date: 2008
The Black Knight is a combination remote controlled tank and forward
scouting vehicle, designed for situations too risky for manned vehicles.
To keep costs low, the Black Knight shares a weapons
systems and engine parts with the manned Bradley Fighting vehicle.
Including a 30mm cannon, machine gun and 300 horsepower engine.
The vehicle is also fitted with autonomous navigation software and can design and follow its own routes without input from an outside source.
Manufactured by: Raytheon (RTN)
Release date: 2008
Dubbed America's Ray Gun, by 60 Minutes, the Active Denial System is really more a combination radar array and microwave.
The ADS shoots a stream of electromagnetic waves, shorter than
microwaves, which are instantly absorbed by the top layer of skin.
The pain is so intense, the reaction to run from the beams so overpowering, the military calls it the "Goodbye Weapon."
The ADS has been used domestically, both on test subjects and prison
inmates. It was deployed to Afghanistan in 2010, only to be recalled,
inexplicably, months later.
The military claims there are no lingering effects from exposure.
Boeing
Manufactured by: Boeing (BA)
Release date: 2009
Only a few centimeters in diameter and invisible to the naked eye, the
Avenger's laser is 20 times hotter than an electric stove top and will
cut through artillery shells with ease.
The Avenger was
designed with the hope of effectively detonating the Improvised
Explosive Devices (IEDs) that inflict more damage on American forces
than any other weapon.
Current disposal methods involve a version of the MAARS robot that insurgents will bomb to take out of action.
The Avenger is also being tested to take down aerial vehicles.
QinetiQ
Manufactured by: QinetiQ - QQ
Release date: 2009
The MAARS Robot is a modified remote control, bomb disposal robot.
Customizable to various needs, the MAARS can be configured with either
an MB240 machine gun and 40mm grenade launcher, or a loudspeaker and eye
dazzling laser, or bean bag guns, smoke, and pepper spray.
To date, no shots have been fired in combat by a remote device like the MAARS.
Manufactured by: Remington
Release date: 2010-2011
The product of a long string of modifications to the 22 year-old M24
sniper rifle, the XM2010 is designed specifically to be effective in the
high altitude long distance fighting in Afghanistan.
To provide quiet, pinpoint accuracy at up to 1200 meters the XM2010
carries more gun powder in the bullets it fires, has a flash suppressor,
sound suppressor, and a thermal sleeve to hide the warm barrel from
FLIR.
When U.S. Snipers graduate from the five-week
school at Fort Benning, Ga. they are capable of hitting a man-sized
target nine out of ten times at 600 meters — over a third of a mile
away.
Manufactured by: Heckler & Koch
Release date: 2014
Dubbed "The Punisher" by American forces in Afghanistan, the XM25
accurately shoots a next-generation, 25mm, grenade up to 500 meters.
But, the distance isn't what impressed soldiers involved in the live trial of the weapon — it was the grenade programming.
A targets distance is transmitted by a rangefinder in the XM25 to the
grenade in the firing chamber. When the grenade leaves the barrel it is
spiraling, like a football, and measures the distance it's traveled by
the number of spirals it completes.
The detonation can be manually programmed within 10 meters to hit enemy in bunkers or behind barriers.
A platoon leader commented in an Army Times article: "Engagements that typically take 15 to 20 minutes were over in a matter of minutes."
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