America's Incredible Weapons

America's Incredible Weapons

The Soviets exploded their first nuclear weapon in 1949. China revealed plans for its own stealth bomber last year.
But there are still some weapons the rest of the world doesn't have.

Some of these weapons have been around for several years but were recently modified, and some are still in production.

#1. MQ9 Reaper Drone

The Reaper has been around for over 10 years, but was used largely for intelligence and reconnaissance until recently.

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.

#2. AA12 Atchisson Assault Shotgun

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.
All the user needs to do is hold the trigger down for four seconds to empty the 20 round drum at a target.

#3. PHASR Rifle

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.
The PHASR uses a green laser array to calculate its targets distance and ensure its non-blinding intensity.

#4. The Taser Shockwave

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.

#5. The Black Knight

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.

#6. The Active Denial System

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.

#7. The Laser Avenger

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.

#8. MAARS Robot (Modular Advanced Armed Robotic System)

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.

#9. XM2010 Enhanced Sniper Rifle

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.

#10. XM25 Individual Airburst Weapon System (IAWS)

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.