Caseless Projectile and Launching System Delivers Jet-Powered Punch

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December 19, 2016 | Originally published by Date Line: December 19 on

High tech for low casualties.

A gun is a powerful tool for putting a hole in a person. That power made them a staple of armies centuries ago and keeps them on the hips of soldiers, law enforcement, and Gadsden-flag-wearing anybodies to this day. Among the problems of such a lethal tool is that, in the event someone wants to use force but doesn’t want to kill anybody, guns are a bad choice. A whole field of less-lethal weapons has sprung up, and one of the latest would use lasers and jets as a less-bloody alternative.

Ohio’s Battelle Memorial Institute has a small history with novel weapons. In October, they demonstrated an anti-drone rifle, which brought down flying machines by jamming their controls. Their latest, blandly patented as “Caseless projectile and launching system,” is a gun that fires a jet-powered, laser-guided large blunt bullet, a metal fist thrown at someone dozens of yards away.

Fired from a specially-made pistol, or attached to a rifle in place of a grenade launcher, the round will rely on a laser rangefinder (not yet developed) to make sure it hits its target at an appropriate velocity. If it does, it should have the concentrated pain of a sting without the concentrated death of a traditional bullet. Popular Mechanics describes how the gun, named Pogojet, works.

Also see related article describing how the Pogojet non-lethal round will vary muzzle velocity depending on target distance, http://www.popularmechanics.com/military/weapons/a18812/pogojet-non-lethal-gun/.