• YerbaYerba@lemm.eeEnglish
        17·
        4 months ago

        My guess is that they can kind of steer it by driving only the right or left side wheels. It’s diesel electric so they could individually control each wheel motor.

        • Maggoty@lemmy.worldEnglish
          5·
          4 months ago

          Oh no they tried to put a 12 axle all wheel drive on it. It failed spectacularly.

        • dactylotheca@suppo.fiOPEnglish
          10·
          4 months ago

          Sometimes they (and/or the ground crew) burned or blew up too! Gotta love Nazi engineering that kills a lot of Nazis

            • dactylotheca@suppo.fiOPEnglish
              11·
              4 months ago

              In John Clark’s book Ignition (highly recommended for rocketry nerds if you can get your hands on it. I had a copy but somehow managed to lose it…), he described chlorine trifluoride like this:

              It is, of course, extremely toxic, but that’s the least of the problem. It is hypergolic with every known fuel, and so rapidly hypergolic that no ignition delay has ever been measured. It is also hypergolic with such things as cloth, wood, and test engineers, not to mention asbestos, sand, and water-with which it reacts explosively. It can be kept in some of the ordinary structural metals-steel, copper, aluminium, etc.-because of the formation of a thin film of insoluble metal fluoride which protects the bulk of the metal, just as the invisible coat of oxide on aluminium keeps it from burning up in the atmosphere. If, however, this coat is melted or scrubbed off, and has no chance to reform, the operator is confronted with the problem of coping with a metal-fluorine fire. For dealing with this situation, I have always recommended a good pair of running shoes.

  • SSTF@lemmy.worldEnglish
    37·
    4 months ago

    Scorpion rocket launcher. (This one is legitimately neat. YES, the designers know what backblast is, and the design redirects it to the side and away from the shooter. NO, the launcher is not permanently attached to the M16, it fixes using the bayonet lug and goes on and off just as quickly.)

    • dactylotheca@suppo.fiOPEnglish
      17·
      4 months ago

      Huh, yeah that’s actually a neat design. The fact that the back blast now goes in two directions must make that fun (“fun”) to use; at least with a regular shoulder-launched recoilless anything, you only need to make sure there’s nothing or nobody behind you that you don’t mind turning into dogfood and regrets

      • SSTF@lemmy.worldEnglish
        18·
        4 months ago

        It was developed as one of many proposed weapons to fill the U.S. Army’s desire for a squad level weapon that could be fired from inside a building, and packed more anti-armor punch than a 40mm.

        Think about the time period and planners thinking about how to stop hypothetical hoards of BMPs rolling through West Germany.

        This, along with other weapons, weren’t adopted because the Army pivoted doctrine away from focusing on new squad level weapons that could damage IFVs, to larger weapons like the TOW that could take out MBTs. The change in thinking traded lightweight and abundance organically to infantry on the move, for better performance per system.

        • mindbleach@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          10·
          4 months ago

          I appreciate when a military’s response to ‘how do we solve this problem?’ becomes ‘that is not your problem.’ Ze Germans have a term for overloading functionality: eierlegende Wollmilchsau. Literally an egg-laying wool-milk-pig. Get your whole breakfast and a cozy blanket from one made-up animal. It is important to divide responsibility and avoid conflicting design goals.

          Dudes fighting tanks is not a fair fight. You know what’s even less of a fair fight? Tanks fighting guided artillery.

  • bbuez@lemmy.worldEnglish
    32·
    4 months ago

    Youtube honeypot??

    Not sure if this counts, but I feel like I’d be put on a list for watching this

    • dactylotheca@suppo.fiOPEnglish
      15·
      4 months ago

      Like I just wrote in another comment, I’m a doohickey anarchist: anything you think is a doohickey is a doohickey.

      I feel like I’d be put on a list for watching this

      You’re saying that like it’s a bad thing

      • SkyezOpen@lemmy.worldEnglish
        7·
        4 months ago

        I was gonna point out that printed guns usually use proper metal barrels, but no, that fuckin thing sitting in the ejection port looks like a printed barrel. What the hell.

        • Armok: God of Blood@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
          6·
          4 months ago

          Even if it had a metal barrel, the forces from firing a bullet would probably tear the gun in half. The gun is made of plastic, and presumably, the hinge it uses to fold in half is also made of plastic.

    • dactylotheca@suppo.fiOPEnglish
      10·
      4 months ago

      The heck does this one do? “RAW” is generic enough that it turned out to be hard to search for, heh

      • SSTF@lemmy.worldEnglish
        14·
        4 months ago

        “Rifleman’s Assault Weapon”.

        Documentation is pretty spotty. The publicly available stuff tends to be corporate marketing material which is written by people who might not fully understand the technical aspects and/or are fudging or intentionally simplifying.

        The overview is that it’s a rifle launched multi-mode munition for the M16.

      • Sylvartas@lemmy.worldEnglish
        9·
        4 months ago

        Are these gold plated bullets ? That has to be the most expensive expanding bullets “tech” ever

        • dactylotheca@suppo.fiOPEnglish
          8·
          4 months ago

          The boolets look pretty normal surprisingly enough, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they weren’t. Whichever Saudi prince bought this thing probably wasn’t thinking about cost or practicality all that much

          • Sylvartas@lemmy.worldEnglish
            31·
            4 months ago

            Yeah I actually zoomed in after commenting and they look pretty much exactly like the 7.62 PS in Tarkov (never seen a 7.62x39 IRL so that’s my best point of reference ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ). I just thought they were also gold at a glance because they are included in the carrying case (and there aren’t even enough to fill half the mag that looks like a 30-rounder)

        • Zink@programming.devEnglish
          6·
          4 months ago

          Laughs in defense contractor

          disclaimer: I don’t work for a defense contractor

        • dactylotheca@suppo.fiOPEnglish
          2·
          4 months ago

          Was wondering the same but I have no idea. It sort of looks like it’s got a small segment display counter thing at the bottom there, but it might just be a jewel.

      • Lorindól@sopuli.xyzEnglish
        3·
        4 months ago

        That is a gilded SAKO RK-95.

        I saw one on display in the late 90’s, they were a special batch ordered by the Royal Guard of the Arab Emirates or Quatar, if memory serves correctly. The image does not give away how mindblowingly cool it was in real world.

        EDIT:

        I was mistaken. It is not RK-95 but some other AK variant, as OP clearly points out in the comments.

        • dactylotheca@suppo.fiOPEnglish
          4·
          4 months ago

          I was in the 🇫🇮 military for a few years so my service weapon was the RK 62 and I’ve seen some 95s, and the drip rifle doesn’t look like either - especially not the 95 which looks much more “modern”, iirc doesn’t have a stockless variant (edit: nvm the drip has a folding stock but way different compared to the 95), has a different kind of muzzle device etc. 62 doesn’t really match either, controls look different, the gas tube on the drip is way more AK-ish when on the 62 it’s kinda blockier, etc. In general the drip one looks more like a classic stereotypical AK than Sako’s stuff.

          Dunno what this drip one is actually. It’s a more classic AK pattern but I’m not that deep into pew pews to be able to guess the manufacturer

          edit: I know gold plated Sakos exist though, so I don’t doubt you saw one, just saying this one isn’t it 😁

          • Lorindól@sopuli.xyzEnglish
            2·
            4 months ago

            I did my service in the late 90’s and a gun just like on the picture above was on display at the gun exhibit at the RUK main hall. It was of course heavily modified according to the wishes of the buyer, but built upon the basic RK-95 frame.

            Here’s a link that somewhat matches my memories:

            https://metsastysjakalastus.fi/sakon-aseaarteet-sako-rk-95-762x39-kultainen-ase/

            EDIT:

            It is completely possible I am wrong. There are bound to be a large number of gilded AK-variants in the arab courts, everyone probably wanted their own after the first one got them. The picture does match my memory, but it was a long time ago…

            • dactylotheca@suppo.fiOPEnglish
              3·
              4 months ago

              Oh yeah like I said they’ve made a bunch of gold plated ones and I’ve likely seen the same gold plated RK you have, but they still look very much like Sako, like the one on that page:

              Looks like the drip I posted is a Chinese Type 56-1 at least according to reddit and I’d tend to agree, because you’d need to modify a Sako really heavily to make it look that much like an AK, and I doubt Sako would bother since they’d have to custom make everything including the receiver. They do customize stuff but that wouldn’t be customization, but a whole 'nother gun with practically no common parts except maybe some of the guts (even the charging handle is “wrong” for RK95 so the bolt carrier would have to be custom)

              • Lorindól@sopuli.xyzEnglish
                3·
                4 months ago

                Yep, after comparing both images more closely I am now certain that I was wrong. The structural dissimilarities are simply too great, even for a heavily modified model.

                This is a good reminder for me to keep my facts straight before I start claiming truths online, based on just memories from quarter a century ago ;)

                Thank you for kindly showing me my mistake!

                • dactylotheca@suppo.fiOPEnglish
                  3·
                  4 months ago

                  That’s the shit part about human memory: you never really know if you brain is lying to you or not.

                  You went with your best knowledge and then changed your view when it turned out you weren’t right, and that’s pretty much the best anybody can do.

      • FinishingDutch@lemmy.worldEnglish
        19·
        4 months ago

        That’s a perfectly valid question. The answer is very interesting:

        https://www.awm.gov.au/articles/encyclopedia/gallipoli/drip_rifle

        Drip (or “pop off”) rifles were self-firing rifles used at Gallipoli to deceive the Turks during the evacuation of December 1915.

        Fire was maintained from the trenches after the withdrawal of the last men, by rifles arranged to fire automatically. This was done by a weight being released which pulled the trigger. Two kerosene tins were placed one above the other, the top one full of water and the bottom one with the trigger string attached to it, empty. At the last minute, small holes would be punched in the upper tin; water would trickle into the lower one, and the rifle would fire as soon as the lower tin had become sufficiently heavy.

        Another device ran a string, holding back the trigger, through a candle, which slowly burnt down, severed the string, and released the trigger.

      • gazter@aussie.zoneEnglish
        10·
        4 months ago

        Iirc, they were left behind when troops moved out. The drip doohickey would make it fire after a while, giving the enemy the impression the trenches were still manned.

      • Ilovethebomb@lemm.eeEnglish
        4·
        4 months ago

        This was to cover their retreat, they didn’t want the enemy to know they were leaving until they were well and truly gone.

      • Muscar@discuss.onlineEnglish
        7·
        4 months ago

        Ever seen that video of some girl using a tazer as a masturbatory device? It’s a weird mix of hilarious, concerning and disturbing.

      • object [Object]@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        3·
        4 months ago

        I have touched the pins on the original flash capacitor when it was half discharged, and I was scared it restarted my heart (it didn’t).

        With this one I’m even more terrified as it has about 4 times the capacity and voltage, so it would be an even more effective defibrillator.

        Also the noise it makes is scary too. It takes a solid minute to charge, and as it does that you can hear a high pitched noise getting higher pitched as the voltage increases. When you finally discharge it, it sounds like a quiet gun shot with echo and everything.

  • someguy3@lemmy.caEnglish
    21·
    4 months ago

    I had no idea the Shinzo Abe thing was a doohickey. I take it that’s not a regular bullet? How did it work?

      • someguy3@lemmy.caEnglish
        16·
        4 months ago

        Looks like a lego guy at first.

        The significant plumes of smoke generated when the weapon was fired indicate that it does not make use of commercial small arms ammunition propellant (‘smokeless powder’), and may instead use blackpowder or an alternative propellant. This makes the use of ‘separate-loading’ ammunition (i.e., propellant and projectile loaded separately into the weapon) more likely, as well as increasing the likelihood that the weapon was a muzzle-loading design—that is, loaded from the bore (‘front’ of the barrel), rather than the breech (‘rear’ of the barrel) of the firearm.

        the weapon appears to use an electric firing mechanism. Images of the firearm show that an electrical wire passes through each endcap. …This high voltage creates a hot plasma arc between two conductive contacts that can be used to ignite flammable materials

        • Buelldozer@lemmy.todayEnglish
          16·
          4 months ago

          Black powder, model rocket igniters, and ball bearings shoved into a piece of threaded pipe that’s capped on one end. You can build one of these in less than 30 minutes.

          Hardest thing to get in Japan would probably be the black powder and it’s completely possible to manufacture that yourself. Everything else comes from the plumbing aisle of a DIY store and a model rocket shop.

      • MonkderDritte@feddit.deEnglish
        3·
        4 months ago

        Probably the most prominent electric firing mechanism for 3D-printed firearms has been developed by the user ‘@SuckBoyTony1’. This mechanism uses an 80 kV High Voltage Pulse Generator that converts 6–12 V (the electric potential typically provided by battery packs such as that seen with the assailant’s weapon) into 80 kV. This high voltage creates a hot plasma arc between two conductive contacts that can be used to ignite flammable materials

        What’s with this level of overengineering? Just get the Piezo from a lighter and maybe that igniter powder from fireworks and good.

        • dactylotheca@suppo.fiOPEnglish
          3·
          4 months ago

          I’d guess people have tried those small piezos and they haven’t worked too well (not a big enough spark?), or at least it seems likely most would start from the simplest possible solution. I’d definitely have started with a piezo too if I was screwing around building a zip gun (which I’m definitely not doing)

    • CoffeeJunkie@lemmy.worldEnglish
      10·
      4 months ago

      Firearms don’t have to be needlessly complicated, zeroed in. Ammo, propellant, firing cap/something to ignite propellant, metal tubes to direct the subsequent blast & ammo.

      The guy basically rigged up a rudimentary cyberpunk blunderbuss.