Technology

Here Are Some of the New Weapons the U.S. Special Command Wants

U.S. Special Ops Seeks New Scalable Effects Weapons

(Photo: U.S. Special Operations and Command/Kim McLendon)

What if one weapon’s intensity level could be adjusted with the turn of a dial or flip of a switch? As Wired puts it, one weapon could be “capable of doing everything from thwarting enemy ships to paralyzing, disorienting or barricading individuals.”

This is exactly what the U.S. Special Operations and Command (SOCOM) is hoping for. According to Wired, the special ops has put out a bid for research proposals that would help develop “Scalable Effects Weapons.”

Here’s more from the description in the bid, including what the weapons should be able to help do:

SEW provides the broadest range of non-lethal to lethal anti-personnel and anti-material capabilities for neutralizing the enemy while minimizing the risk to non-combatants and infrastructure.

  • Stop vehicles/stop vessels.
  • Warning devices that produce an unambiguous signal(s) that are visible, audible, and easily recognizable.
  • Disorienting effects on people.
  • Temporary immobilizing/paralyzing effects on people.
  • Deny an area to individual(s) for an indefinite period of time.
  • Move individuals from a room, facility, compartment, or building.
  • Deter/stop pursuit by individual(s).

Wired writes that a “stun to kill” switch like the military is looking for has yet to be developed.

The call for SEW is only one of the myriad of items in the bid. Other things include amphibious vehicles, long-duration surveillance capabilities, energy storage for submersible vehicles, and more. According to the bid, the necessity for items such as these come from studies and other analysis that show need for improvement in technologies for special ops teams to successfully complete their missions.

Comments (35)

  • Baja
    Posted on June 11, 2012 at 10:48am

    Write a check now and give these warriors anything they need.

    Report Post » Baja  
    • TX_BOI
      Posted on June 19, 2012 at 12:01pm

      totally agree and might as well, all we are doing as a nation is charging up credit that we can never payback. At minimum, we should be giving our soldiers and sailors proper equipment to complete their missions. Anything less would be disrespectful and unappreciative…….and if you have never served and disagree….. don’t bother replying, because you would never understand!

      Report Post » TX_BOI  
  • Quixotic-911
    Posted on June 6, 2012 at 2:05pm

    Not altogether bad idea. Now we can wage total war without genocide, blitzkrieg into countries and cities blasting every soul in sight, with the appropriate amount of force, so that you subdue the entire population and end the war as fast as possible, while still being able to claim that you are the “good guys”. No messing around, go in, kick butt, avoid collateral damage, accomplish the mission quickly, get out.

    Report Post »  
  • cemerius
    Posted on June 6, 2012 at 12:11pm

    ha ha ha ha @ “SOCOM” they think that THEY are GI Joe fighting Cobra!!! Don’t fall for the hype, SOCOM is STILL a pathetic organization…….research what happened when these idiots popped into Afghanastan for a couple weeks just after being “stood up”!!! Our REAL Special Forces units are amazing and deserve ALL the support that they can be given! The “admin clerks” at SOCOM think they are ricky ranger!

    Report Post » cemerius  
    • medic06
      Posted on June 7, 2012 at 9:12am

      No need to be insulting, and I would like to point out to you a very important piece of information. I think your getting confused by the video game.

      SOCOM or USSCOM stands for United States Special Operations Command and it IS the real Special Forces. It is the top command for all services special operations including; USASOC (U.S. Army Special Operations Command), NSWC (Navy Special Warfare Command), AFSOC (Air Force Special Operations Command), and MCFSOC (Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command).

      So if you don’t have the facts, perhaps it would be best if you gathered some before insulting and organization you don’t understand. Maybe take a break and read a book. I suggest “From OSS to Green Beret” by the late Col. Aaron Bank (Ret) the founder of Special Forces.

      Report Post »  
  • 95bravo10
    Posted on June 6, 2012 at 4:18am

    The Star Trek guys will be loving this for sure!
    What will we do with all those we have Stunned ? All the high tech stuff is neat, but I like to ask questions. GPS navigation was brand new right before I got out of the Army. Dang thing was huge!
    Had a manual that was about 200 pages long. We had training slots set up for it all the time. I kept missing all of them. Finally got ordered to attend. Listened to the trainer talk about what all they could do and how great they were, and how they needed to be kept in the pelican hard case when not being used and so on. He finally asked if we had any questions and I raised my hand. He gave me the nod and I asked what to do when the batteries took a dump ? He had never thought about this,as he stuttered for a bit. I finally stopped him. Said it’s all right Sgt, I have had this for 7 years and it still ain’t dead, pulling my compass out of my LBE .
    High tech stuff is good,but I will stick to what has worked the last 100 years or so first! I now own a GPS. Its so little it will fit in your pocket! But I still have my compass!
    The same with weapons. Gunpowder and lead have worked for a long time. If something (better) comes out good. But I still want something I know will work when the batteries take a dump, to back me up!
    By the way 20 years later my compass STILL ain’t quit working yet! Got to love what works!!!!
    Sorry all you Tech guys. Just an old guy poking fun at you!!!!!

    Report Post »  
    • Krutch
      Posted on June 6, 2012 at 9:11am

      I understand the navy no longer teaches navigation by the stars because of GPS. Imagine the system being taken out and those billion $ ships with no ‘old salts’ to find the way home.

      Report Post »  
    • cemerius
      Posted on June 6, 2012 at 12:12pm

      @Krutch

      THAT is the scenario that is going to break our “high tech” society in total!! One of the BIGGEST fears is of an EMP attack, yeah power grid gets fried but so can our satellite relays as well……

      Report Post » cemerius  
  • crusaderx9
    Posted on June 5, 2012 at 11:19pm

    Special Operations are the forces that couldn’t hold Afghanistan (or even small parts of the countryside) and needed to get bailed out. They missed getting UBL in the early days and lost the momentum for the US, then convention forces came in and provided the proper density of forces, established proper GLOCs and did the hard work. Special Ops is limited and is being sold as the end all. They will not win our wars – they can provide support to the greater effort and conduct limited spectacular tactical operations. But lets be honest, a missile or laser guided munitions could have ended UBL just as easily and without loss of technology.

    Report Post » crusaderx9  
    • SaintzOfAk
      Posted on June 6, 2012 at 12:37am

      Who believes that these won’t be issued to local law enforcement to use on Americans at some point?

      Report Post » SaintzOfAk  
    • Texas Chris
      Posted on June 6, 2012 at 10:02am

      Trying to us SpecOps to take and hold ground, what we call fighting a war, is like using a hammer to drive in a screw. They’re not designed for that. Can it work…? Yeah, kind of. But it’s ugly.

      Also, what we do in War always comes home. They’re using drones to spy on us now… They’ll be shooting at us with drones eventually. Same with SEW. It’ll be mounted on every government building if the FEDs have their way.

      Report Post »  
    • medic06
      Posted on June 7, 2012 at 9:34am

      Where did you get your information?

      Army Special Forces have done an incredible job in the middle east. They have very unique missions that do NOT include taking and holding ground. However, the conventional forces would not have been able to move in without the intel gathered by the Special Forces, all of them ARMY, AIR FORCE, NAVY, and MARINES. In addition to the intel they crippled the Taliban in 1 month in a way the Russins couldn’t do in more than a decade.

      Just a side note, everyone needs bailed out at some point.

      Report Post »  
  • ODB1111
    Posted on June 5, 2012 at 9:59pm

    Military force is exactly that. It is NOT a police force. And, if you want to take a look at what it costs to equip troops with all this gear I suggest tagamet, and Tums be delivered to you by the train car load. When I retired in 2000 the average “issue equipment” to a soldier was around $1200.00; many soldiers in regular (not SF, SEALs etc) have equipment issues that are over $12,000.00.

    Report Post »  
  • Elfvis
    Posted on June 5, 2012 at 9:12pm

    How many stories have there been about cops in the heat of battle accidentally using their side arms instead of their tazer? Multipurpose (lethal/ no lethal) weapons are an accident waiting to happen. Ooops so sorry meant to set it on disorient, not disintegrate.

    Report Post »  
  • Johneg97
    Posted on June 5, 2012 at 7:44pm

    I like the blue furniture on his AR

    Report Post »  
    • medic06
      Posted on June 7, 2012 at 9:20am

      It’s not “furniture” and its not an “AR”. They’re training rifles (Simulated M-4′s) that fire simulation rounds (sim rounds) so they don’t kill each other while training. AR’s are the “civilian version” that don’t have a selector for Full Auto/Burst.

      Report Post »  
  • FreedomPurveyor
    Posted on June 5, 2012 at 7:38pm

    I love the inclusion of a completely irrelevant, random picture. The fact that they are wielding training weapons is a nice touch.

    Report Post » FreedomPurveyor  
  • saranda
    Posted on June 5, 2012 at 7:32pm

    Can we afford this? Staying ahead of our enemies is one thing, but with money we don’t have is insanity.

    Report Post »  
  • lukerw
    Posted on June 5, 2012 at 7:29pm

    Cloak of Invisiblity… and Sword of Invinciblity…

    Report Post » lukerw  
  • Constructionist
    Posted on June 5, 2012 at 7:18pm

    “adjustable intensity” has been around since the Vietnam era. It’s called the “semi-auto / full auto” selector switch.

    Report Post » Constructionist  
  • Longslide7
    Posted on June 5, 2012 at 6:24pm

    I call it a “Club” a lite hit stuns a heavy hit kills

    Report Post »  
    • hidden_lion
      Posted on June 5, 2012 at 7:00pm

      Right on target. Seals used deploy a hight tech weapon known as a sap, to efficiently disable the folks they didn’t want to kill.

      Report Post » hidden_lion  
    • FNGRNFAN
      Posted on June 5, 2012 at 7:37pm

      I got it, a real big rubber band gun.

      Report Post » FNGRNFAN  
  • Liberty Stone
    Posted on June 5, 2012 at 6:08pm

    A guy named Doug Beason wrote a book called “The E-Bomb: How America’s directed energy weapons will change the way future wars are fought” copyrighted in 2005. My understanding is this guy was a PHD and was in the Air Force working on these type of systems. Everything is Declassified. These systems have been worked on since about 1960. What Socom is talking about is minaturizing a microwave weapon and a laser weapon and combining them into one system for delivery. They want to flip a switch between the two of them and dial up the intensity. It is all fascinating and scary at the same time. Should be interesting if they can put them all together in a small enough package. Wow, America is a cool country to live in where we constantly advancing. Good luck Socom. Also, if you are into this stuff the book is a great read and very thought provoking.

    Report Post »  
  • affinity
    Posted on June 5, 2012 at 6:02pm

    The government seems to be obsessed with weapons.

    Report Post »  
  • Not_A_Useful_Idiot
    Posted on June 5, 2012 at 5:31pm

    I’m sure they would like a weapon that could simple replace a specops operator. I believe it is in the works now and it developmental name is “the wish”. Imagine a weapon that can be dialed up from 1 (a slap) to 10 (nuclear destruction) …yep that a wish alright. lol

    Report Post »  
  • joelack55
    Posted on June 5, 2012 at 5:13pm

    Perfect to detain or control the American people

    Report Post » joelack55  
    • ChiefGeorge
      Posted on June 5, 2012 at 5:28pm

      Spock! Set Fazers to Stun! Yes Captain!

      Report Post » ChiefGeorge  
    • DesertPaine
      Posted on June 5, 2012 at 5:36pm

      C’mon JoeLack55, don’t be silly. That’s like saying that USG that uses drones to kill Al CIAda would, say, give them to US Border Patrol, US Dept of Agriculture, or local police forces.

      And that, of course, is preposterous.

      Report Post »  
    • Mutiny
      Posted on June 5, 2012 at 5:40pm

      @desert

      I hope you are being sarcastic, if not you are in a rude awakening soon.

      Report Post » Mutiny  
    • hcartexas
      Posted on June 5, 2012 at 5:47pm

      @MUTINY…. you know they say it takes an IQ above 90 to detect sarcasm.

      Report Post » hcartexas  
    • DesertPaine
      Posted on June 5, 2012 at 5:51pm

      Um, yeah, @mutiny. Just so happens, coincident to my comments, that USG currently has drones flying for, well, Boorder Patrol, Dept of Ag, and police forces. And who knows who else.

      Report Post »  
    • progressiveslayer
      Posted on June 5, 2012 at 6:10pm

      Of course the USG wouldn’t dream of using drones to spy on political enemies or kill US citizens.
      They‘ve created all these unconstitutional laws and departments to ’protect’ us.1984 has been here for quite a while now.

      Report Post » progressiveslayer  
    • sgtstubbs
      Posted on June 5, 2012 at 6:24pm

      You are kindda right, small group control the masses. Scary and highly questionable

      Report Post » sgtstubbs  

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