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| Science & Technology |
| U.S. Military's New Secret Weapon: The "Flying Ginsu" |
| 2019-05-10 |
| [Hot Air] Often military jargon is inscrutable to civilians, but not this time. The "flying Ginsu" is just what it sounds like: It’s a small drone-fired missile, except instead of explosives it’s equipped with ... blades. Six big farking knives shoot out the sides of this thing in the final seconds before impact, shredding everything in its path ‐ including jihadi masterminds. I almost don’t believe it’s real. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #16 Unfortunately probably not as intelligent as the knife middles in the Culture novels |
| Posted by: Ebbolutch Hatrack1579 2019-05-10 19:19 |
| #15 The DOD should definitely get their act together and weaponize the Bass o Matic! |
| Posted by: Woodrow 2019-05-10 17:48 |
| #14 For perspective, Krull had only 5 blades. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2019-05-10 16:57 |
| #13 Sooo...can it be launched horizontally down a street for crowd control? |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2019-05-10 16:45 |
| #12 Thank you, SteveS. I expect you and Mr. Besoeker will spend your times out creating new brain exercises for the rest of us. In the meantime, I found this, from the article, very satisfying: The Wall Street Journal was able to confirm two specific strikes in which it was used, one by the Defense Department and one by the CIA. In January 2019, Jamal al-Badawi, accused of being behind the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000 in a Yemeni port, killing 17 American sailors, was killed by an R9X fired by the Pentagon. The Pentagon has acknowledged the strike, which occurred in Yemen, though not the specific munition involved. In February 2017, Ahmad Hasan Abu Khayr al-Masri, an Egyptian national who served as al Qaeda’s No. 2, was killed in Syria’s Idlib Province by an R9X fired by a U.S. aircraft operated by the CIA. The CIA doesn’t acknowledge airstrikes it carries out… |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2019-05-10 15:45 |
| #11 I suspect Besoeker is making a pun of some sort that I’m not clever enough to pick up on. fahrvergnügen + Six big farking knives shoot out = Farkingnügen We'll go to our rooms now. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2019-05-10 14:17 |
| #10 It’s spelt fahrvergnügen. The ad can be watched here. I suspect Besoeker is making a pun of some sort that I’m not clever enough to pick up on. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2019-05-10 13:09 |
| #9 Oh, and ,thereque, that was a play on an old VW ad slogan, farfignugen. |
| Posted by: ed in texas 2019-05-10 11:59 |
| #8 A spear? |
| Posted by: ed in texas 2019-05-10 11:56 |
| #7 Are they talking about the AeroVironment Switchblade UAV (and getting it spectacularly Wrong in typical journo fashion)? The Switchblade is a disposable drone that can be equipped with a small grenade-sized warhead and flown into the targets shown by its sensors ... an aerial kamikaze. |
| Posted by: magpie 2019-05-10 10:52 |
| #6 Yeah, yeah. We've had that, like, forever. |
| Posted by: China 2019-05-10 09:30 |
| #5 OK, Besoeker, even Duck-duck-go doesn't know what you're talking about. |
| Posted by: Threreque Glereger1817 2019-05-10 08:43 |
| #4 sometimes we want to kill a terrorist but don't want to kill the terrorist's assistant who is standing nearby because the assistant is the intel asset who got the terrorist's location for us |
| Posted by: lord garth 2019-05-10 08:23 |
| #3 I'll bet the "blades" are to slow the munition... Less KE, less collateral damage |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2019-05-10 06:53 |
| #2 Farkingnügen ? |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2019-05-10 05:58 |
| #1 Does it make julienne fries? /obscure? |
| Posted by: Raj 2019-05-10 05:52 |