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Posted by: Yerameyahu Sep 13 2010, 07:23 PM

http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-09/new-twist-water-guns-water-blades-can-rip-through-ieds

I assume this is basically a version of waterjet cutting (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_jet_cutter), but it's pretty cool that it's portable and in production. It uses an explosive instead of a pump to get the water pressure.

Posted by: Dahrken Sep 13 2010, 07:28 PM

Not really. Waterjet cutting use a continuous stream of high-pressure liquid, which can be loaded with abrasive for cutting hard materials, while this use an explosive charge to propel a single load of water through the target, like a water bullet and it's definitively single use only..

Posted by: Doc Chase Sep 13 2010, 07:35 PM

It's also cheap as hell, from the look of it.

Posted by: Yerameyahu Sep 13 2010, 07:38 PM

Hehe. I meant that it uses high-pressure water to damage something, Dahrken.

Posted by: nezumi Sep 13 2010, 07:54 PM

And an interesting way to kill a person. A bullet made out of water?

Posted by: Yerameyahu Sep 13 2010, 08:00 PM

I like it as an alternative to primacord or shock-lock for B&E. Not as compact, though. :/

Posted by: Stahlseele Sep 13 2010, 08:42 PM

if you're going to blow it up anyway, why not simply use the explosives without the water to do it?

Posted by: Yerameyahu Sep 13 2010, 08:46 PM

Dunno. I assume it's safer. The news release is awfully short on 'why this?', right? AFAIK, that's because it's more like a corporate press release: "Provided by Sandia National Laboratories", but PopSci went ahead and bylined it as 'written' by their own person. Hah!

Posted by: Badmoodguy88 Sep 13 2010, 08:59 PM

I just read a thread on plastic explosives the other day. You can hit C4 with a hammer and throw it in at fire and it will just burn (giving off poison gas), but if you set it on fire and then hit it with a hammer it will explode. C4 needs heat plus an impact to do its thing. Basically this blade thing delivers a huge amount of kinetic energy with out delivering much if any heat and little oxygen. In the video with the propane tank it exploded but it did not ignite.

It probably does not fail to set off the explosives all the time but it is better than the current practice of using explosives to safely detonate the explosives.

At least that is my interpretation.

It really is cool how simple the idea for the device is.

Posted by: Dahrken Sep 13 2010, 09:04 PM

Explosive-launched water to destroy IED or suspected bombs is nothing new, but this specific package seems to have been designed and optimized for low cost, I think because there is a large potential market.

If I'm not mistaken, the impact of the water is strong enough to mechanically disrupt the IED and prevent it from detonating as planned by the builder, but much less likely than a contact explosion (for exemple from explosives tamped on the bomb) to trigger the charge, thus making the preocess safer and much less destructive to whatever is around the IED..

Posted by: Yerameyahu Sep 14 2010, 02:32 AM

Seems like it'd be especially useful if your GM makes any significant used of bombs/IEDs in your games.

Posted by: CanRay Sep 14 2010, 02:47 AM

Water Cutting Tools have been around for quite some time, and are very efficient and cost effective in areas with a lot of water, or have a lack of availability of steel bits. I think they started using them in Strip Mines, but I might be mistaken.

Their use as a "Disarming Solution" is interesting, however.

Posted by: KarmaInferno Sep 14 2010, 04:50 AM

Izzit related to this thing?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHJo956BtJM



-karma

Posted by: Yerameyahu Sep 14 2010, 04:58 AM

Looks the same, only bigger.

Posted by: Reg06 Sep 14 2010, 03:06 PM

Except for the wound, it leaves no trace. Pretty handy for clandestine killings.

Posted by: Nifft Sep 14 2010, 03:58 PM

... or Fire Spirits.

Posted by: Dahrken Sep 14 2010, 04:33 PM

... no traces except the blast and shrapnels from the container and detonation system. It's about as clandestine as the IED it is designed to destroy.


The hard part about that is convincing the spirit to stay sitting on the thing, because it is rather short ranged. This makes it somewhat impractical outside of an ambush or other situations where you can lead the target into the right spot.

Posted by: Badmoodguy88 Sep 14 2010, 04:41 PM

Someone could make an impact hammer like in unreal tournament. Except when it makes contact it sets of explosives that propel water into the target at point blank range.

That would actually work as a bizarre melee weapon that would be useful against spirits... or tanks.

Posted by: Dahrken Sep 14 2010, 04:57 PM

Such a weapon would be as dangerous for the user (or possibly even more !) for the user that for the intended target, because of that pesky action/reaction law. The same explosion that propel a load of water at a speed high enough to be useful against an heavily armored target will propel the rest of the weapon backward at a lower (but still excessive for the wielder's safety) speed.

Posted by: Yerameyahu Sep 14 2010, 08:08 PM

Haha, I really don't think this is a good idea for a weapon of any kind. Like Dahrken said, it's not stealthy at all (noise, size, and there's a huge wound), and it's single-shot. It's a tool.

Posted by: Doc Chase Sep 14 2010, 08:11 PM

Make for an interesting sticky bomb if you could get it on, say, a tank turret.

Posted by: Dumori Sep 14 2010, 08:15 PM

Could make for cheap landmine tech.

Posted by: Yerameyahu Sep 14 2010, 08:38 PM

I wonder how the price stacks up, actually. Landmines are *really* cheap already; you'd think precision-shaped 'water blade' devices wouldn't really be cheaper.

Posted by: CanRay Sep 14 2010, 08:55 PM

IEDs are even cheaper in places that have seen war within a generation. Unexploded munitions and abandoned bases full of old bombs.

Posted by: Smokeskin Sep 14 2010, 09:39 PM

I saw one of those future weapons or similar shows, they had this flat piece of explosive, looked thinner than cardboard. Slide it under a door, it worked as flashbang. Tape it on the door with a bag of water behind it, it knocked the door in.

Posted by: Daylen Sep 15 2010, 12:54 AM

only Sandia would get research money to do "revolutionary" work on shaped charges... "oh but this time we'll use water instead of copper!" those guys are frauds and idiots...

Posted by: Dahrken Sep 15 2010, 05:18 AM

If tank-hunting, go for a true shaped charge with a metal liner, it will be more effective for a given amount of explosive.

Posted by: Saint Sithney Sep 15 2010, 09:00 PM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heptanitrocubane it is not.

Posted by: Doc Chase Sep 15 2010, 09:53 PM

Gesundheit!