M-252 Mortar

The M252 81mm Medium Extended Range Mortar is a crew-served, medium weight mortar which is highly accurate and provides for a greater range (4,500 meters to 5,650 meters) and lethality than the previous 81mm mortar. The cannon has a crew-removable breech plug and firing pin. The muzzle end has a short tapered lead-in which acts as a blast attenuator device. The breech end is finned for better cooling. This mortar also uses the standard M64 mortar sight of the M-224 60mm mortar.
The M252 is an adaptation of the standard British 81mm mortar developed in the 1970s. It is mostly commonly found in the mortar platoon of an Army or Marine Corps infantry battalion.The M252 is ideally suited to support airborne, air assault, mountain and light infantry units. The M-252 Mortar is used by the U.S. Army and the U.S. Marine Corps.

Type: 81mm mortar

Entered service: 1987

Caliber: 81mmBarrel

length:4 ft 6 in

Weight: 91 lbs

Range: 5,600 meters

Rate of fire: 15 rounds/min sustained

M-9 Handgun

Did you know that in combat, it's mostly officers who carry handguns? Most enlisted don't. Notable exceptions are military police, and special operations forces. The M-9 pistol is the primary sidearm for all of the military services. It entered the services in 1985 (1990 for the Army), pushing out the older M-1911A1 .45-caliber pistol, a weapon with an 80-year military history, and 4-inch-barrel, .38-caliber revolvers. The adoption of the M-9 pistol was the result of a congressional mandate to equip all U.S. services with a standard handgun.
The Colt-designed M-1911A1 served soldiers well in many wars; some older soldiers argued, why replace it? As with other Army weapons, competition proved the M-9 to be the best sidearm.
To get the nod, the M-9 had to meet strict requirements for functional reliability, speed of first shot, rapidity of fire, speed of reloading, range, penetration and accuracy to 50 yards. Also, the pistol's components had to be interchangeable, so a working weapon could be pieced together from the parts of others.
The M-9 went through a series of rugged tests to evaluate its functionality. An extreme climatic test checked its ability to withstand temperatures between minus 40 and 140 degrees. A 10-day salt water immersion and humidity trial tested its resistance to corrosion. It tackled mud, sand, dirt and water to test its operation under adverse field conditions. A fully loaded weapon was dropped four feet onto a hard surface to test for accidental discharge.
To test the ability to swap pistol components, testers fired and then disassembled 10 weapons. The parts were randomly put back together, then the weapons were fired again with no problems. If needed, the parts of weapons can be cannibalized to create a working pistol from broken ones.
Type: Semiautomatic pistolEntered Army service: 1990Specifications:Caliber: 9mmLength: 217mmBarrel length: 125mmWeight: 850 gMagazine capacity: 15 roundsRange: 50 m

DARPA Proposes One-shot Sniping System

Sniper has been one of the most effective battlefield assets. The gun is known to do the job accurately and turning the course of the battle. Snipers are trained to calculate the external influences due to atmospheric conditions that may deviate the direction of the bullet fired. DARPA has developed a new Advanced Sighting System (One-Shot) program with a view to enabling Snipers to accurately hit targets with the first round, under crosswind conditions, at the maximum effective range of the weapon (RE).
It aims at creating a system that finds the “perfect angle” by digitally measuring all the required atmospheric information. The two systems, Laser Doppler Velocimeters and Coherent Doppler Lidar that are being used currently in the snipers are not adequate to design this system. Therefore, the researchers are trying to figure out better sensor technologies. The organization has set no time frame for the research so it is not possible to tell when would we be able to see this “one shot one kill” machine.
Via: gizmag

China Develops J-10 Stealth Fighter

China has been working on increasing its defense power. Initially the company blinded a U.S. satellite with a laser, and then they destroyed a satellite more than 500 miles up and now the country officials are spending the most in five years in defense.

The result of this is a new J-10 stealth fighter. This is the country’s first indigenous state-of-the-art fighter jet.
The machine is a single-seat and single-engine plane that can reach a speed of Mach 2. The country officials also commented that the jet is thought to be the equal of just about every other fighter in the world. The only exception is America’s new F-22 Raptor.
China is also sending this new jet to Russia where current and former Red militaries will team up in joint exercises.
China has also started working on the upgrade of this new jet with new jets named J-12 and J-13 in the development phase.
Via: wired

SwiMP3 Surf Waterproof MP3 Player

Next time you go surfing/ swimming/ kayaking you can hear your music while you hit the waves thanks to the SwiMP3 Surf Waterproof Player from ActiveForever. The fully sealed player works 25 feet underwater and the waterproof ear buds keep water out of the ear. The player straps on securely to your arm and the ear buds stay firmly in place due to their sensible design. The lithium ion rechargeable battery provides up to 10 hours playback and the player has a 256 MB storage capacity for about 60 songs. It supports both MP3 and WMA formats.

Porsche Design Cronographe PTC

This distinctive Porsche Design chrono is a welcome breath of fresh air. Porsche Design Cronographe PTC is true to its innovative spirit. This time piece blazes new trails in design and styling. Offered in limited edition, it’s titanium case measures 42mm and the dial is secured with sapphire crystal on both the sides. Powered by automatic chronograph caliber ETA 2894-2 with special Porsche Design rotor, it has a power reserve of 42 hours. It is water resistant up to 100 meters. Don’t miss on to the subtle highlighting with orange on the dial as well as the strap.

Motorola RAZR 2 launched in Korea

The RAZR's successor the RAZR 2 is finally out in stores in Korea, the first market it is available globally. Motorola's flagship model for the year it features a distinctive tandem display in the front. It has a 2 inch external screen for crisp picture and readable text, the internal display is 2.2 inches wide and has double the resolution of the original RAZR. The phone is 2mm thinner the first RAZR at just 11.9mm. The most distinctive feature of the RAZR 2 is the tandem display as with the 2 inch external screen users can access 10 functions like reading text message, navigating multimedia files, navigation and etc. even with the phone closed. It has a touch sensor on the external display, it vibrates lightly whenever users touch its menu buttons.