Posted: 6/15/2008 2:53:09 PM EDT
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Heller may have come just in the nck of time... http://www.defensetech.org/archives/cat_ammo_and_munitions.html Guns-B-Gone Almost everywhere they go in Iraq, American soldiers find stacks of explosives and guns. According to one 2004 survey, at least 7 million small arms -- including AK-47 rifles, rocket launchers and mortar tubes, and more sophisticated arms like ground-to-air missiles -- have fallen into the hands of Iraqi civilians since "Mission Accomplished" in 2003. U.S. troops would like to get rid of all of those weapons, as they find them. "However, the extremely large number of both weapons and storage sites has rendered global securing and destruction of caches nearly impossible," notes Darpa, the Pentagon's way-out research arm. What the agency wants to see instead: a non-toxic spray that can "penetrate rapidly into the [weapon's] active firing and/or actuation mechanisms and render them instantly and permanently inoperable." The formulation will produce an accelerated corrosion (or other) reaction over a longer period of time (a few months or less), perhaps using the weapon material itself as a metallic catalyst, to destroy the weapon internal structure. The formulation must be effective in small quantities (i.e., a few grams per weapon), safe to use, stable over the range of operational temperature/humidity conditions, have a long shelf-life, be capable of large-area dissemination, and produce a non-toxic residue after the weapon is destroyed... [The spray] must not be reversed by simple chemical, thermal, or other means. Such a chemical system has the potential to enable the systematic and effective removal of small arms from the battlespace. |
So basically they want a non-toxic substance that will destroy any metallic object?  Or just one that destroys guns specifically? Pardon me if I'm not overly concerned about this miracle substance being discovered and put to use to render our privately-owned guns useless. |
Compare the time it takes to do that to the time it takes to squirt a bit of the miracle product out of a can into the action. Seems like they are really lazy on this (otherwise they'd just pile them up outside and run over with a tank or torch with some thermite) so the time difference matters. |
Pfft. My WASR-10 and CZ-52 were both packed full of cosmoline when I got them. I checked to make sure the bore and chamber were clear, slapped in a magazine, and fired both until molten cosmoline was dripping out of both guns in a steady stream. "Disassemble it, insert parts into oven, and set the temperature so the cosmoline liquifies and drips out of the gun" my ass. 
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 So true.. So lemme get this straight. Iraqi civilians are being disarmed (again)? I was under the impression that they were allowed select fire rifles and pistols. Or is this more for the weapons scattered all over the country buried in sand dunes and hidden under mosques? No doubt California is watching the outcome of these tests with great interest. |
So what is it? Instant or over a few months time? |
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I've seen a loc-tite product that is seriously nasty. A tech got some on the side of his wrench without knowing it. He set it down on an aluminum topped table while he finished taking apart the machine. When he went to pick his wrench up again, it was securely stuck to the table. After trying various methods to unstick it, he finally got it loose with a large pry bar, a 2x4, and a 15lb deadblow hammer. There was a large strip of Al that came with the wrench. Of course it's not non-toxic, but it would disable a bolt... |
Seriously. I guess stacking them up and running them over with a tracked vehicle would work pretty well too. And I'm sure some of the weapons included in the numbers are personal weapons that are OK for Iraqi citizens to own. |
But if it comes in a can and will destroy metal, won't the can be inoperable? |
No. |
^ This. M1 Abrams MBT; the world's greatest trash compactor. And what fun to watch it work.  I say we destroy all those shitty AKs and open the Iraqi market to American AR manufacturers. |
| A mix of superglue and the expanding insulation foam contractors use would sure as hell mess up a gun. A short squirt into the action would gum it up and even plug up the chamber and some of the barrel. It would take hell to get that stuff out of the action. I don't doubt chemists could come up with something along those lines that would bond with or into the metals molecular surface to make cleaning it off nigh on to impossible without major chemicals and equipment. |
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Instead of spraying wouldn't it be easier to dunk the guns into a big drum of the newfangled chemical they're dreaming up? Secure site, call in chem truck, and get to dunkin'. Personally, I like the idea of shipping them to a nearby foundry and making other stuff out of them. Heck, let the private industry come, cut em' up, and ship back parts kits for American consumers. Melt whatever you can't ship back. The military disarms the enemy, the private sector makes money, and the consumer gets the parts kits we've been wanting. Everybody wins! |
Epoxy isn't nearly as heat-resistant as steel - which means that if you heat the receiver/barrel, the epoxy gives way long before the metal starts to lose temper or distort. |
It would be an epic failure if U.S troops get over spray on their service rifle and come to find out in a gun fight that their weapons don't work either.  Dumb idea why not just get the fuck out of their and let the rag heads kill each other till there is no one left.
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