Rapid Additively Manufactured Ballistics Ordnance: RAMBO
The US Army has developed a grenade launcher. And a grenade. Both made by 3D printers:
Researchers at the U.S. Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center (ARDEC) successfully fired the first grenade created with a 3-D printer from a grenade launcher that was produced the same way. This demonstration shows that additive manufacturing (commonly known as 3-D printing) has a potential future in weapon prototype development, which could allow engineers to provide munitions to Soldiers more quickly.
And they get points for the name.
March 14th, 2017 at 9:59 pm
Dopey DoD acronym, I’d like to introduce you to a feckless, waste-of-space firearm.
March 14th, 2017 at 11:22 pm
Yeah. Weapons not required or expected to survive contact with the enemy — the weapons and the “soldiers” using them. Can you say “suicide squads”?
March 15th, 2017 at 3:10 pm
I, for one, envision the future wherein a Lockheed C5 Galaxy rolls to a stop on a pre-dawn runway, then the nose lifts and the ramps drop. Engines roar from the cavernous plane’s inside, and a self-contained 3D munitions factory rolls off and parks in a hangar. Within minutes, the tanker trucks of liquid polymer roll up and are attached. With just one diesel generator roaring away, the bizarre machine starts pumping out armed drones, each ready to reconnoiter possible targets, sight enemy troops, and destroy or defend against whatever is found. I only hope they don’t forget to add the IFF modules in the design software.
March 17th, 2017 at 12:21 am
https://youtu.be/_iD1wv-l7U0
This guy beat them by a month.