Saw an episode of "Future Weapons" last night on cable, and was delighted to see the US Army's newest sniper rifle -- the .50 caliber Barrett. Yikes. While previous US sniper rifles in that caliber were bolt-action, this baby's semi-auto, and you can squeeze off 10 rounds in under 10 seconds should the situation warrant, such as a bunch a bad men in the desert trying to hide after being up to no good. The lethality of this rifle is just amazing. You simply do not, under any circumstances, want to be hit by a .50 caliber round.
Host Richard Machowicz, an ex-Navy SEAL, popped off 10 rounds from more than a half mile away and shattered, and I mean shattered, dual concrete cinderblocks set up as a target, then proceeded to ding up 1/4" steel plate with ball rounds--armored piercing being strictly for military use, of course. A Candian sniper team in Afghanistan has been credited with a kill from over 2400 meters with this weapon. Un-freakin' believable. Talk about ruining some jihadists' day. This baby is considered effective out to a little over 1800 meters and has a range out to 6000! The recoil is greatly mitigated by an innovative spring and buffer assembly, as well as a dual chamber muzzle break that redirects gases from the end of the barrel. Richard was pretty impressed with the weapon.
Naturally, while Mr. Barrett is doing his best to help maintain the lives of our personnel in uniform, the anti-gun lobby is trying to ruin his business, with assistance from law-enforcement agencies that actually use the Barrett! Go figure. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you.
2 comments:
Mmm, Barret .50s. They have a prominent feature in Michael Mann's new movie, Miami Vice. Some badass drug dealers use them to take down a car full of fed CIs. The .50 rounds absolutely decimate the car.
I saw another episode of the show with them experimenting with a robot that could carry the Barrett -- or a machine gun, six barrel grenade launcher or anti-tank missiles. Ouch! The really cool thing about the robot was it sensors -- it could read the name ona uniform from 400 meters!
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