Newest Army Weapon to Thwart Bombs: Paintball Guns

Technology Saturday, November 12th, 2011

By Adam Rawnsley, Wired

You’re a soldier on patrol in Afghanistan. Walking down the road, you spot a strange object far away, sticking out off to the side. Is it a bomb? How should you even check? If the Army’s latest research project pans out, you might just whip out your paintball gun.

On Wednesday, the Army announced that it’s in the market for a paintball system that can detect the presence and type of different explosives. The system would work by loading up projectiles with materials that advertise the presence of explosives — sort of like a litmus test for bombs — and firing them at the suspected bombs. Picture paintballing, but with a target that might really kill you.

It’s another foray into the field of bomb-hunting technology. Over the past few years, scientists have developed a range of weird and wonderful ways to sniff out the things that go boom, from explosives-sensitive plants to dynamite-detecting bee venom. But for maximum safety, it’s always nice to figure out if that package or object is a bomb when you’re not close enough to be blown apart by it.

That’s standoff explosive detection, a field the Defense Department has shown great interest in as terrorists and insurgents have become better and more frequent users of improvised explosive devices. The Pentagon has put cash into a number of different approaches, using lasers and terahertz radiation to find traces of explosive material.

The paintball idea is comparatively low-tech. The Army notes that the technology to detect explosives with paints and powders is already a commercial reality. They point to Raptor Detection Technology’s SAFE-T Spray, which turns orange on contact with certain explosives, as an example.

To read more, visit:  http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/11/army-bombs-paintball/

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