The pentagon has quietly been working on a new arsenal of advanced weaponry that replaces metal casings with "reactive materials," normally harmless matter that combines to release explosive amounts of energy on impact, tearing targets apart with violent fury. In development for more than 30 years, the research is beginning to bear fruit, and may soon spawn more powerful bombs, warheads that tear apart stone and concrete, mines that can be set to stun or kill, and grenades that can swat rockets or mortar rounds out of the sky like flies. "You can get effects that are more precisely tailored to a particular target," says John Pike, director of Washington military research group GlobalSecurity.org. "And you're able to get a greater effect out of a smaller munition." Reactive materials are combinations of materials that are normally stable, but, when subjected to sudden shock -- such as striking a target -- release a large amount of energy. Depending on the composition and warhead design, the energy can be released as heat, a blast or a combination of the two. Unlike conventional explosives, RMs cannot be set off by fuses. Technically, they are classified as flammable solids, and they are less hazardous to transport and store than explosives. While they're more energetic than explosives, RMs are not intended to be a substitute. Instead, they will replace warhead components normally made of metal. An analysis of U.S. military procurement papers and defense contractor presentations, as well as interviews with companies working on the technology, suggests that a wave of munitions using reactive materials may be headed for a battlefield near you.

The material can dramatically magnify the yield of conventional bombs, and do away with the waste embodied by a bomb's inert metal skin. The U.S. Air Force's 5,000 BLU-122 bunker buster, for example, contains just 780 pounds of explosives; the other 80 percent is the bomb's thick steel casing. DARPA's Reactive Munition program (.doc) aims to replace that steel with RMs, to create a bomb with a blast four times as powerful.

View: Full Article | Source: Wired

Sure..anything to kill more humans.

right? i mean its not enough that we have the ability to crispy fry are whole planet. nope gotta find even better ways of killing each other. humans are such stupid and simple creatures.

Will it blend?

It's saddening thet a race as (potentially) inteligent as us still require to kill each other...
A good apocalyptic war would solve a few problems mind you...

And another...

Next thing we know, we're all dead.

Sic vis pacem parabellum - If you want peace, prepare for war

it doesnt matter if 99% of the people on this planet are in a peaceful state with no weapons, all you need is one person with some sort of weapon to change it all.

its the person with the weapon who decides what happens. if we didnt have the big guns than anyone who wanted to could come and take away our freedom. yea it stupid but just because we dont make weapons doesnt mean someone else wont. so might as well be prepared.

I read some where that a company is working on a new type of bullet that when it hits releases an electric charge that disables rather than kills. Similar to the PPG's used on the Babylon-5 TV series.
I'd like them much better.