The 10 Most Popular Weapons

On Richardcyoung.com we have been posting profiles of weapons systems for years. Judging by our statistics, readers thoroughly enjoy the profiles of the most advanced weapons systems in the U.S. arsenal, and the traditional firearms classics. Below is a rundown of the weapons that have received the most attention on Richardcyoung.com and links to their profiles.

1)      Free Electron Laser (FEL) “Scientists at Los Alamos National Lab, N.M., have achieved a remarkable breakthrough with the Office of Naval Research’s Free Electron Laser (FEL) program, demonstrating an injector capable of producing the electrons needed to generate megawatt-class laser beams for the Navy’s next-generation weapon system.”

2)      X-47B Unmanned Air Combat System (UCAS) “The X-47B is a tailless, strike fighter-sized unmanned system currently under development by Northrop Grumman as part of the U.S. Navy’s Unmanned Combat Air System Demonstration (UCAS-D) program.”

3)      Blitzer Electromagnetic Railgun “With the advantages of hypervelocity launch at speeds in excess of seven times the speed of sound, EM Railgun provides game changing possibilities for both long range Naval Surface Fire Support (NSFS) of missions far inland (+200 nautical miles) and for ship defense.”

4)      Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) “A fast, maneuverable and networked surface combatant, the LCS provides the required warfighting capabilities and operational flexibility to execute focused missions close to the shore such as mine warfare, anti-submarine warfare and surface warfare.”

5)      Browning Automatic Pistol M1911 “The Model 1911 .45 Automatic Pistol is the world’s most respected handgun, and has been designated by many authorities as the finest service pistol design of all time. The Browning 1911 was yet another revolutionary gun by one of the greatest gun designers of all time, John Moses Browning, the founder of today’s Browning Arms Company.”

6)      LRAS3 “With the LRAS3’s strategic standoff surveillance and Boomerang’s network-ready sensors, the soldier can locate and respond to the sniper threat immediately.”

7)      U.S. Survival AR-7 “Since 1959, the venerable AR-7 has been the choice of U.S. Air Force pilots who need a small-caliber rifle they can count on for survival should they have to punch out over a remote area.”

8)      Gorgon Stare “The United States Air Force’s new revolutionary wide-area airborne surveillance system named “Gorgon Stare,” designed and developed by Sierra Nevada Corp., and the USAF’s 645th Aeronautical Systems Group was deployed to Afghanistan this winter. This revolutionary system, which operates day and night, allows its users to overcome the “soda straw” view that the current conventional single field of view EO/IR camera mounted on Predator and Reaper UAVs provides. The Air Force hopes to have 10 Reapers equipped with the Gorgon Stare system by early to mid-2011.”

9)      Metal Storm Weapons’ Redback “Metal Storm’s Redback is a multi barrel 40mm remotely operated weapons systems (ROWS) which can instantly attack multiple targets with different munitions.”

10)   Husky “The “Husky” Vehicle is a blast survivable, overpass capable, field repairable, mine detector that has been combat-proven in various conflict situations around the world since the early 1980s.”