Don’t need answer fast : )
Let’s say a SWAT unit wanted to be able to direct the effects of a flashbang grenade so that the effects of the flash and/or the bang of a flashbang grenade were produced by a directional device, would that be possible?
What are the ways it might work?
How well could it direct the light and sound? How would its range compare to a grenade? How good could it be at being less lethal and not permanently injuring compared to grenades?
Would it have to rely on chemical energy or could it work on electrical energy only?
Building a flash-bang gun and making a flash-band charge directional are two entirely different things. I don’t know for sure but I imagine making a flash-bang projectile would be relatively easy, and something similar to a tear gas projectile.
The directional part would be harder, and I’m not sure it would even be desirable. Let’s say you shoot one into a barricaded house. It breaks a window, flies in and bounces off a couple of walls and falls to the floor. How are you supposed to “aim” the flash and bang? It could end up pointed in any direction.
You hold the FB gun like any other gun, produce the flash and bang inside the gun and use the barrel to direct the sound and/or light. It might even work in a normal shotgun.
With a purpose built gun, the material, shape and coating of the barrel could be optimized to direct the sound wave and light either straight forward or like a shaped charged.
The use of a flash bang is usually for times that direct confrontation is most dangerous. Putting the flash bang into a gun for use in close situations makes it useless for it’s original purpose. In other words, it would probably be so limited as to be useless. The ability to direct the “Flash” and “Bang” would probably make the whole thing more dangerous to use, for the operator and the target.
Consider a blank cartridge, it has no bullet, but can still be lethal at close range.
My take on it is thus…
No real need for this.
It would (probably) result in an unreliable and lethal weapon. Might as well bring your gun.
While some direction could probably be achieved, the Operator would most likely have to wear several forms of protection for the skin, eyes, and ears before deploying it.
It would be like a boxing glove that pops out of a gun on a spring. As a weapon carried by a Batman villain it would look great but it’s not practical in real life.
I was indeed thinking more about Ignotus’ example. That a grenade could be thrown from a gun and produce the effects of a FB grenade is plain enough although I did not know about the CTS Model 4090, thanks.
Presuming a material that is good at directing sound and light in 1 direction, how would range be affected relative to a FB grenade for the same charge?
Are there shapes which would be optimal for directionality? Would phased arrays, both sonic and optical, be best for focusing sound and light?
As someone else already posted, guns to fire/deploy flash-bang grenades already exist. It’s just that for most purposes where police/special ops would use such a thing, hand delivery is just as, or more, effective. You want to be close in so that when the bad-guys-in-question are startled/stunned you can rush them and take them out as quickly as possible.
Now if we really are talking a gun that produces the same effect as the grenade, the problem is size. It would block any window or door you smash in to “shoot” it which would delay the entrance of the normally armed folks behind you/it. Something like a volley gun set to fire multiple 12 gauge special shells at the same time
(a modern version of this Photo Storage )
could maybe work but its easier to toss a grenade and then rush.
Years ago I was pretty active as a journalist covering DARPA non-lethal program, including their rolling-doughnut acoustic knocker-downer thing (imagine a cigar smoke ring puffed by Gargantua), so not so much a bang. But focusing sound/acoustic impulses directionally was what it was all about.
