
Image credit: U.S. Army / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain
April 30, 2018
Report to Army Finds Blast from Some Weapons May Put Shooter's Brain at Risk
Military personnel may be endangering their own brains when they operate certain shoulder-fired weapons, according to an Army-commissioned report released Monday.
The report, from the Center for a New American Security, says these bazooka-like weapons pose a hazard because they are powered by an explosion just inches from the operator's head.
When you fire it, the pressure wave feels like getting hit in the face," says Paul Scharre, a former Army Ranger who directs the technology and national security program at the Center. Scharre is a co-author of the center's report: Protecting Warfighters from Blast Injury.
The report looks at a range of injuries caused by blast waves — pulses of high pressure air that emanate from an explosion and travel faster than the speed of sound.
Read the Full Article at National Public Radio
More from CNAS
-
AI Arms Race, Drone Warfare and Cognitive Enhancement with Paul Scharre
The Grey Dynamics podcast spoke with Paul Scharre, the vice president and director of studies at the Center for New American Security (CNAS). They discussed the use of drones ...
By Paul Scharre
-
China’s Chip Industry Dismayed by Multilateral Export Controls
The original Chinese statement takes a much more indignant tone, reading more like an impassioned call to action to the Chinese domestic semiconductor industry to get its act ...
By Emily Jin
-
China’s Censors Are Afraid of What Chatbots Might Say
If Xi grows worried that, for instance, AI-powered automation will displace too many jobs and thus metastasize the risk of social unrest, he would have to make a hard choice b...
By Jordan Schneider & Nicholas Welch
-
It’s Time to Appoint a US Special Envoy for Semiconductors
A special envoy for semiconductors could demonstrate U.S. leadership without acting unilaterally....
By Alexandra Seymour