According to the company, the Lund Variable Velocity Weapons System (LVVWS) is an all-in-one weapon: lethal when used at high velocity, or less-lethal at low-velocity. The gun uses pump action, shoots two rounds a second and weighs a little over six pounds. It also substitutes a uses a hydrogen-powered combustion chamber for a standard cartridge, and doesn’t produce any smoke or powder residue.
And, given that less-lethal rounds can be notoriously dangerous when fired at close range, the LVVWS also uses a rangefinder-based safety system to precent high-velocity shooting at close range targets.
It’s part of the Pentagon’s push for more varieties of less-lethal weaponry. Despite decades of research into cutting-edge weaponry, the military has yet to find an effective solution. Most less-lethal weapons are either useless at long range, or can be downright deadly if fired too close (think here of flexible baton rounds and rubber bullets).
Lund Technologies finalized production of its non-lethal, combustion-powered firearm with Small Business Innovation Research funds.
Of course, the LVVWS can also be intentionally lethal: That’s up to the intention of the operator. It can chamber two different rounds, a lethal and a less-lethal projectile. Lund’s developers believe the weapon could be useful in wars that are increasingly fought among civilian populations, rather than a traditional battlefield. And that was what attracted the Pentagon to Lund’s idea two years ago, when they funded initial prototypes of the device.
But while the LVVWS sounds good on paper, it’s a long way from being used by troops in real-world scenarios. And, obviously, a less-lethal weapon with a built-in “shoot-to-kill” option could lead to some undesirable consequences.
Image: Lund Technologies
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