What weapons are we going to create in the next years?

Variations on the same shit we have now.

Telescoping ammo, airburst munitions, lighter components, better/smarter optics. Thats about all we can realistically expect, since portable railguns and directed energy shit are videogame memes.

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>>34489206
This desu. When it comes to small arms, other than looking forward to caseless ammunition, we have just been tinkering and squeezing extra performance out of older tech. I doubt we will see anything as revolutionary as semi/full auto intermediate calibre weapons were to bolt actions and early semis. We have hit a plateau. Though I'm sure that at someone always thought that at each stage in history.

Would be cool if we could get smaller power supplies that could handle a man carried railgun or a gun that sprays microwaves at a lethal power instead of those deterrent crowd control weapons we already have.

Imagine if you could clear a room by just microwaving it. Destroying all organic life and then strolling in and claim a more intact building as opposed to if you had to frag and clear.

In the next few years maybe more integrally suppressed guns, considering that the Maxim 9 and Silent-SR ISB have gotten some attention. The trend of more polymer and sticking a red dot on everything will probably continue.

>>34489200
I think a liquid nitrogen version of a flame thrower would be pretty fucking terrifying.

I'm sure the muzzle on such a thing would frost over and become useless though.

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>>34489216
>Telescoping ammo
exprain preez

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Hopefully something more...civilized

>>34489257
http://www.forgottenweapons.com/russian-silent-ammunition/
Basically each round has a captive piston that throws the bullet out, containing all of the gasses produced. It's an incredibly silent way of making a gun, but hard to make semi-auto due to the piston sticking out so far from the spent cases, and of course the velocity and cost of ammo are total ass.

>>34489257
Instead of having the projectile in front of the powder, you embed it in the powder. Its the same dimensional concept as caseless, but retaining the case and not having the issues of caseless. See: LSAT

>>34489257
The tip of the bullet telescopes into the casing. I can't post a link but just Google it and first article explains it.

>>34489216
Rail guns and directed energy weapons are much closer than most people realize. We had successful tests of both in the 90s and billions of covert research dollars spent on it in the meantime. The government doesn't see them as "memes". If nothing else it's pushing the envelope on battery tech

>>34489269
Whoops, I got telescoping confused with captive piston.

>>34489200
Rail guns n shit

>>34489293
>The government doesn't see them as "memes".
You missed the key word "portable". Sure, ship mounted railguns and stationary lasers are already confirmed, but man-portable railguns are the quintessential meme, right up there with AA12s and Metal Storm.

Cased-telescoped polymer. All the benefits of caseless (30-40% less weight) without the flaws (breaks everytiem it gets rained on, put in pockets, etc).

Smart sights that integrate a ballistic computer and laser rangefinder. Trijicon has already built the CCAS for machineguns, and Tracking Point has made the idea popular in the civilian mind.

>>34489348
Other future weapons that are already here:

Mini smart bombs the size of mortar shells, dropped from UAVs - Pyros, Fury, STM, Hatchet, etc. Typically in the <10lb range.

Bringing EW out of plane and down to the infantry plt/coy level: bistatic EM emittters and receivers for detecting UAVs, maybe even low-level counterbattery.

The holy grail ofc would be a battlefield management system that automates everything from the individual soldier to the division commander, so that a call for fire can automatically get data from a rangefinder, automatically get air clearance, and automatically program target coordinates...good luck tho, considering how many bureaucrats it would put out of a job.

>>34489200
Who the fuck is "we"? 'Cause "we" aren't going to develop shit in the coming years, except for maybe some serious cases of deep vein thrombosis and the beetus.

>>34489372
>Press Button To Begin War

>>34490534
We as in the human race.