Competition announced for the creation of weapons from improvised means

Chunotron from the game Fallout 4

The research division of DARPA is exploring unusual weapons that terrorists can use. They are weakly technically armed, but very inventive, they use improvised means for the manufacture of lethal weapons. There was already a case when a bomb was made from an ordinary double boiler, and this is not the only example. Serial drones deliver explosives and spy. Among Islamic terrorists, the most popular trigger mechanism for bombs is the Nokia 105 phone . Experts say that terrorists prefer this model because of its reliability and long battery life.

DARPA announced a competition called Imrov , in which it accepts non-standard weapons projects - “products and systems that pose a potential threat to current military operations, equipment or personnel, while being assembled mainly from commercially available technologies.

According to the rules of the competition, it is allowed to “freely reconfigure, change the assignment, program, reprogram, modify, combine or recombine a commercially available technology in any way that does not go beyond local or national laws and regulations”. Of particular interest to DARPA is the “use of components, products and systems from non-military technical areas, such as transport, construction, marine engineering, communications”.
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Modders and hackers who can think up the most effective weapon, spending a minimum of money and time, can count on winning the competition. That is, components should be easy to buy, and then quickly assemble the necessary device.

Among all applications will select a number of finalists. Each of them will receive $ 40,000 and two weeks for the manufacture of the prototype. Allocation of up to $ 90,000 is possible, if necessary.

Winners of the competition will be given additional grants to thoroughly study the topic and work out countermeasures against the weapons invented by them. Inventors from almost any country can apply for grants (foreigners only need to fill out a couple of additional questionnaires).

In general, the competition DARPA brings to mind the trash from the game Fallout 4 - a makeshift weapon that shoots the enemy with any useless rubbish. Probably, competitors can learn some useful ideas from computer games.