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US special operations troops will shortly be armed with a projectile which can be fired from a portable launcher to hit a car or boat some distance off, following which the pocket-size adhesive bomb will release one of several types of "non lethal" gas into the target's interior. The new weapon has been dubbed the "KIBOSH" by the secret super-troopers' procurement office.

The Register learns of the KIBOSH from a government request-for-information document issued just before the festive season seeking contractors who could help to build the weapon. The idea is that KIBOSH would be delivered in the form of a round of ammunition for a normal military 40mm grenade launcher, a weapon already in widespread use among US Special Ops forces - it is available as a standalone weapon or an under-barrel accessory fitted to a rifle, carbine or submachinegun.

Each KIBOSH shall be capable of being shot from a 40mm Low Velocity Grenade Launcher from over a distance of 150 feet and effectively dispensing the contents of a liquid or gas payload the size, shape and weight of a 12 gram Crossman CO2 cartridge into a vehicle, vessel, or room without going all the way into the space and harming individuals inside.

The KIBOSH is also described as a "non lethal delivery system" and the USA has long been engaged in destroying its stocks of lethal agents such as VX. Furthermore there would seem little point in using an elaborate gas grenade to kill the occupants of a vehicle, boat or room when simple high explosives would do the job at least as well, so it's clear that the KIBOSH is intended to deliver non- (or anyway less-) lethal agents. A 12 gramme CO₂ cartridge* will produce a mere six litres of gas under standard atmospheric conditions, so whatever SOCOM plan to put in the KIBOSH it will need to work well in quite low concentration if it is to be effective in large rooms, boat interiors etc.

It also seems that the KIBOSH may be able to do more that simply fill the target's interior with incapacitating gas (which might call its non-lethal nature into question in the case of a speeding car). Additional information, supplied here in pdf, specifies that it could alternatively "allow for deployment of flash bang type material" and that it should also "provide for antenna release/deployment after impact for payloads with transmitters/receivers" and "stay attached to target after hitting target", while providing "visual confirmation of where round hit target (day and night)" by means of "visual/IR LED/acoustic beacon after impact".

So we'd seem to be looking at some sort of sticky bomb which, having gassed or flashbang stun-bombed the interior of the target, remains attached to the exterior acting as a blinking visual/nightsight infrared beacon - perhaps also as a tracking bug of some sort. Truly, the secret supertroopers don't want much.

According to the SOCOM procurement desk, they expect to see the kit in service and putting the KIBOSH on America's enemies within 6 months of placing an order, though it's not clear when (or indeed, if) that will happen. ®

Bootnotes

*Some readers may be familiar with these as the type used to recharge one's soda syphon before preparing a refreshing b.-and-s.: others may know them from paintballing, though in this case the gas is usually less refined and may include lubricants.

We aren't told what KIBOSH stands for. A suitable backronym is triflingly easy to conjure up, however: Kinetic Injection via Barrier Obtrusion to Subdue Harmlessly, or Knockout Interdiction Ballistic Ordnance Stun Hardware. Etc.

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