Railguns are one of the potential game-changing weapons of future war. Instead of using the power of chemical explosives such as gunpowder, a railgun uses electromagnetic force to propel projectiles to hypersonic speeds, potentially up to ranges of several hundred miles. A railgun's barrel has two parallel conducting rails built into it.

The design for the first atomic bomb was frighteningly simple: One lump of a special kind of uranium, the projectile, was fired at a very high speed into another lump of that same rare uranium, the target... By Emily Strasser.

The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to require gun owners to store their firearms in locked containers or install trigger locks when not using them. Under the ordinance, handguns will need to be disabled and kept on the owner's person or within close enough proximity that it is in the owner's control. The measure aims to prevent guns from falling into the hands of children who may accidentally fire the weapons.

Despite a year of blistering criticism from gun control advocates about the National Rifle Association's hard-line stance against gun restrictions amid a spate of mass shootings nationwide, 58% in the U.S. have a favorable opinion of the NRA. In a year plagued with mass shootings, including a recent tragedy at a community college in Oregon, there has been a national debate as to whether the NRA, with its ardent support for gun rights, is somehow complicit in these shootings.

China's space weapons have just been revealed, and it's arsenal is primarily aimed at the U.S., according to the Congressional U.S. - China Economic and Security Review Commission report, which explains the Chinese counter-space arms. "China is pursuing a broad and robust array of counterspace capabilities, which includes direct-ascent anti-satellite missiles, co-orbital anti-satellite systems, computer network operations...

U.S. nuclear weapons can be launched in under 2 minutes. Does that really make us safer?

Huge floating bombs could break a siege or wipe out a port. By Steve Weintz.

Visualization of nuclear detonations from 1945 to present. Atmospheric: red Underground: yellow Underwater: blue

Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N), the United States' top seller of guns and ammunition, said on Wednesday it would stop selling the AR-15 and other semi-automatic rifles because of sluggish demand and focus instead on "hunting and sportsman firearms." Wal-Mart said the decision was unrelated to high-profile incidents involving the rifles, including the killing of 26 students and adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut in 2012.

Every other Monday, our team of blacksmiths and craftsman will be building some of your favorite weapons, and some weapons that you've never seen before. We are so excited for Witcher 3 that we built 2 swords from the game: Serpentine Steel & Silver. Happy Hunting!

The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter was meant to improve the U.S. air arsenal, but has made it more vulnerable instead. By David Axe.

The world’s most worrisome military flashpoint is arguably not in the Strait of Taiwan, the Korean Peninsula, Iran, Israel, Kashmir or Ukraine. In fact, it cannot be located on any map of Earth, even though it is very easy to find. To see it, just look up into a clear sky, to the no-man’s-land of Earth orbit, where a conflict is unfolding that is an arms race in all but name.

Five teenagers who survived the atomic bomb recall the early moments of the nuclear age. By Susan Southard.

In August 1945, the U.S. dropped atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Now, as Japan and the rest of the world prepare to mark seven decades since the end of World War II in the Pacific, new evidence has emerged about the Japanese military’s own secret program to build a nuclear weapon.

The US Navy is pursuing a multi-pronged approach to fielding energy weapons by the end of the decade, with the hopes of upgrading its 30 kilowatt laser gun to 100 kw or more, and giving its electromagnetic railgun a higher repetition rate. Rear Adm. Bryant Fuller, chief engineer at Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), said in a panel presentation at the Directed Energy Summit, hosted by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments and Booz Allen Hamilton, that both follow-on technologies...

President Obama admits his failure to pass "common sense gun safety laws" in the US is the greatest frustration of his presidency.

The courtiers in the Hall of Mirrors that is Versailles on the Potomac are always lining up to give a new Secretary of Defense advice on how to manage the Pentagon during the coming era of budget “constraints.” Most of this wisdom takes the form of empty platitudes... By Chuck Spinney.

Did you see that civilian-grade drone equipped with a semi-automatic handgun that was being fired remotely? We asked the experts if it was legal. By Loney Abrams.

A sophisticated cluster bomb used by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen is manufactured in the United States. Human rights organizations — and several members of Congress — are raising new questions about the weapon's use.

The following AR-15 training drills are just a few you can use to develop your shooting skills.