Editor's Note: This article by Matthew Cox originally appeared onMilitary.com, a leading source of news for the military and veteran community.
QUANTICO, Virginia -- They may not be deadly, but some of the nonlethal weapons the Marine Corps is working on look pretty devastating.
The Marine Corps Joint Nonlethal Weapons Directorate is currently testing an 81mm mortar round that delivers a shower of flashbang grenades to disperse troublemakers. There is also an electric vehicle-stopper that delivers an electrical pulse to shut down a vehicle's powertrain, designed for use at access control points.
"When you hear nonlethal, you are thinking rubber bullets and batons and tear gas; it's way more than that," Marine Col. Wendell Leimbach Jr., director of the Joint Nonlethal Weapons Directorate, told an audience at the Modern Day Marine 2019 expo.
Two bomb squads assisted the El Dorado County Sheriff's Office in handling a live military mortar shell that was left in a donation box at a Goodwill store in Placerville, California last week.
The "silent" 2B25 Gull 82mm mortar system (Burevestnik Institute/Jane's 360)
Cue the "silent but deadly" jokes: the Russian military has finally managed to get its hands on a new 'silenced' mortar system to help soldiers remain undetected while providing indirect fire support downrange.
The Israeli Defense Forces released video on Saturday purporting to show its jets taking out a Syrian heavy machine gun and two tanks after mortar fire hit parts of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
