Shuriken  (手裏剣; lit: “hand hidden blade”) is a traditional Japanese concealed weapon that was generally used for throwing, and sometimes stabbing or slashing an opponent’s arteries. They are sharpened hand-held blades made from a variety of everyday items such as needles, nails, and knives, as well as coins, washers, and other flat plates of metal. Shuriken were mainly a supplemental weapon to the more commonly used katana (sword) or yari (spear) in a warrior’s arsenal, though they often played a pivotal tactical role in battle. The art of wielding the shuriken is known as shuriken-jutsu, and was mainly taught as a minor, or more correctly, a secret part of the martial arts curriculum of many famous schools, such as Yagyu Ryu, Katori Shinto Ryu, Itto Ryu, Kukishin Ryu, and Togakure Ryu. In the modern western world, shuriken can often be purchased online as collector’s items.

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As a successor to the famous Barrett M82 “Light fifty” rifle, American Barrett Firearms co. has created the XM500. First sighted in 2006 this anti vehicle sniper rifle is intended to be lighter and more compact then is predecessors which are widely used by military and law enforcement around the world.

The XM500 is promised to deliver better accuracy because of a newly designed stationary and non-recoil barrel design while remaining the same range as the Barrett M82 “Light fifty” rifle. Additionally the tripod is detachable.

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The Vulcan is a Gatling gun: each of the cannon’s six barrels fires once in turn during each revolution of the barrel cluster. The multiple barrels provide both a very high rate of fire–around 100 rounds per second–and contribute to long weapon life by minimizing barrel erosion and heat generation. Mean time between jams or failures is in excess of 10,000 rounds, making it an extremely reliable weapon. The success of the Vulcan Project and its subsequent progeny, the very-high-speed Gatling gun, has led to guns of the same configuration being referred to as Vulcan Cannon, which can sometimes confuse nomenclature on the subject.

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The Gatling gun is a gunpowder field weapon invented in the 1860s which used multiple rotating barrels turned by a hand crank. Unlike earlier weapons, such as the mitrailleuse, which had limited capacity and long reloading times, the Gatling gun was reliable, easy to load, and had a high firing rate. The gun was designed by the American inventor Richard J. Gatling, in 1861 and patented in 1862.

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The General Electric GAU-8/A Avenger is a 30 mm, hydraulically-driven seven-barrel Gatling-type rotary cannon that is mounted on the United States Air Force’s A-10 Thunderbolt II. It is the largest, heaviest and most powerful aircraft cannon in the United States military. The GAU-8 was specifically designed for the anti-tank role, and delivers a very powerful round at a high rate of fire.

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