Exploded Views and technical drawings

I have always liked to look at the exploded view drawings of weapons both to gain a better understanding of how they work, and also to appreciate the amazing artistic talent of people who could plan out and execute such detailed drawings. So here are some neato pics.

The 2nd Amendment

Snap.

Backblast

At first when I saw this picture, I assumed that the wall near the soldier had been hit by an RPG or that a gunship was hovering and firing overhead. Or both. Or something. I don't know. Then other, more intelligent people pointed out that all the effects we see is simply caused by the back blast of the AT4 rocket launcher. It that caused all the chaos. And the really dangerous part was several hundred feet away.
Lesson: Don't stand behind anti-tank weapons though kids, because it will completely kill you. Just, you know, FYI.
It was enough to pick up all those empty shells, all that dust, and the M4, which was probably laying on the ground. So I am guessing that is an older model and not the newer one designed to be fired in enclosed spaces without breaking everyone around into little pieces and then having them breathe in the toxic exhaust.
Crazy stuff.

Airship drones

Awhile ago, I posted about the "Beast of Kandahar" in The Giant Blimp of Kandahar, which was suspected to be a long endurance, reconnaissance UAV. I found this pic a few days ago, and it seems to be the same aircraft. They both have a triple tail fin and similar overall shape. At the time, I guessed that it was a prototype or scale model of the Lockheed Martin LEMV. The caption just named it as the Persistent Surveillance System.

The earlier photo had no sense of scale, so I was pleased to get a closer look at "the Beast". As we can see, it is a pretty large maybe 40 feet or more, but that is much less than the reported 200 feet of the LEMV. Lockheed has understandably not released very much info on the LEMV, but they have hinted that it will be a UAV capable of staying aloft and using multiple technology to find and identify enemies. We can certainly assume it has powerful daylight, Nightvision and thermal cameras. It also might mount a magnetic anomaly detector for looking for IEDs or submarines or so forth, but that is just a blind guess on my part. It could also be used for things such as intercepting radio and satellite phone signals, or as a booster to send friendly communications. The one thing I am pretty sure of is that we will see more like it in the future.
Well, I don't really have any more info. I just thought it was a neat picture.

I can't tell, but I think this is not the same aircraft. Seems the nose and fins are shaped differently. But I felt bad for such a bare bones post, so I figured I would treat you, my beloved readers, to the fruit of a 3 second Bing image search. You are welcome.