It seems you can’t go a day without hearing a new report about hackers, whether they’re of the annoying Twitter-hijacking variety or the more troublesome DDoSing type. Some, however, are more insidious, including the Iranian hackers who are actively attacking the United States’ energy industry. Now a leaked government document shows that Chinese hackers have accessed designs for some of the nation’s most advanced weapons.
The information is said to come from a report that was made for the Pentagon detailing a breach of data in which Chinese hackers gained access to the blueprints of advanced US weapons systems. According to The Washington Post, in excess of two dozen “major” systems were compromised, including ones said to be essential to the nation’s defense against missiles.
The report was created by the Defense Science Board, which is comprised of a combination of civilian and government experts. Such experts say that the Chinese government getting its hands on such sensitive data as weapons designs could have two-fold ramifications: on one side of the scale, it could fuel China’s development of such weapons, and on the other side it could weaken the US’ advantage that results from having these systems.
According to officials who are said to have knowledge of the situation, most of these breaches are parts of China’s overall cyberattacks that have been hitting companies – particularly of the media variety – for some time now. The attacks are said to be against both the US government’s various agencies, as well as its defense contractors.
While specific information on what the hackers acquired isn’t available, it is said that the missile system PAC-3, ballistic missile system Terminal High ALtitude Area Defense/THAAD, and ballistic missile defense Aegis of the US Navy were all compromised. Likewise, the F/A-18, Black Hawk heli, V-22 Osprey, and Littoral Combat Ship all had designs compromised.
We’ve seen the recent fully 3D-printed handgun, the Liberator, make an appearance with the ability to shoot off eight .380 rounds before the barrel needed replacing. As interesting as that sounds, a few folks weren’t impressed. They look things one step further and 3D-printed a shotgun slug that completely works, firing from a shotgun and all.
The slugs were shot from a Mossberg 590 12-gauge shotgun. The first two slugs both hit their intended targets that were set around 30 feet away, and while the slugs’ lightweight form don’t carry as much force as a heavier actual shotgun slug, the 3D-printed slug penetrated completely through a dart board, as well as a water jug sitting behind it. The slug was also able to blast through a 2×12 piece of pine wood.
The slugs used in the video are the larger variants that gun enthusiast Jeff Heeszel has designed, saying that they take about an hour each to print using a Solidoodle 3 3D printer (which costs around $800) using ABS thermoplastic. Heeszel used a non-printed slug as a template to create the 3D files for the printed versions.
Heeszel got the idea from the recently-printed Liberator handgun, but he didn’t like the idea of a plastic gun shooting real bullets, and instead wanted to shoot plastic bullets with a real gun. Heeszel says that the slugs weigh about 0.4 ounces, but only after adding a lead point to add a bit of weight to it. Otherwise, the slug would only weigh a mere 0.1 ounces.
Apparently it took Heeszel hours to set up the 3D printer in order for it to print the slug in the right shape. He also had issues with the printer’s heated bed, which caused the slugs to warp as new layers were added. To remedy that, Heeszel had to paint a slurry mix to the printer’s bed to prevent warping. This alone took around 30 to 40 hours just to come up with the right paint mix.
You may have seen and heard about the Liberator, a fully 3D-printed gun that earned the “world’s first” moniker and was created by law student. However, one of the setbacks was that it could only fire one shot before the plastic destroyed itself. However, a new modified version of the Liberator has appeared, and it
In case you missed it, yesterday the Department of Defense went after the much-publicized “The Liberator” 3D-printed gun, which has been successfully tested and can be created entirely (with the exception of the firing pin) with ABS plastic and a 3D printer. According to the US Department of Defense Trade Controls, the company responsible for the gun – Defense Distributed – could have violated the International Traffic in Arms Regulation by distributing the CAD file without authorization under the Arms Export Control Act. As a result, the file was pulled the same day it went live, but not after having been downloaded over 100,000 times. Now it has reached torrent websites, and there’s no taking it back.
The blueprints were released on DefCad.org by The Liberator creator Cody Wilson. A short while after the download went live, a red banner appeared at the top of the website announcing that the United States government “claims control of the information,” and as such had been pulled. The image above is now shown where the download used to be, giving the appearance of a swift and complete removal.
For all of its grand talk and rapid response, however, the Defense Department’s actions were a case of “too little, too late.” The blueprints had already been downloaded tens of thousands of times, residing on thousands of hard drives likely located in multiple countries. Such a wide dissemination of information is like a large stone being pushed down a steep hill – trying to stop is not only near impossible, but also likely to cause more harm in the long run. The censorship of the information served only to bring the downloads to the public eye, prompting some who disagreed with the government’s decision to counter its block by releasing the information on BitTorrent and The Pirate Bay.
A quick look at The Pirate Bay shows a copy of the blueprints being distributed by thousands of seeders and acquired by hundreds of leechers, with the same kind of numbers appearing on other torrent websites that were looked at. Some of those downloading have expressed intention to upload it elsewhere, increasing both the number of places from which it is available and the number of individuals who come to harbor the information. The government will go after some of the locations where the file is hosted, but cannot do so beyond its jurisdiction.
According to BetaBeat, the firearm’s designer Cody Wilson said on the matter: “I still think we win in the end. Because the files are all over the Internet, the Pirate Bay has it – to think this can be stopped in any meaningful way is to misunderstand what the future of distributive technologies is about.”
It was the summer of 2012 when the first news of a 3D-printed gun surfaced, an assault rifle-style .22 that appeared on a message board devoted to the love of firearms. That weapon was believed to be the first 3D-printed gun successfully fired, but its fame was short lived, with The Liberator having caught popular attention soon after for being the first fully 3D-printed firearm. After being successfully fired, the company behind it – Defense Distributed – released the blueprints for anyone to download, something the Department of Defense has already stymied.
The Liberator was created by 25-year-old law student Cody Wilson of Defense Distributed. The gun was designed in such a way that it can be easily recreated by others who have access to a 3D printer, making the firearm a weapon that can be theoretically mass produced on a very accessible consumer level. The gun, which resembles a toy with its square plastic body, is made from easily obtainable ABS plastic and has a total of 16 parts. Although it is hailed as the first fully-printed firearm, it does have a metal firing pin due to the inability of plastic to withstand the force. The weapon was designed to fire ordinary handgun rounds, of which various calibers can be used thanks to an interchangeable barrel.
The Liberator was test fired on Monday, May 6. Unfortunately, the testing phase didn’t fare as well as Wilson had hoped, with the first attempt resulting in a misfire and the second – which involved a 5.7 x 28 rifle cartridge – ending with the handgun being blow into shrapnel, perhaps making the Liberator the first 3D-printed explosive device, as well. Such a result didn’t slow them down too much, however.
As we noted earlier this month, Wilson planned to release his blueprints on the database website Defcad.org, where other CAD files for printable guns are available. He ultimately followed through with this plan, making the blueprints available for others to download today. In a short span of time, the file was saved over 100,000 times, a reality that has quickly been halted by the government.
As of now, the DefCad website displays a banner reading: “DEFCAD files are being removed from public access at the request of the US Department of Defense Trade Controls. Until further notice, the United States government claims control of the information.” This followed a letter sent by the State Department’s Office of Defense Trade Compliance demanding the blueprints be removed while a review was performed to see whether they count as class one munitions. It is possible Defense Distributed violated the Arms Export Control Act as a result of releasing information without authorization that is under control of the International Traffic in Arms Regulation.
On one side of the fence, many have expressed concerns about the ability for anyone to download blueprints for printing their own firearms, something that could result in obtaining weapons without a background check and facilitate access for felons and the mentally ill. In addition, 3D printed guns wouldn’t have serial numbers, an issue posing its own problems. On the other hand, however, are those who say access to such information is the right of a free people, and that blocking access to it is a restriction of one’s rights.
Wilson is in the latter camp, quoted as saying: “I immediately complied and I’ve taken down the files. But this is a much bigger deal than guns. It has implications for the freedom of the web.”
In an effort to slowly cut ties with various gun and weapon manufacturers, it’s reported that Electronic Arts will stop paying gun makers for the privilege of using real gun names in their video games, but will still continue to use real names without paying for the naming rights, saying that they retain the right to depict real guns without a license.
The ongoing national debate over gun violence and gun control has made a lot of companies rethink the relationships they have with gun makers, including video game developers and publishers. Electronic Arts is one publisher who will be distancing themselves from relationships with gun makers, but will still continue to use real gun names in future games.
EA president of labels Frank Gibeau says that video game developers share the same rights of free speech as authors do, noting that novel writers don’t pay gun makers to use real gun names in their books. Video games are the same way, saying that Electronic Arts is “telling a story” through a point of view.
Video games have been at the forefront of the gun control debate for a while now, and it seems that video game publishers are finally buckling under the pressure and severing ties with gun manufacturers. However, none of that looks to change the ways that violent video games are made, and we’re guessing that war games like Call of Duty and Battlefield will continue on as normal.
Scientists and researchers at Aix-Marseille University have conducted a study that claims there is a correlation between a bullet’s speed and the number of cracks in a glass window where the bullet went through. After shooting at over 100 plexiglass plates, the researchers have concluded that the number of cracks tells us something about how fast the bullet penetrated through.
Whenever a bullet or other blunt object pierces through glass or other brittle material, the energy expands outward over the glass, creating the familiar look of radial cracking patterns formed around the bullet hole. While many people have always believed this to be completely random (and it is to an extent), it turns out that there’s actually a method to the madness.
After shooting BBs at plexiglass plates, which were of various thicknesses and strengths (with the BBs traveling at different speeds), the researchers concluded and created a “global scaling law,” with the rule of thumb that the number of cracks double for every fourfold increase in a bullet’s (or other object’s) impact speed.
These findings could be useful to forensic scientists who want to determine the location of a shooter or determine the speed of a vehicle when it got shot at. Of course, it’s not something that will give you a definite answer as to how fast a bullet was traveling, but based on the researchers’ findings, it’s definitely something that can provide forensic investigators with an accurate estimate.
Now that we have confirmation that the Liberator 3D-printed pistol can be fired without destroying the body, let’s address what this means for 3D printed weapons and, presumably, homemade weapons in general.
Does the pistol work? Yes, it can be fired at least once without damage to the body of the gun or the person at the trigger. Andy Greenberg at Forbes has seen the gun fire multiple times and the video above shows one shot.
Is it a real pistol? No. This is more of a zip gun than a pistol. Zip guns were improvised firearms made of tubes, rubber bands, and nails. Kids fool-hardy enough to shoot one (this cohort included my own father who showed me how to make them) were promised a second of hair-raising and potentially deadly excitement when they made zip guns out of pipe and rubber. To fire one, you fitted the cartridge into the pipe and pulled back on the nail attached to the rubber band. If it hit the charger properly the bullet would fire. A similar thing is happening here: a spring-loaded nail is hitting a cartridge.
The barrel of the gun is threaded but I wouldn’t expect this weapon to be very accurate. Think of this gun as a controlled explosion generator. It uses a very small .380 caliber bullet which is deadly, to be sure, but quite small.
Could I print one? Yes. You can easily download the 3D-printable files from DEFCAD.org (here is a private mirror) and if you have a 3D printer you can easily print any of these parts.
The creators built this gun using the Stratasys Dimension SST 3D printer, a high-resolution printer that works similarly to the Makerbot but offers a far finer and more durable print. This printer has a layer thickness of .25mm, however, which the Makerbot can easily match.
Would I print and fire this using on my Replicator? No. I’m far too risk averse. I asked multiple 3D home printer manufactures and none would comment specifically on firearms, so there is no implicit or explicit promise of safety.
Will someone try to print it on home equipment? Yes.
Is this legal? Yes, but I’m no lawyer. It is a legal, homemade firearm and those have been made in basement workshops for most of this century. In most cases, a Federal Firearms License is mandatory to begin making or manufacturing weapons. For example, anyone building this gun would be a “Manufacturer of Destructive Devices, Ammunition for Destructive Devices or Armor Piercing Ammunition.” Anyone can apply for this license, thereby making the manufacture of this thing legal. For decades, however, the need to license was a minor barrier to entry into what would be a non-trivial process. The tools and materials necessary to build a real gun in your basement were expensive and it made economic sense to legally safeguard your home workshop. The manufacture of a 3D-printed weapon, however, is trivial, and can be built by anyone with an investment of $8,000 or so for a Stratasys printer or, for the less risk-averse, a home 3D printer that costs about $2,000.
It is also designed to comply with the Undetectable Firearms Act of 1988 because it contains a small block of steel. From the print instructions:
How to legally assemble the DD Liberator: -Print (ONLY) the frame sideways (the shortest dimension is the Z axis). USC18 922(p)(2)(A)*: “For the purposes of this subsection (The Undetectable Firearms Act of 1988) – the term ‘firearm’ does not include the frame or receiver of any such weapon;” Thus, you can legally print ONLY the frame entirely in plastic, even without 3.7 ounces of steel.-Once the frame is finished, epoxy a 1.19×1.19×0.99″ block of steel in the 1.2×1.2×1.0″ hole in front of the trigger guard. Add the bottom cover over the metal if you don’t want it to show.-Once the epoxy has tried, the steel is no longer removable, and is an integral part of the frame. Now your gun has ~6 ounces of steel and is thus considered a ‘detectable’ firearm. So now you can print all the other parts.
It is, in short, legal to make a gun and this is a gun.
Can this be stopped? No.
What’s next? The cynic would say we will soon see the first murder with a 3D-printed gun. The cynic will also say that this will cast 3D printing in an entirely new, more sinister light and could affect the home printing industry dramatically. The cynic would also expect a great deal of messy legislature to come out of this that will, depending on which side of the gun debate you fall on, “get these off the streets” or “infringe on our rights.”
A cynic would also say that the entire Defense Distributed agenda is an example of trolling that will eventually do more harm than good. The cynic would also say that a harsh government crackdown would also be equally silly.
A nuanced approach is absolutely necessary.
The non-cynical would find this to be more a proof of concept than a real manufactured weapon and say that it was bound to happen eventually. 3D printing has made manufacturing trivial. This is a logical evolution of an entrenched industry and a centuries-old product. Gunsmithing is not a new hobby. However, it just got much easier.
We’ve heard plenty of stories about 3D-printed guns in the past, but a 25-year-old law student has just created what is the world’s first fully 3D-printed gun. It’s certainly nothing fantastic to look at (it looks like a squirt gun), but the creator of the gun, Cody Wilson, calls it “the Liberator,” so it must be pretty intimidating.
The gun is made up of 16 different pieces that were 3D-printed separately using ABS plastic. Every part of the gun is 3D-printed except for the firing pin, which is needed to be metal due to the amount of force it handles. The gun is designed to fire standard handgun rounds, and it uses interchangeable barrels for different calibers of ammunition.
Wilson plans to soon release the CAD files for the gun on the Defcad.org website, which is a database full of CAD files for 3D-printers of different guns that you can make. As for the Liberator, it can fire a traditional round without a problem, but in order to comply with the Undetectable Firearms Act, Wilson put a chunk of steel in the body so that metal detectors can detect it.
Of course, 3D-printed weapons have been a controversial topic lately, since anyone with a 3D printer can make a gun without ever going through background checks or any other kind of verification system. Users can even obtain CAD files for high-capacity automatic rifles like the AR-15 and AK-47, which are illegal in the first place in many states.
When you think about how you would deal with a zombie invasion, the weapons that come to mind probably don’t include slingshots. But if the story of David and Goliath has taught us anything it’s that slingshots are pretty deadly. Plus that whole underdog thing. Whatever. More »
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