The US military is purchasing paintball guns specially used to shoot pepper balls. As a non lethal substitute for bullets, these paintballs will explode when they touch the target, forming a pepper spray. The purpose of these guns is to enable the U.S. troops in Afghanistan to have non-lethal weapons to deal with some potential threats of low risk, rather than to kill with bullets.

According to the news on the Volkswagen Machinery website on June 19, the US Army has awarded Pepperball, a non-lethal weapon company, a US $650000 contract to purchase an unknown number of non-lethal systems (VKS). The VKS is actually a kind of paintball gun, which is similar to the M4A1 carbine weapon of the army, and also equipped with a guard and a rail on the butt.

However, the similarity between the two weapons is only reflected in the appearance. Unlike M4A1, VKS is not a lethal weapon. It does not shoot 5.56 mm bullets, but 0.68 caliber bullets.

Pepperball's pinball contains about 5% of PAVA, a synthetic pepper spray. (The concentration of civil PAVA reagent is only 3%). The other spherical ammunition is filled with 2.5% CS gas, also known as tear gas. Another ball type is a mixture of two irritants. It is not clear what type of non-lethal ammunition the Army is purchasing.

The US military is purchasing paintball guns specially used to shoot pepper balls. As a non lethal substitute for bullets, these paintballs will explode when they touch the target, forming a pepper spray. The purpose of these guns is to enable the U.S. troops in Afghanistan to have non-lethal weapons to deal with some potential threats of low risk, rather than to kill with bullets.

According to the news on the Volkswagen Machinery website on June 19, the US Army has awarded Pepperball, a non-lethal weapon company, a US $650000 contract to purchase an unknown number of non-lethal systems (VKS). The VKS is actually a kind of paintball gun, which is similar to the M4A1 carbine weapon of the army, and also equipped with a guard and a rail on the butt.

However, the similarity between the two weapons is only reflected in the appearance. Unlike M4A1, VKS is not a lethal weapon. It does not shoot 5.56 mm bullets, but 0.68 caliber bullets.

Pepperball's pinball contains about 5% of PAVA, a synthetic pepper spray. (The concentration of civil PAVA reagent is only 3%). The other spherical ammunition is filled with 2.5% CS gas, also known as tear gas. Another ball type is a mixture of two irritants. It is not clear what type of non-lethal ammunition the Army is purchasing.

The US military is purchasing paintball guns specially used to shoot pepper balls. As a non lethal substitute for bullets, these paintballs will explode when they touch the target, forming a pepper spray. The purpose of these guns is to enable the U.S. troops in Afghanistan to have non-lethal weapons to deal with some potential threats of low risk, rather than to kill with bullets.

According to the news on the Volkswagen Machinery website on June 19, the US Army has awarded Pepperball, a non-lethal weapon company, a US $650000 contract to purchase an unknown number of non-lethal systems (VKS). The VKS is actually a kind of paintball gun, which is similar to the M4A1 carbine weapon of the army, and also equipped with a guard and a rail on the butt.

However, the similarity between the two weapons is only reflected in the appearance. Unlike M4A1, VKS is not a lethal weapon. It does not shoot 5.56 mm bullets, but 0.68 caliber bullets.

Pepperball's pinball contains about 5% of PAVA, a synthetic pepper spray. (The concentration of civil PAVA reagent is only 3%). The other spherical ammunition is filled with 2.5% CS gas, also known as tear gas. Another ball type is a mixture of two irritants. It is not clear what type of non-lethal ammunition the Army is purchasing.

Unlike the M4 carbine, although the VKS looks like the M4, it does not have lethal capability

Like the conventional paintball gun, the VKS is powered by the compressed gas tank hidden in the M4 grab. VKS has a fire control system similar to M4A1, which can be used quickly and skillfully by soldiers accustomed to using M4 personal weapons. The product page of Pepperball says that the effective range of this weapon is 120 to 150 feet. The weapon can shoot 20 rounds of bullets per second, and can use 180 rounds of ammunition drums or 10 rounds and 15 rounds of ammunition magazines commonly used for paintball guns.

These weapons are obviously deployed by Afghan troops. It is unclear how the army will use these weapons, but they are more effective in crowd control and anti-riot situations. The Pepperball survey also did not show the exact quantity or delivery date.

The VKS weapon system is only sold by the government and agents. However, paintball guns and paintball filled with pepper spray are also easily available on Amazon.