Raytheon’s CIRT makes punching through concrete walls easy
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Need to blow massive holes through reinforced concrete walls? Well, look no further.
That’s the sales pitch from Raytheon Co. about its controlled impact rescue tool, or CIRT. The Waltham, Mass.-based company, better known for building cruise missiles and bunker-busting bombs, describes the scene in which it would be used:
Imagine a search and rescue team arriving on the scene of a collapsed heavy concrete structure with survivors trapped between pieces of the rubble. Extracting the victims alive is usually a complicated, slow and dangerous process for both rescuers and victims, especially if breaching or breaking through concrete is necessary.
In a press release, Raytheon said the 100-pound tool can quickly penetrate concrete walls and barriers, facilitating personnel rescue after disasters. So customers for the CIRT would likely be the military, firefighters, and emergency rescue teams.
The two-person tool works by firing blank ammunition cartridges to “blast through reinforced concrete walls up to four times faster than with traditional methods,” the company said. If you’re wondering what the “traditional methods” of blowing through a reinforced concrete wall might be, they include jackhammers, saws, and drills.
Check out the video above, enjoy the upbeat 1980s music and watch the CIRT break up a concrete slab with just a few bursts. It kind of brings to mind that high-powered ‘weirding’ weapon from the movie ‘Dune,’ doesn’t it?
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