5 Weapons that should’ve been in Transformers 2
Last week I went to see the movie Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen and I really enjoyed it. It is not the type of movie that will provide intellectual stimulation, an emotional experience or give insight into human character, but it is very entertaining. For those of you who are not familiar with the Transformer story, is basically about an intergalactic war between two races of robots that is being fought on Earth. There are good guys, the Autobots, who are allied with humans, and the Decepticons, who want to wipe out both Autobots and humans. UPDATE: Matt corrects my ignorance about the Transformers story in the comments below.
Optimus Prime. The Autobot leader.
While I enjoyed the stunning CGI effects and battle scenes I could not help but notice that the humans soldiers, a mixture of British and American special forces, were getting a very raw deal. They were being sent into battle armed with M16s against robots that are about 20-30 feet in height and made out of metal.
Taking some serious punishment from the Decepticons
What the Robot Fighting Warriors were Carrying
I did not pay much attention to the weaponry as I normally do when watching a movie because I was enjoying all the special effects, but if my memory serves me correctly the human were all armed with M16 rifles that featured some funky, almost triangular, handguard. Below the handguard they had a fore-grip with light attachment. I cannot remember if there were any M203 grenade launchers. If there were they were not using them much.
Major William Lennox (left), leader of the humans, on the run.
The M16 fires the 5.56mm NATO round which is an intermediate (low power) rifle cartridge. Although an armor piercing variant is available, it was never intended as an anti-vehicle round. It is not even considered powerful enough to hunt deer, let alone robots.
How to Destroy a Robot
One word: Power. Lots and lots of pure armor destroying power. Forget about pistols, which can be seen dangling off the legs of the soldiers in the above photo. Forget about low powered assault rifles. Leave them at home.
For most anti-robot needs we must turn to South Africa. Because of the oppressive apartheid régime in South Africa during latter half of the 20th century, arms embargoes were levied against the country. The arms embargoes from Western countries combined with a proxy war in Angola against the Soviets meant that the South African arms industry developed in isolation. The isolation resulted in a variety of unique and very powerful, some would say overkill, small arms.
1. PMP Neopup PAW – 20mm Personal Assault Weapon
The Neopup PAW (Personal Assault Weapon) is manufactured by South African firm Denel. It is a semi-automatic 20mm grenade launcher. As far as I know it is the only semi-automatic grenade launcher designed explicitly to replace a rifle in the hands of a soldier, unlike the XM25 (I believe XM25 operators would carry an M4 or equivalent weapon).
The older variant of the Neopup.
The latest model. Note the more compact curved magazine.
The Neopup fires high explosive 20×42mm grenades. These grenades are designed to have a very flat trajectory, allowed you operator to point and shoot, rather than lobbing shells into the air on a steep trajectory. This is what makes it the perfect robot killer. The user simply needs to aim at the head, neck, chest or any other venerable area and fire a HE (High explosive) round to do some serious damage. Try doing that with an M16! I propose the robot warriors dump their rifles and pick up Neopup PAW.
20mm grenade 20×42 vs. 40mm grenade trajectory.
2. Milkor MGL – 40mm Multiple Grenade Launcher
While the 20mm grenade launcher may offer fast reloading and more accurate shooting, outfitting grenadiers with 40mm “artillery” could turn the tide of a battle.
The Milkor MGL has an interesting history. It is basically a scaled up version of the infamous South African Armsel Striker aka. the Protecta aka. the Street Sweeper 12 gauge shotgun. The design made for a scary looking but very inefficient shotgun. Another South African firm, Milkor, scaled it up from 12 guage to 40mm and developed a very successful multiple grenade launcher that was recently adopted by the US Marines as the M32 MGL.
A Marine with the M32 in Iraq.
The weapon can fire six 40×46mm grenades as fast as the operator can pull the trigger, although aimed fired from this heavy recoil weapon does slow down the effective firing rate. At relatively close range a trained operator should be able to hit a Decepticon robot and a high explosive round would do considerable damage. It can also be used to lay down indirect fire much like a mortar.
3. Denel NTW-20 – Long Range Anti-Robot Sniper Rifle
Denel also produces the enormous NTW-20 anti-material rifle. This rifle can be configured to fire the Semi-Armour Piercing High Explosive Incendiary (SAPHEI) 20×82mm rounds or the 14.5×114 mm Armour Piercing Incendiary (API).
Click to expand the image.
A better sense of scale. It is huge!
This weapon is more than twice as powerful as .50 BMG (12.7×99mm NATO) rifles! It can accuracy fire out past 1000 meters taking the fight to the enemy before than are in range.
The reason I chose the NTW-20 over other anti-material rifles is that is can quickly be broken down in half for portability.
Being carried by a two man team.
4. Metal Storm MAUL: A pistol that packs a punch
A couple of months ago the Australian firm Metal Storm unveiled the MAUL. It is a lightweight semi-automatic shotgun that is being funded by the US Navy. The unique Metal Storm technology stores the ammunition inside the barrel and then electronically fires it one round at a time. This allows for a shotgun so compact, it can be configured as a pistol!
While this would be no-where as powerful as a full-sized shotgun, due to the short barrel length, if it was loaded with 12 guage grenades it would pack a punch orders of magnitude more powerful than a conventional pistol making it a perfect last ditch defense side-arm to use against ranpaging robots.
5. RPG-7: An oldie but a goodie
This weapon needs no introduction. The Soviet designed RPG-7 is by far the most well known and recognizable grenade launcher and is favored by third world armies, rebels and terrorists.
An Afghan policeman being taught how to use the RPG-7
So why would a nearly 50 year old weapon make a good robot killer? Versatility. The large size of the warhead allows for a wide variety of ammunition.
Different RPG-7 ammunition.
Currently high explosive anti-amour, tandem anti-armour (two charges fired in tandem to defeat reactive armor), fragmentation and even thermobaric ammunition is available. The RPG-7 would make a perfect platform for an anti-Robot weapon such as some sort of Electromagnetic pulse (EMP) device.
Conclusion
The troops in Transformers 2 were very poorly armed. If an alien race of robots landed on earth today, any half-decent arms dealer could could supply much better weapons that what the script writers of the movie came up with.
Hopefully the producers will hire me as a technical consultant before the next Transformers movie comes out 
[ Don't take this blog post seriously ]
Im not sure but I think the Milkor MGL was in the first movie, dont know why it didnt show up now.
I want a Denel NTW-20. Just in case!
-D
The problem is M16s and that styling have become to quintisential (sorry about spelling) with the ‘Good Guys.’ Hollywood makes nice CGI, and with sci-fi films with plasma rifles? They can make ‘em look anyway they want. I think the problem is, it is practically impossible to own a firearm of that capability, so no one knows what to use.
I agree w/ everything in the post. I just wanted to say that those handguard/rails on the m4’s in the movie were friggin retarded. why did they want to make it look like its from the future yet not at the same time? Its so obviously just an M4/16 so what was the point?
and yeah, that milkor m32 thing was in part 1 and was pretty much the saving weapon. Why they decided to stop using it is beyond me lol
p.s. aside from all that, i still loved the movie lol
I disliked the ’secret’ rail gun that was easily visible on the destroyer. They could at least have hidden it from plain sight if it was meant to be secret.
On a more serious note, which happens to be an E flat…ha ha. I have been watching some of the weapons being developed over the years and the Neopup is something American forces should have. Either that or a modified AA-12 shotgun(it’s a little too bulky right now IMO). Both seem to fill a void in the ability of smaller units to advance or protect themselves when under fire by larger forces, they are force multipliers when used correctly in a tactical situation.
The AA-12 using those small HE rounds definitely has some shock effect. But the Neopup seems to be much more effective. There is a use for the M-32 40mm GL(the Army doesn’t have them as far as I know just the marines) but if I were in a firefight a couple of guys with Neopups would definitely chase the bad guys away. They would have no place to hide.
Why must the DOD have to make weapons that do everything and take 10 years to work out the bugs only to find out that it’s already out of date.
I bet if you ask the combat troop in Afghanistan right now if they would like to have some of those Neopups the answer would be “hell yeah”!!!!! But no we are developing something so that the round explodes over the heads of the enemy. Well right now we need something that will go through a small wall or side of a building to eliminate cover for the enemy. How about a mix in the pup of some AP rounds to punch a hole in a wall then send some HE in there to clear them out. It’s much less costly than and effective than using a single shot rocket launcher( which if I am not mistaken cost thousands of dollars). And we don’t have to explain to the media why we are using thermobaric weapons.
Or how about punching a hole in the wall then send in some 40mm thermobaric rounds. Or hit them with HE 40mm over head and 20mm direct HE in the open, nowhere to hide, nowhere to run.
But no the DOD gives our troops 5.56 pea shooters instead or even the 6.8mm which would be a major upgrade.
Both the Russian and the Chinese have weapons like this.
In the first movie they make a big deal out of using 37-40mm GLs so I figured those ’16s with the weird fore ends were somehow special. Beyond that there’s a quick shot of a guy with a man portable minigun which was rockin.
they had AT4s and a friggin hand held minigun, but i agree they needed more firepower. although the firepower was better in this than what was in T4.
“…an intergalactic war between two races of robots that is being fought on Earth.”
Correction Steve, my friend.
The Autobots and Decepticons are two different POLITICAL FACTIONS vying for control of their home planet, Cybertron. The Decepticons ultimately WIN control of Cybertron in the original storyline, forcing the Autobots and their leader, Optimus Prime, to flee in an attempt to recoup and regroup. Not content with waiting for the Autobots to return, Megatron decides to persue them across the galaxy. The Autobots have unintentionally stumbled upon a planet called “Earth”, and not wanting to be seen as hostile invaders, they attempt to blend in with their environment while they train. They adopt the shapes of vehicles which they feel will be less likely to draw attention.
But Megatron and his Decepticons find Earth, and decide to destroy the Autobots while they can. Realizing that Earth is inhabited with sentient beings who DO possess weapons which can injure, disable, or kill a transformer (including super heroes and Nukes), they decide to adapt to the surroundings as well, and carry on the war for control of the galaxy in stealth. They adopt the forms of weapons which they feel are more likely to give them an advantage over the Autobots.
The story changes slightly in each different series, with a total apocalypse occurring on Cybertron at the end of the G1 Story arc, but ultimately, that’s why the Autobots decide to stay on Earth in the first place, because they have no home. The story is eerily similar to the story of the Chinese Nationalists and the Chinese Communists, and the original Thundercats storyline was very similar as well, but without humans.
somebody find a close-up picture of the rifles in the movie! I’m curious about the hand guards
Loved this article.
I also thought it wierd that this NEST team only had crappy small arms against giant alien robots.
Talk about a suicide mission.
Send in the Autobots and stand back I say. Maybe lob some artillery or something.
Old 66 mm LAW’s.. small.. easy to use.
Matt, thanks for the full explanation of the political landscape
My only knowledge is from the movie.
Witmann, I thought about that, the problem is that they are single shot.
The LAW is actually coming backing into action with the US forces
http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2008/11/25/m72-law-making-a-comeback/
Sorry, you hit my pet peeve: the RPG-7 is not a grenade launcher.
RPG doesn’t stand for Rocket Propelled Grenade, not even in Russian. The RPG-7 is a recoilless rifle, just like the allied Carl Gustav. The difference between a rocket launcher and a recoilless rifle, basically, is what happens to a round if you ignite it outside the barrel. With a rocket it’ll go off in a random direction, while a recoilless round, it won’t do much of anything. The recoiless round needs the barrel to provide thrust via overpressure.
Of course, not all recoiless rifles have rifled barrels, but that’s a peeve for a different day.
RPG = hand-held anti-tank grenade launcher
It has both a recoilless propulsion (comparable to a Panzerfaust) and a solid-fuel rocket engine. The two-second rocket engine adds actually most of the velocity.
The advantage is that it can be fired from indoors, the disadvantage is that there’s a visible trail that gives away the shooter’s location.
The Italian Folgore is actually similar – except that it’s got a much faster projectile and doesn’t use the overcalibre aproach.
In the first movie,if i remember correctly they also had AC-130 (i think that’s what they’re called) and warthog with sabre rounds raining lead on the decepticons, did they have that in the second movie????
Just as a little note, if you recall from the first movie, they discovered that “High Heat Sabot” rounds from a 40 mm did damage to the robots, and in the final battle in Mission City, the majority of human forces there with using Milkor MGL’s or earlier models of the MGL. The problem here is that as far as I know of, there doesn’t exist a high tempreture (several thousand degrees, I think 5000, is what is stated in the film) sabotted armor penetrating round for the low velocity 40 mm grenade.
I think they blown their budget on CG.
And were consequently reduced to raiding the leftover prop collection from S.W.A.T.
Didnt Crossman make an air rifle that looked like a odd m-16? If so I believe it had triangular handguards. Just a note… This undergunned stuff reminds me of Starship Troopers.LOL
Good post.
Guys, those M-16’s were modified with ammunition to fight the Decepticons and was I the only one here that noticed the M1’s, M2’s, B1-B, F-16’s, AH-64’s, Bazooka, F-18’s, A-10’s, MLRS and naval support that was used in the movie? Because I certainly did notice a lot of robots go down to the M1 and M2. Hell, Megatron was pushed back by a .50 on a Bradley after he shot Sam. So obviously their rounds are more effective that you’re letting on.
It’s not like they went in with JUST M-16’s. Lennox picked up really quickly in the first movie by recommending that gunships be modified to carry SABOT rounds.
sean, sure there were air and ground support, but the soldiers themselves where running around on the ground emptying their magazines with no effect and dying for their troubles!
I disagree. Most of the Decepticons were downed by the heavier weaponry, of course, but with whatever modified ammo they may have been firing(possibly AP) then obviously the ammunition would have done something. Because, like I said, even big bad Megatron was pushed back by a 7.62mm on a tank. Which was possibly modified as well. We are never told as to whether or not the reinforcements were NEST, but it’s doubtful.
I made a correction to my previous statement that it was a .50 on an M2 when it’s a 7.62mm.
My 19 year old son thought the blond Decepticon was an excellent weapon. Even after she started using her 10 foot long tongue as a whip.
He also noted that the soldiers protected Morgan Fox, who ended up without a single scratch anywhere on her body, much better than they protected that other guy she was with, who ended up dead for a while. Despite him being the one who could save the world, the soldiers prioritized correctly. Good show, soldiers!
Did we all forget the Javelin?
If it can pop a T-72 like a magnified sun overheating an ant, I’m pretty sure it could at least scratch the paint off a D-con.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VdRnY-TUb4
No idea if the decepticons signed the Geneva convention, but HE under 2 cm is a no-no for most forces (going back to the infamous dum-dum rounds). No explosive rounds are allowed for anti-personal weapons, which is usually considered anything under 2 cm.
All of these anti-robot weapons require NFA registration and are banned in many states as Destructive Devices. More evidence that the government is run by Decepticons….
I didn’t forget to mention the Javelin. I said anti-tank rocket but for the life of me I couldn’t remember of the name of it.
“Did we all forget the Javelin?
If it can pop a T-72 like a magnified sun overheating an ant, I’m pretty sure it could at least scratch the paint off a D-con.”
OMG, that old staged Javelin video AGAIN.
Short story:
There were additional explosives in the tank (more than jsut the normal ammo load – unprotected explosives!).
It has also been argued that the tank was command-detonated at the time of impact (it even begins to explode in a video while the missile was still intact!).
REAL ATGM success and secondary effects look more like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ARjuTKdiIk
I saw this great T-Shirt of Cafe Press the Drills home the point about the Neopup vs M-16 vs Transformer. It made me laugh a little http://www.cafepress.com/441.396883255
Frankly, I gotta agree…
But I’ll ad a caveat. Realize that there were a LOT of little Decepticons too. And against those, an M16/M4 is fairly efficient.
They were partnered with the Autobots for taking out the big Decepticons. So our soldiers were more of the scouting and point units, and small ‘cepticons. And the Autobots and the aerial artillary the main big bot killers.
Lastly, I loved the railgun. As for it not-so-secret. I thought about that too. But perhaps it was kept under a tent. Which was removed off camera before we saw it.
***
Anyways, while I enjoyed Transformers 2. I must confess I was a bit disappointed. It could have been a LOT better. First off, the movie dealt mostly with humans. Only a few Transformers had any real roles.
And sadly, half of the transformer roles were held by two idiotic annoying ghetto bots.
A lot of times in the movie I sat there going WTF were they thinking. I’d give the movie a C, but with just a bit of work it could have been a great A-.
***
One fun thing was seeing two aircraft carriers destroyed in the same hour. First the U.S.S. Kennedy in “2012″ preview. Then the carrier in Transformers 2.
Thanks for a great blog. I have been in the fortunate position to fire both weapons: Neopup and NTW20mm.
The NTW20mm comes in the 20 x 110 Hisspano as well. This is truly a beast. Sniping has become easy since your projectile must land/impact in close proximity to the target..Kaboom!!!
The Neopup is really nice! You can put HE etc into a house window 400m away with great accuracy and in record time( getting onto the target).
Yes the 40mm packs a punch but try to put it into a small target like the window of a house in Iraq very quickly. The 20mm x 42 allows you to be able to shoot your rounds onto targets without lobbing them like mortars.
You would aim it like a normal rifle .
Have a look at India. There you had gunmen in a hotel. They used 30mm grenade launchers against them..these are far from accurate. The Neopup allows you to select anything from tearggas to HE,SAPHI etc. So you can use a specific payload The new IOR x1/x4 is being evaluated now. This gives the user a quick reference at x1 magnification(CQB) and x4 for longer targets.
Watch the web for some very interesting new things surrounding the Neopup. This gun can break an ambush very quickly,think about it. A point man will find this gun usefull in an urban and bush invironment. What is the use of firing 5.56 ammo into a building trying to hit a sniper inside. Put a 20mmHE through the window and walla! He will be fragged or seriously injured and stop doing what he was doing.
On a serious note, the gun allows one to stop a sniper without having to flatten a building. It is not a RPG, but you can have a similar effect with these 20mm HE. It compliments the AR. Use the AR when needed and the Neopup for the fragging. Why shoot at somebody behind a rock,200rds later..when you simply put a 20mmHE next to the rock..kaboom!!
I’m simply a fan of the Neopup and the views and wording is from me. I just follow the project with great admiration.
Here is a link of the NTW20×82 being fired by me. Recoil is very low,the gun pushes one back. The 20 x 110 works better since there is more gas,so the break works better.Enjoy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXKPOzyj-gI
Groot Mamba
There is an AP round as well when
How could you leave out the China Lake pump-action 40mm?!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Lake_NATIC
the hand guard on the m4s was the branad new Magpul MOE hand guard, there were 203 launchers under some of the hand guards. the story line never claims that they are .223 remington rounds used by our military, there are however .50 caliber rounds that are only slightly larger than the .223 rounds, and without opening it up, and checking the mag, you couldnt tell from the outside. these .50 rounds are much stronger than .223 rounds, and could easily shred a decepticon, they are like shorter range .50 cal rounds from a machine gun. with the funding an operation like NEST would have i wouldnt be surprised if this is what they were using. the MGL was used in the first movie, and i believe it was also used in the second. i think that given the nature of the threat sniper rifles would be of little use because if deceticons were as advanced as it would seem they could notice, and dodge sniper rounds from 1000 yards off, and get in close enough that sniper rifles espesially ones as big as you were showing would be useless, the NEST team used guns that spewed out high volume of fire, mostly providing the distraction needed for the autobots to take down the decepticons. without detailed information from the people who put togeather the action sequence you can not be sure if it was indeed well enough put togeather for this to work though
those were NOT magpul’s MOE hand guards. have you used those yet? they are very lightweight and streamlined. not the huge mess on the transformers 2 m4’s. those were some hollywood creation to make the rifles look futuristic. they only achieved to make them look unrealistic.. or at the least, inefficient.
yes i just got mine in, and attached them on my rifle, they look alot like them, minus the ris
yeah, they are similar in style. but its just that the transformers2 guards are MASSIVE. i’ve been looking and looking for a pic… but i guess they are just too ashamed of their unreal guns to post stills lol
You guys should check out this video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edaJP3Lp0Gg
They are about 30 meters and their techs are more advanced than ours – so I’m pretty sure they have better armor than a modern tank. I’d not go for it with something smaller than a Javelin…
Many of these great anti-robot weapons were not in the Transformers movie but some of these weapons such as the PMP Neopup PAW, Denel NTW-20 and RPG-7 were actually in another movie called District 9 when the soldiers were trying take out an alien robot and these weapons did great damage on it.
First of all, Transformers 2 had so many gaping plot holes that it can be hardly expected to offer a competent weapons set.
Thirdly, the Neopup PAW and the NTW-20 were both featured in District 9 in the mech battle scene.
Which was a wholly better movie, if you ask me.
“The M16 fires the 5.56mm NATO round…not even considered powerful enough to hunt deer”
Actually the .223 reminton is becoming a popular hunting round and variants of the ar 15 are being sold as hunting rifles. It just depends on how good of a shot you are and what your family would do if you showed ip for a hunting trip carring an ar15 lol. I dont use one but i got this out of one of my Outdoor life magazines from 2008. some of the rifles are customized to hold a slightly larger round like the .260 rem that goes in the panther LR-260L. also on a side note is very popular with female shooters for its light weight and low recoil. The new AR15’s are also very customizable makeing them agood choice for hunting trips with plenty of variables.