24 Hours at One of the World’s Largest Arms Exhibitions
The Land Cougar 12 is a vehicle-based launcher for gas and stun grenades. And it happens to capture a central irony at the heart of EUROSATORY — one of the world’s largest arms and defence expos, held once every two years in Paris.
On the one hand, nearly every second vehicle, rifle, bomb, or missile is wrapped so deeply in euphemism it becomes difficult to keep in mind these are largely things whose purpose is the more efficient killing of people. On the other hand, phrases like “high-performing kinetic solution” (something that shoots) or “terrain dominance” (it cannot be easily shot at, bombed, or otherwise fucked-with) are strongly worded attempts to make you understand the raw power of the thingamabob you’re looking at / up towards / holding in your hands.