But special-effects weapons are much harder to come by.

CNN: REALITY CHECK

After all, DNA is charged with assuring that the effects of nuclear weapons on conventional military hardware and equipment are properly understood and factored into designs and operational practices.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Center for Security Policy | Will China��s Nuclear Test Precipitate Needed Reexamination Of Clinton, Congressional Policies?

The Army developed a series of missile defense schemes over the following two decades with names like Nike-Zeus, Sentinel and Safeguard, but they all ran into fundamental design challenges caused by the fearsome effects of nuclear weapons.

FORBES: Missile Defense Becomes A Navy Mission

With its military contacts, expertise in anti-terrorism and combat simulation, and all its detailed models of the effects of various weapons, Digital Sandbox realised that it was in a good position to diversify into extremely realistic computer games.

ECONOMIST: Serious games

If they are right, it will not rid the world of chemical weapons and may, instead, have even more undesirable effects.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Center For Security Policy

It will ban basically any ordnance that is capable of having the effects of anti-personnel landmines by not differentiating between those weapons "primarily designed" to act as APLs and those that are not.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Center For Security Policy

The use of these sophisticated weapons, precisely targeted by global positioning satellites, is designed to maximise their effects while limiting collateral damage, which would make the task of post-war reconstruction more difficult.

BBC: Analysis: US 'shock and awe' tactic