"Metal Storm"
Very glad that the scientist is a true patriot.
Regards, Ivan
Posted on 10/03/2006 11:48:13 PM PDT by MadIvan
Chinese secret agents have made repeated attempts to poach an Australian scientist behind the invention of a high-speed gun that could revolutionise warfare.
The gun with its electronic firing mechanism, called Metal Storm, was invented by Mike O'Dwyer, who is based in Brisbane.
He claimed this week that Chinese government agents offered him more than $100 million to move to China and work on the gun.
"What I was expected to do in Beijing was to divulge all the knowledge I had to enable prototypes to be built for the weapons system to be developed," he told Channel Nine television.
"[They] said 'We don't need any Metal Storm weapons, we don't need any of the paper work, the history — what we want is you. We want you and your family in Beijing'."
Mr O'Dwyer kept details of all the approaches, made over the past decade and passed the information to the Australian government, which has invested around £4 million into the project.
Last year the Chinese made another attempt. An Australian-Chinese businessman, Jun Yang, said an agent told him: "The Chinese Liberation Army wants to buy Metal Storm. It's very advanced technology. When you return to Australia we want you to purchase it for us."
Mr Yang cut his ties with the agent and revealed details of the plot after joining the Falun Gong movement, which opposes the Communist regime.
Mr O'Dwyer has retired from Metal Storm Ltd, but the industrial espionage tactics were confirmed yesterday by company executives. They said fresh approaches had been made in the past few months.
"We get inquires all the time but the implication of these was that the technology would end up in China," said the chief operating officer, Ian Gillespie.
Metal Storm was reaching the final prototype stage after successful testing by the US military, he said. "We expect production to start in 12 to 24 months."
Hailed as a revolution in weaponry, Metal Storm's firing mechanism is initiated electronically rather than by the traditional percussion method. It has almost no recoil and no moving parts, meaning that stoppages are less common than in normal firearms.
Bullets or grenades can be fired at a rate of one million per minute, either from a single weapon or multiple barrels grouped together in pods.
In comparison, an Uzi machinegun fires at a rate of 3,000 rounds a minute.
The company claims the technology can be applied to almost any calibre of weapon. Much of the project is secret, but it is believed that hand-held or remote-controlled weapons would be powered by long-lasting battery packs.
"You'd get multiple firings from one battery and they'd last a long time," said Ian Bostock, an analyst with Jane's Defence Weekly.
"Very few firearm revolutions have taken place in the last 60 or 70 years but this is one of them."
A multi-barrelled Metal Storm gun would direct withering fire at an enemy infantry or tank advance, or enable a warship to fend off a missile attack.
"You can put a lot of lead in the air very quickly," Mr Bostock said. "You could have a pod of 60 barrels, each with 20 bullets, and send out a cloud of gunfire in one or two seconds."
China was conducting a worldwide search for new military technology and it was no surprise it had targeted this new weapon, Mr Bostock said.
"I don't doubt for a moment that they'd try to poach it. They have a long and successful history of reverse engineering — acquiring kit from India or Russia or wherever, pulling it apart, and building their own version," he said.
Very glad that the scientist is a true patriot.
Regards, Ivan
Ping!
I want one.
Hold trigger a touch too long... buy stock in ammo makers!
I call bull. China offered him $100 million and he's the only source? Maybe, just maybe, he's trying to create marketing hype by pretending his product is more in demand than it actually is? What's China going to do, deny the story?
The author of this article better watch out or Kuehn12 will call him a racist for suggesting the Chinese might steal an idea.
Metal storm is really amazing technology and the recent show on future weapons (Military Channel) had a good demonstration of it.
That's what I was thinking. From what I know, Metal Storm is all hype. This looks like more of the same.
a lesson for us now, and in the near and mid-term future
$100 million? Y'know something, I'm not proud to admit it, but I'd find that hard to resist.
Good for this guy. I'm impressed.
Anglican civilization must be preserved at all costs...
I just looked up the capital value of this company and it only about $US10 million. There are around 85 million shares at .15 Aussie. If there was real value in this, it would be capitalized at a much higher value.
Isn't this weapon some kind of hoax or scam?
Hoax, definitely not - I've seen it in action.
I don't think it's a scam either, though I am not convinced it's economically viable enough to make it worth using. I see it as having very real potential utility as a last ditch point defence weapon against anti-ship missiles on capital ships where cost isn't really a factor (you can justify a lot of money to save a warship) and I have heard of some other utilities, but at the moment, it's nowhere near a proven concept.
Hoax, definitely not - I've seen it in action.
I don't think it's a scam either, though I am not convinced it's economically viable enough to make it worth using. I see it as having very real potential utility as a last ditch point defence weapon against anti-ship missiles on capital ships where cost isn't really a factor (you can justify a lot of money to save a warship) and I have heard of some other utilities, but at the moment, it's nowhere near a proven concept.
Welcome Back! I've been absent for a while. Good to see you.
Regards, Andy
Fast-firing multibarreled guns aren't new, the Gatling gun dates back to the 1860's, and current electric guns can fire thousands of rounds/min. The article states the Uzi fires 3,000 r/m, which should be about 600 r/m. The GE minigun fires 6,000 r/m, and adding more guns or more barrels would increase the rate, but ammunition is heavy.
I suspect there's a lot of hype combined with the reporter's ignorance in this story.
<< (The peking-based pack of predatory lying, looting, thieving mass-murderers that so grandiosely calls itself) "China," was conducting a worldwide search for new military technology .... >>
The need for more Western traitors and ever-more-urgent sourcing ever-accelerating: -- the complete Multi-Trillion Dollar catalog of every secret military and civilian American computer, engineering, aerospace, nuclear and rocketry etceteras treasure given it, for Satang on the Hundred Million dollar, by the treasonous cli'ton "administration" having become relatively obsolescent during the past six years.
If they pinched Harold Holt, I wouldn't put anything past the commo pr*cks!!!!
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