Posted on 01/15/2002 1:09:36 PM PST by expose
Metal Storm: Ultimate Killing Machine?
New gun tech could result in weapon that fires up to a million rounds per minute.
By Gary Nurenberg, Tech Live
January 14, 2002
Most guns fire by mechanically moving bullets into a chamber, one at a time. While gun designers have developed ways to speed up this process, there has always been a theoretical limit to how fast a gun can mechanically load.
One of the Navy's fastest rapid-fire artillery guns, the Phalanx, uses a single-chamber design and can fire thousands of rounds per minute.
But now, an Australian company called Metal Storm says it has designed weapons that can fire at a rate of up to a million rounds per minute. The gun uses an array of dozens of chambers and fires electronically.
American and Australian defense officials have taken notice. They are funding research into the new type of gun.
Metal Storm believes it will revolutionize weaponry with new designs that strip most moving parts from guns and substitute electronics for centuries-old mechanical firing methods.
It is the barrel that is the key in Metal Storm weapon design. Put three dozen barrels together as weapons designers have done, and the resulting "pod" fires at a rate in excess of a million rounds a minute.
"It's not a difficult thing for us, and in fact, we anticipate that some of the weapons we see coming in the future will have rates of fire well in excess of that," said inventor Mike O'Dwyer. "I can see us firing weapons at a rate of, say, 13 million rounds a minute."
O'Dwyer's design does away with most of the moving parts of a conventional gun. Bullets are lined up one behind another in the barrel and separated only by propellant, which is ignited electronically. There's nothing mechanical to break down.
"When we ignite the propellant that's right in front, behind the leading bullet if you will, that pushes that bullet out," O'Dwyer said. "What happens because of the nature of the invention, the bullet that's immediately behind it, when the high pressure is applied to the nose of that bullet it actually expands and locks in the barrel. So progressively as we move down the barrel, we fire, the one behind expands and locks, and then unlocks and away it goes. It sounds simple, and in its operation it is simple, but the physics are very complex."
The firepower is astounding. In 1/25 of a second, 180 bullets can shred a wooden door. It happens so fast, it sounds like one pop.
With an array of barrels, the weapons pod can fire a variety of projectiles -- bullets, sandbags, smoke grenades -- in whatever combination programmers want. It can fire continuously or it can shoot in waves.
"We're striving for things that have never been done before," said Steve Lee of Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC).
SAIC is among the companies exploring uses for the technology. Some are exotic.
Weapons designers see a future where Metal Storm barrels are mounted on attack helicopters and on unmanned combat vehicles that are fed particular battlefield coordinates by spotter choppers, which relay the information through global positioning satellites. The unmanned aerial combat vehicles then fire in a very precise pattern dictated by the targeting.
Some see Metal Storm as an alternative to minefields. Position several pods, and a single soldier can determine whether to let innocents walk through an area or attack an opposing force with overwhelming firepower.
"Anytime the infantry commander can say, 'Hey, I can reduce my manpower requirements and enhance my performance capabilities by 300 or 400 percent,' I think they'll be very pleased to do so," Lee said.
But one former soldier isn't so sure.
"To me, having to carry several tubes that are unwieldy in order to reload my weapon is a significant disadvantage," said Charles Cutshaw, a consultant with Jane's Defense Information, Vietnam veteran, and former Army intelligence officer.
But Metal Storm technology could offer safety benefits. Give a police officer a Metal Storm pistol, and it won't fire unless a specially coded ring is in contact with the barrel. The gun only works for the policeman, not a bad guy who wrestles it away.
And designers see other uses for the technology as well.
"There are a lot of applications for Metal Storm above and beyond just small arms," Cutshaw said.
One possible scenario where the Metal Storm could be of use: a fire truck targeting a downed passenger jet with fire suppressant could use the technology to save the plane. Designers also see similar uses for high-rise fires that ladders can't reach but that Metal Storm can.
"Very quickly after the invention, I realized here was what you might call a motherhood invention because the consequences of what we could do with this were very profound, a very large number of applications that have kept us busy for a number of years," O'Dwyer said.
Metal Storm research is long-term and will take years to yield any new weapons. But with $50 million in Defense Department investment, O'Dwyer and Metal Storm plan to keep barreling along.
unbelievable
Your friends will want their minute too. Better start hand loading now.
There's nothing inherent in Metal Storm technology that makes this possible or easier. If it worked for a Metal Storm gun, it would also work for a Glock. And do we really want to arm street cops with what amounts to a military weapon? Under what possible conditions would it be necessary for a patrol officer to use an extremely rapid-fire weapon like this? We don't arm them with full-auto now.
With 3 dozen barrels = 1,000,000 / 36 = 27,778 rounds per barrel per minute.
27,778 / 60 = 463 rounds per barrel per second.
I wonder how one loads the weapon; or moves it if pre-loaded; or field re-loads it.
If a 7.62mm round is 1" long, 1 second of firing capacity in a pre-loaded barrel (remember, all the mechanical loading parts are removed)requires a 38.5 foot barrel.
Clearly, I don't understand something here.
Just kidding folks, just kidding...
I hope the officers will be wearing these specially coded rings on both hands.
Of course thousands of rounds will 'hose' an area.
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