Posted on 10/01/2006 3:11:02 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
The Chinese military allegedly offered an Australian weapons inventor more than $134 million ($US100 million) to go to Beijing and work on one of the deadliest guns in the world, the Nine Network reports.
But Australian and US military forces are said to be determined to ensure the gun, known as Metal Storm and developed in Brisbane, does not end up in enemy hands.
Despite growing trade relations between China and the West, the US still regards the Asian power as an enemy.
Listed on the Australian Stock Exchange, the company Metal Storm Ltd makes a new type of gun which can fire more than a million bullets a minute and can be remotely operated. The only moving parts are the bullets leaving the gun.
The Nine Network says Chinese officials have made several attempts to secure the weapon from the Brisbane company.
In one case, a Chinese-Australian man was on a business trip to Beijing when he was allegedly approached by a Chinese diplomat to secure the gun.
He was offered about $2 million to get hold of the weapon and was told it was for the Chinese military, but after joining the Falun Gong movement, the man decided not to follow up the offer.
Meanwhile, the inventor of the Metal Storm gun, Mike O'Dwyer, said the Chinese military had been pursuing the technology for more than a decade.
Mr O'Dwyer said he was offered more than $US100 million ($134 million) to live in Beijing and help the Chinese military develop the technology.
During a telephone call from a Chinese official, Mr O'Dwyer says he was told the Chinese wanted him to move to Beijing.
Mr O'Dwyer said the official told him, "We don't need any Metal Storm weapons, we don't need any of the paperwork, none of that. What we want is you, and we want you and your family in Beijing".
The official offered him about $US50 million ($67 million) on arrival in Beijing and promised him another $US50 million a year later.
Mr O'Dwyer told the official he was not interested and reported the situation to Australian government officials, who he said were not very receptive.
"I think it's very unlikely the Australian government has understood the significance, persistence, determination of this effort (from the Chinese)," he said.
And Mr O'Dwyer says he has continued to receive numerous requests from Chinese business people.
The Nine Network report said Defence Minister Brendan Nelson had a "lukewarm" interest in the project and referred reporters to the Department of Trade.
However, last week a spokesman for Mr Nelson said even if the report was accurate, Australians had nothing to worry about.
"This will not happen and there are safeguards to prevent it," the spokesman told AAP.
Opposition international security spokesman Kevin Rudd said the government should be taking stronger action.
"I am concerned, when you've got advanced military technologies like this, that you can't just dismiss it as some sort of laughing matter.
"We think when you come to sell military technologies of whatever category (that) this is a matter for national security as well."
“The Metalstorm design is over 100 years old, and no one wanted it back then either.”
They didn’t have computers or electronics of this kind back then, or guns with no moving parts.
”There are no million-bullet barrels. There aren't even 30 bullet barrels.”
- green iguana
I count 65 in this mother alone.
“The 1,000,000 rounds per minute is a rate of fire, not an amount of fire.”
Regardless, I wouldn’t want to reload this beast by hand – my point stands.
We have robots for that job.
65 barrels, not 65 rounds per barrel. I count four rounds per blue barrel. Not sure how many per small barrel, but probably no more than 15. You don't reload the barrels, you replace the barrels with new, loaded ones. Think of the barrel as a cartridge with multiple rounds, not as a traditional barrel.
BTW, I think we come down on the same side here. I wouldn't want to reload the barrels either, but I'd love to have one so I could replace the barrels from my personal stock. I see lots of uses for pesky varmint control...
Your car has to go back to Detroit after driving for a day?
Let me know the next time you buy something, it has to spend about week at the manufacturing plant for every hour you have it.
You would need to take your car back to the manufacturers for a service when cars were first developed, but a little thing called time went by and service stations began sprouting up to meet demand. This point was covered. I understand you would refuse to take your Lockheed C-5 Galaxy military transport aircraft in to be fueled and serviced - you'd do it yourself with a hand pump and a toolbox. After all, what is the point in having something big if it means having to take it in for refueling and servicing every few hours? Fine - see you when you finish, in two months. We can transport some helicopters to Iraq and then you can start your two month stint again. After that you can reload your Metal Storm gun by hand and hopefully not blow your fingers off in the process. Make sure each bullet is in the proper position for firing – we wouldn’t want any mistakes during that million per minutes rate of fire. When you finish that job we’ll watch you refilling your gas cylinders, using a foot pump. Don’t worry about me – I’ll build a house while I’m waiting for you to finish.
“Your car has to go back to Detroit after driving for a day?
Let me know the next time you buy something, it has to spend about week at the manufacturing plant for every hour you have it.”
Incidentally Shooter, you can see this car and these people, to ask them about hours of use versus hours of maintenance.
http://www.answers.com/topic/thrustssc
I think, at a rough guess, that one hour’s use would equal six month’s maintenance and work. Then let’s turn our attention to NASA and their rockets…
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