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New Gun Fires 'Laser of Lead'
Wired News ^ | 02:00 AM Sep. 28, 2001 PDT | Stewart Taggart

Posted on 10/25/2002 2:42:32 PM PDT by vannrox

Edited on 06/29/2004 7:09:27 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]

SYDNEY, Australia -- It may not be ready for George Bush's "first war of the 21st century." But it may well be ready if there's a second.

In perhaps the most audacious upgrade of high-speed weaponry since the introduction of the Gatling Gun, Australian inventor Mike O'Dwyer has developed a machine gun that can fire bullets at a rate of 1 million rounds per minute.


(Excerpt) Read more at wired.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 911; army; bang; banglist; gun; iraq; islam; lead; list; marines; miltech; navy; new; power; technology; weapon; wtc
COOL.
1 posted on 10/25/2002 2:42:34 PM PDT by vannrox
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To: vannrox
I saw this a year ago and it was interesting. What's the reason to repost it now?
2 posted on 10/25/2002 2:54:56 PM PDT by KingKongCobra
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To: KingKongCobra
What's the reason to repost it now?<--Because it's almost Christmas! ...Dear Santa, I have been very good and I would like a Metal Storm Electronic Gun from Hell for Christmas!

3 posted on 10/25/2002 2:59:47 PM PDT by Delbert
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To: *bang_list; *miltech
http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list
4 posted on 10/25/2002 3:04:32 PM PDT by Free the USA
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To: vannrox
Wired seems to be taking an interest in weapons lately. Perhaps the Silicon Valley jobs are being replaced by the armaments industry. Anyway, this weapon is old news. Not Wired, Tired.
5 posted on 10/25/2002 3:24:42 PM PDT by RightWhale
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To: Delbert
I want Ma Deuce and a Blooper. An 81mm mortar for indirect fire, a Mini-gun for spitting out the rounds and about a jillion rounds for everything!
6 posted on 10/25/2002 3:45:18 PM PDT by dcwusmc
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To: vannrox
Sounds like a logistics nightmare. Imagine trying to have enough ammo on hand? That weapon has a thirst for resupply like a liberal's thirst for tax dollars

7 posted on 10/25/2002 4:29:59 PM PDT by big'ol_freeper
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To: vannrox
Don't know what I'd do with it, but I want one.
8 posted on 10/25/2002 4:39:46 PM PDT by American Soldier
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To: American Soldier
Check out the video on the web site... Area denial is very cool.

I heard that this tech was one of the reasons that Rummy killed the crusader program ;(
9 posted on 10/25/2002 5:00:47 PM PDT by max_rpf
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To: American Soldier
Don't know what I'd do with it, but I want one.

As the article suggests, you could go into high-volume toothpick production.

10 posted on 10/25/2002 5:13:50 PM PDT by Erasmus
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Comment #11 Removed by Moderator

To: Delbert
Awwww shucks. You said it before I could....
12 posted on 10/25/2002 6:08:24 PM PDT by ExSoldier
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To: Delbert
Awwww shucks. You said it before I could....
13 posted on 10/25/2002 6:10:54 PM PDT by ExSoldier
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To: vannrox
Yeah, but can it plink beer cans off the fence in the back yard?
14 posted on 10/25/2002 6:45:23 PM PDT by upchuck
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To: vannrox
What's the point? Aside from the electronic ignition, this seems like eighteenth-century technology (I recall reading that someone invented a firearm that worked like a roman candle, with many projectiles and charges stacked in the barrel). And certainly the idea of using multiple barrels is nothing new. Guns with two complete firing mechanisms have been extremely common for a long, long time. Those with more are less common, since one with four would cost and weigh twice as much as one with two, etc.

What made the invention of the machine gun significant was that the ammunition could be stored separately from the barrel and only loaded as needed. Someone with an M-16 can hold hundreds of rounds of ammunition ready-to-use in a package which doesn't weigh too much above the ammo itself. By contrast, with something like this "metalstorm" concept, rapid reloading isn't possible and thus one must have an inch or so of full-weight barrel associated with every round one is going to fire.

Finally, I find this notion of firing "a million rounds a minute" absurd. Quoting such a rate suggests that the firearm could, in a minute, dispense a million rounds. The reality is of course orders of magnitude lower than that.

To be sure, an M-16 with a normal magazine probably couldn't spit out 800 rounds in a minute (or whatever it's cyclic rate is), but it would be possible to interface such a gun with a hopper-fed magazine that could--if kept stocked--do precisely that. Even without such a magazine, a shooter under optimal conditions using "normal" magazines could probably manage to fire over 500 (assuming the shooter starts with 1+30 rounds loaded, and changes magazines every 30 rounds, never letting the gun get empty). Further, while the gun's "peak" cyclic rate doesn't match its sustainable cyclic rate, it's at least related.

By contrast, if a metalstorm gun fires 100 rounds out of each of 100 barrels and takes a minute to fully reload (and I have no idea, logistically, how one could manage to reload one that fast), the real cyclic rate would be at most 10,000 rounds/minute whether the gun fired shots at intervals of 1ms, 1us, or 1fs [the latter allowing for claims of "60,000,000,000,000,000 rounds/minute"]

BTW, if 10,000 rounds/minute sounds fast, consider that we're talking about a gun with 100 barrels, being loaded unbelievably (i.e. impossibly) fast. Someone with a row of M16's each attached to a hopper magazine could probably spit out many more rounds of ammunition per minute than someone with this "metalstorm" gun.

15 posted on 10/25/2002 7:07:55 PM PDT by supercat
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To: supercat
The only real use I see for this is shooting down incoming missiles. Aircraft carriers use high-speed machine guns for this purpose now, the metal storm guns might be easier to aim and more reliable close in.

This might also be a good substitute for the G3 machine guns that use a sliding receiver to fire 3 rounds before muzzle lift sets in.
16 posted on 10/25/2002 11:01:25 PM PDT by SicTransitGloriaMundi
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To: vannrox
O'Dwyer has also adapted the technology for a police revolver. The all-electronic handgun uses the technology to ensure the gun can only to be fired if its user is wearing a special ring that emits an electronic signal.

This means the gun would be worthless if it is taken from a policeman by an assailant.

Until the criminal figures out that all he needs to do is kill the cop and take his hands (and rings)

17 posted on 10/25/2002 11:04:05 PM PDT by Centurion2000
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Ah, have the police drop their silly little guns and start using THESE, the great unequalizers.

18 posted on 10/25/2002 11:18:53 PM PDT by Logic_3
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To: SicTransitGloriaMundi
The only real use I see for this is shooting down incoming missiles.

Even for that sort of application, I would think the limitted overall capacity of the system would severely curtail its usefulness. Correct me if I'm wrong, but there are already guns whose sustained firing rates (from an arbitrarily-large beltfed megazine) are well over a thousand rounds/minute. Ganging those together would seem to provide a much more useful increase in firepower than would this 'metalstorm' thing. Even if there's an incoming missle and your goal is simply to unload as much lead as possible in five seconds, a group of miniguns would seem to be just as capable as the metalstorm, and unlike the latter would be ready to shoot again if another missile followed the first.

19 posted on 10/26/2002 12:37:25 AM PDT by supercat
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To: vannrox
Creative thinking bump.
20 posted on 10/26/2002 5:06:04 AM PDT by SevenDaysInMay
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