New weapon - Metal Storm

seamus

There's a revolutionary weapon under development that could have a dramatic influence on the future of military (and maybe civilian?) firearms' design. It's currently called Metal Storm, and the first complete weapons are expected to be ready for demonstration to the world's militaries as early as 2003. The idea was first conceived by inventor Mike O'Dwyer of Australia, and both the Pentagon and Australia's military are testing a prototype that is capable of producing a cyclic rate of fire of more than one million rounds per minute (yes, that's not a typo). The protype weapon has no traditional mechanical parts, and is basically one single unit. It involves barrels, each with up to 15 bullets lined in a row, separated by propellant. Embedded in each barrel and undeneath each bullet is an electrical contact. On firing, a signal from an electric current, delivered from the power source in the stock or carrier, ignites the propellant leading to the firing of the lead bullet(s). The discharge of bullets is controlled - as normal- by finger pressure on the trigger. At present, the technology can be utilized as a small arm or mortar. The bullet design is also new, as it expands and firmly locks itself into place in the barrel when the projectile in front of it has been fired. When the next projectile is fired, the pressure from behind relaxes the bullet. It then moves up the barrel, simultaneously locking the nose of the next bullet into place. If more than one bullet is selected to fire, the nose of each bullet is thereby loosened and discharged in a row. The prototypes can have up to 36 barrels grouped together, without the use of a magazine, automatic detachment of cartridge cases or any other kind of mechanical function. Little maintenance is required, and it's nearly jam-proof. Reloading is done by either charging the sleeves or row of bullets, which can be manufactured as one ammunition block so that the barrell can be repidly reloaded, or it can be mass produced as a field-disposable unit. Test firings results, for example, showed 15 bullets from a single barrel were discharged in one burst at a rate of fire of 45,000 per min., or 270 shots per 1/100 second. One barrel can discharge a burst rate of 120,000 rds per min. The second round is fired before the first has left the barrel. Being developed is a "conventional" barrel to fire 5.56mm NATO, and others to fire 20 and 40 mm bullets.

Only time will tell if this new system will be perfected into various adaptations and deployed. I don't know what, if any, the technology might have on sporting weapons, but some civilian fields in which the technology can have applications are being studied, such as fire-fighting, agriculture and construction. Just thought this might be of interest.

n/a

Actually this concept is not new. The US Army developed the ELECTRICALY fired 20mm back in the late 60.s There were 5 rates rates of fire. Single shot, slow burst of 5, fast burst of 5, slow sustained fire, fast sustained fire, on fast fire, there would be 4 bullets in the barrel at the same time.

The Vulcan 20mm multi barrel carried on the choppers was of the same concept.

"A wise man is a man that realizes just how little he knows"

Nighthawk

Appreciate the info,I learn something every day.

Best!!

Rugster

Theguncounterkid

Saw this one on TechTV. Looks promising for perimeter defense, but not sure it will beat well placed claymores. Hard to say what role it would play on the battlefield. Too big to carry around and would take its own supply vehicle for any extended firing. neat concept though.
-Kid

seamus

This weapon actually does involve new and innovative technology, notwithstanding the similarities to older concepts, as correctly mentioned by classic095. I don't pretend to completly understand the weapon, but know that the Phalanx Vulcan Close-In Weapon System (the CWIS gun) has problems with unacceptable round dispersion, apparently caused by oscillations of internal moving parts in its breech assembly. Reportedly, the Metal Storm technology solves that problematic dynamic. Presently, Metal Storm is being developed on 3 different weapon systems - two are for shoulder fired weapons: an advanced sniper rifle designed for use against light armored vehicles, and a rifle with 2 barrels for the soldier in the field. On the latter model, one barrel (in either in 20 or 40mm) uses the Metal Storm technology; the other barrel fires conventional 5.56mm NATO. I'm quite happy with my conventional guns, thank you, but realize that they're based on very old technology. Like it or not, new systems are on their way, big time, and eventually some will impact on the way modern new sporting weapons are designed. I have a photo of the Metal Storm MX5, taken March 2002, and I'll see if I can post it. It's about the size of the CWIS, similar to the configuration used on naval warships. I've not seen the rifle-type configuration.