Metal storm

[Push 0]

http://www.cnn.com/2003/BUSINESS/06/26/australia.metalstorm/index.html

All I want to know is how you feed the gun one million bullets per minute.

-- Toggle Whippin' Yahoo
Skydiving is easy. All you have to do is relax while plummetting at 120 mph from 10,000' with nothing but some nylon and webbing to save you.

[quade 4]

Impressive!

Not that I'd ever invest in blood stocks, but damn that guy is going to make a fortune.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[Gawain 0]

Now they just need materials that won't melt from firing at that rate. Very impressive, especially the goals for the "handgun", programmable to the user, etc.

So I try and I scream and I beg and I sigh
Just to prove I'm alive, and it's alright
'Cause tonight there's a way I'll make light of my treacherous life
Make light!

[quade 4]

Well, since it's all electronic, the unit may not heat up quite as much as a gunpowder weapon.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[Push 0]

Quote

Won't the barrels melt at such high rates of fire?

Using Metal Storm ballistic technology, it is possible to fire large numbers of projectiles at ultra-rapid rates. In conventional mechanical systems, even if equivalent rates and densities of fire were available, it is likely that the barrel would seriously overheat, and likely cause a serious malfunction of the weapon.

This is not so with Metal Storm. Of course any barrel will ultimately overheat if a sufficient number of rounds are fired through it. The difference is that, although Metal Storm can fire at high rates and densities, that performance is achieved with multiple barrels, so only a relatively low number of rounds are normally fired from any one particular barrel.

http://www.metalstorm.com/14_faqs/technology_faqs.html

It's really an ingenious system. Especially the handgun idea.

-- Toggle Whippin' Yahoo
Skydiving is easy. All you have to do is relax while plummetting at 120 mph from 10,000' with nothing but some nylon and webbing to save you.

[billvon 3,090]

>Well, since it's all electronic, the unit may not heat up quite as much
>as a gunpower weapon.

I read that as the bullets using an electronic initiator but normal propellant. The power requirements otherwise would be nuts.

(bill now actually does the numbers; you had to expect that)

Assume a small (3 gram) projectile at 1000fps (350m/s)
To fire 15,000 rounds a second, you have to accelerate 45 kg to 350m/s, which means you need 2.7 million joules, or 2.7 million watt-seconds. To keep that up you'd need around 3 million watts of electrical power. That's 5000 amps at 600 volts, which is the highest voltage you can switch with conventional switching devices. The conductors alone would be the size of your leg.

And if they _do_ do that, and it's 99.5% efficient (which is incredibly efficient) the gun would experience heating of 15,000 watts - a lot of heat to dissipate.

[quade 4]

From their faqs.

Quote

Firing - how is each round fired?

Each bullet is separated by propellant or 'gunpowder'. Each load of propellant contains a primer, which is used to ignite the propellant. The primers are electrically connected to an electronic fire control system. When firing, an electric charge is sent to the appropriate primer which then ignites the propellant to fire the bullet.

Ah.

Also, I should have guessed this as well (duh!), the million rounds per minute is a rate of fire and NOT an actual indication of the number of rounds fired over the course of an entire minute.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[nathaniel 0]

until we see it on a weapon used by a nation's armed forces I think it's safe to say this is just a bunch of marketing hype they hooked CNN with.

"no moving parts" - not exactly. they stack the barrel of the gun with bullet, propellant, bullet, propellant, etc. It's a hard engineering problem to get it so one shot doesn't set them all off. and once you've shot them all off, to reload either you re-stack your barrel or you get another pre-stacked barrel. and since your bullets travel down different lengths of barrel you have to aim them differently or settle for badly.

"caseless ammunition" - again not exactly. the barrel is now the case.

see
google groups usenet archive
for a discussion of it on usenet...one of many actually...it's been hashed over there many times...

and then there is the problem of recoil...

My advice is to do what your parents did; get a job, sir. The bums will always lose. Do you hear me, Lebowski?

[Push 0]

Clearly there are many problems with it. I was wondering about recoil the most. Frankly, I doubt we will see this technology in the form it is now being used in the real world. Nevertheless, it's a cool gadget.

-- Toggle Whippin' Yahoo
Skydiving is easy. All you have to do is relax while plummetting at 120 mph from 10,000' with nothing but some nylon and webbing to save you.

[johnstash 0]

Make sure to pass this news around MTSX is about to be adopted by U.S.A. DOD.
Everyone here know
General Dynamics ....:)
Everyone know who "Eagle Enterprises" are?
They are the subsidiary of GD, who were granted the Objective Force Warrior integration contract.

Everyone know that the OFW ( http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ground/ofw.htm ) is not just about the soldier system, but also includes two vehicles called the RISS and RAAS (Robotic Armored Assault System), that are to acompany soldier squads.
Each 12 man squad would have two RAAS.

http://www.gd.com/prod_serv/combat/OFW/ofwgraphics_new.htm

http://www.army-technology.com/contractors/armoured/general_dynamics/
"The General Dynamics Eagle Enterprise concept for the OFW system of systems includes a Robotic Armored Assault System (RAAS) that may carry three weapon systems, including crew-served weapons, mortars and anti-armor munitions."

An interesting article (must read sometime)
http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/article.cfm?Id=1173

Okay, now these are a big deal ... for the last few years, I have mostly gone on and on about FCS and OFW (the crux of transformation).

So, wouldn't it be really cool, if I could provide some info, that linked Metal Storm weapons to the RAAS? - haha, no, not the OICW, but the RAAS!

From the Full Spectrum Warfare Conference (23-25 June, 2003)
http://www.dtic.mil/ndia/2003armaments/index.html
OFW Operational concepts - by Mr. John H. Northrop

It has the four man teams (page 9)
T = Team Leader = OICW/EGLM
AR = Auto Rifleman = LWMG
Gr = Grenadier = OICW/EGLM
PE = Prec Eng Spec = FIW

and then!
RAAS = Mortar - Metal Storm / OCSW

This presentation (from General Dynamics)is saying that the squad members will be carrying a variety of the objective individual combat weapon (XM8), enhanced grenade launcher module (XM29), light weight machine gun (LMG), and that their accompanying vehicle to be equipped with the objective crew served weapon (OCSW) and Metal Storm!

I'll let this sink in for awhile...
regards
sweeder