Kotterdam
28-02-2004, 04:06
It didn't look like much, just a long, straight barrel. There wasn't much of an ammo feed. A single twenty-millimeter cannon shell was inserted by hand and the breech closed manually before the technician retreated behind the sandbags set up by the Army Corps of Engineers. It struck him as kind of odd, really - Beyond setting up the bags, there wasn't really much for the Engineers to do but sit around and watch the test.
Two thousand meters away, and more than forty-five degrees off-axis from the test cannon's barrel sat a simple target: A one-meter by one-meter square of aircraft aluminum, and beyond that... Nothing. Past the target, there was nothing for miles, a flat dry lake bed that had been cleared for the test so that stray rounds would do no harm. There was a sense of expectation, as if something important was about to happen, though no one was quite certain if it would be a resounding breakthrough or a devastating failiure.
One of the Engineers took a quick headcount, making sure everyone was accounted for. The horn blared three times before the makeshift intercom called out a warning that the test was about to begin. A countdown was struck up, and... A number of things happened so quickly as to nearly seem simultaneous. The cannon barked, a tongue of flame leaping out from the barrel, the tracer round streaking downrange, and then the most amazing thing happened right before their eyes.
The tracer curved, changing course in mid air to punch a hole clean through the center of the plate, exploding with a sharp bark just on the other side, the shrapnel tearing its way through the thin sheet of metal. For a moment, there was silence, then a rush of feet as everyone raced over to watch the slow motion replay on the video screen, as if images on a television seemed more real than what they'd seen with their own eyes. There it was... Hailstorm's first real test was a success.
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Project Hailstorm refers to an R&D project intended to provide the Dominion of Kotterdam with semi-guided, low-calibre cannon shells. The Hailstorm munitions function quite simply - The nose of the shell is of a separate piece from the rest, held in place by a quartet of "synthetic muscles", a special polymer that contracts when an electric current is applied. By moving the nose, the flow of air around the shell is changed, allowing it to alter course mid-flight. A compact guidance package allows it to recieve instructions from the cannon, which itself recieves guidance information from the launching craft's various sensors. These instructions are simple, and require less sophistication from the reciever than a child's remote control car. The entire guidance package could fit into a medium-sized digital watch.
Hailstorm was commissioned by the Department of the Air Force for use on the next generation of the Dominion's combat aircraft for air-to-air engagements. It would allow the fighters to carry fewer shells because with the increased accuracy, Hailstorm could achieve a kill with fewer rounds fired. Although not ready for operational use yet, Hailstorm is in the advanced stages of testing, and the existance of the project has been publically acknowledged for the first time, with the concept, if not the exact workings of the weapon released in the Dominion edition of Popular Mechanics.
Two thousand meters away, and more than forty-five degrees off-axis from the test cannon's barrel sat a simple target: A one-meter by one-meter square of aircraft aluminum, and beyond that... Nothing. Past the target, there was nothing for miles, a flat dry lake bed that had been cleared for the test so that stray rounds would do no harm. There was a sense of expectation, as if something important was about to happen, though no one was quite certain if it would be a resounding breakthrough or a devastating failiure.
One of the Engineers took a quick headcount, making sure everyone was accounted for. The horn blared three times before the makeshift intercom called out a warning that the test was about to begin. A countdown was struck up, and... A number of things happened so quickly as to nearly seem simultaneous. The cannon barked, a tongue of flame leaping out from the barrel, the tracer round streaking downrange, and then the most amazing thing happened right before their eyes.
The tracer curved, changing course in mid air to punch a hole clean through the center of the plate, exploding with a sharp bark just on the other side, the shrapnel tearing its way through the thin sheet of metal. For a moment, there was silence, then a rush of feet as everyone raced over to watch the slow motion replay on the video screen, as if images on a television seemed more real than what they'd seen with their own eyes. There it was... Hailstorm's first real test was a success.
---
Project Hailstorm refers to an R&D project intended to provide the Dominion of Kotterdam with semi-guided, low-calibre cannon shells. The Hailstorm munitions function quite simply - The nose of the shell is of a separate piece from the rest, held in place by a quartet of "synthetic muscles", a special polymer that contracts when an electric current is applied. By moving the nose, the flow of air around the shell is changed, allowing it to alter course mid-flight. A compact guidance package allows it to recieve instructions from the cannon, which itself recieves guidance information from the launching craft's various sensors. These instructions are simple, and require less sophistication from the reciever than a child's remote control car. The entire guidance package could fit into a medium-sized digital watch.
Hailstorm was commissioned by the Department of the Air Force for use on the next generation of the Dominion's combat aircraft for air-to-air engagements. It would allow the fighters to carry fewer shells because with the increased accuracy, Hailstorm could achieve a kill with fewer rounds fired. Although not ready for operational use yet, Hailstorm is in the advanced stages of testing, and the existance of the project has been publically acknowledged for the first time, with the concept, if not the exact workings of the weapon released in the Dominion edition of Popular Mechanics.