NationStates Jolt Archive

NOTE: As most of you know, I'm seldom at a loss for words. This little article, however, has rendered me virtually speechless! Does this mean the end of the road for line infantry?


GRENADE BOT BLASTS AWAY (http://www.defensetech.org/archives/001451.html)

Those of you who found the idea of gun-toting robots a little creepy should probably click away right now. Because the Army has just finished testing out a unmanned ground vehicle, or UGV, that obliterates its foes with electrically-fired grenades.

The robot is the same modified Talon UGV that's now on its way to Iraq, to watch the back of Stryker armored vehicles on patrol. But instead of carrying a M249 machine gun, like the Iraq-bound robo-grunt, this Talon has been armed by Metal Storm Limited -- the Australian firm famous for its million-round-a-minute gun.

The robot, which recently wrapped up trials at the Army's Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey, only had 16 shots. But they were big ones: 40 mm grenades. And the rounds were loaded four to a barrel, giving the UGV 10 more shots than traditional systems supply. It was enough to waste a variety of mock opponents, "including simulated personnel, an infantry carrier and a bunker," according to Metal Storm. (You can watch video of the bot in action here (http://www.metalstorm.com/cms/fullstory/EEEEuVFpFypQTXrQdy.html).) Eventually, the firm thinks it can load the UGV up with as many as 48 grenades at a time.

While Metal Storm seemed pretty psyched about how the Picatinny tests went, there was a bit of bad news for the company. The demonstrations "did not include firings from the Dragonfly DP4X unmanned aerial vehicle as previously planned because of operational restrictions on the range which prevented in-flight live fire trials being possible," Metal Storm sobbed. "Arrangements are currently being made for in-flight test-firings and demonstrations to be held in the next few months."

Probably can't get one for the car then, eh?

Drat.

good, the metal storm should really level the playing field for deer and pheasant hunters.

Probably can't get one for the car then, eh?

Drat.

*sigh* if only :(

I think I'll take a drive up to Picatinny arsenal this weekend and steal one of those. You know, for home defense.

NOTE: As most of you know, I'm seldom at a loss for words. This little article, however, has rendered me virtually speechless! Does this mean the end of the road for line infantry?

Nope. The end of MBTs has been forecast for some 50 years now. No replacement in sight. And Infantry is even less likely to be done away with. As an old infantryman yourself, I'm a bit surprised you even ask the question.
MetalStorm may have an exessive ROF, but even a robot is going to have very serious difficulty carrying that much ordinance.
Note that the bot in the article carries only 16 40mm rounds, less than half the loadout for an M203 grenadier (36 HE rounds, IIRC).

Note this:
Where do you keep the one million bullets?

In dealing with conventional ballistic weapons, the rate of fire is a measurement and a quite separate issue to the number of rounds fired, or to the number of rounds carried in the magazine.

For instance, it is quite common for an infantry rifle to be capable of firing at a rate of say 600 rounds per minute. However, it does not follow that the weapon carries 600 rounds, or indeed that it continues to fire for a full minute. Rather, such a weapon might be expected to have a magazine capacity of say 15 or 30 rounds.

So too with Metal Storm. The 36 barrel prototype has fired at a rate which is in excess of one million rounds per minute, whereas it has a 'magazine' capacity of 540 rounds.
So what's the value of the very high rate of fire if you don't fire a million rounds?
There are many circumstances where a target can only be engaged or fired upon for very brief periods. For example, if a missile is launched at close range toward a tank, there will be very little time to respond in some way to try to destroy the missile and save the tank.

In such circumstances, if an electronic detection system finds the missile and then automatically operates a conventional rapid fire gun to try to intercept the missile, the weapon will generally not be able to fire enough bullets to ensure that the missile is destroyed.

It is in such circumstances that Metal Storm's ultra-rapid rate of fire can mean the difference between life or death for the tank crew.


In other words, it's great for certain specific uses, but it sure as hell ain't the death of infantry. That'll only happen when there's no longer a need to occupy hostile territory.