NationStates Jolt Archive

This is about two years old, but I think it merits repitition for pure awesomeness.

http://www.metalstorm.com/04_the_technology.html

Owner recognition systems! Imagine how many accidental deaths could be averted!

This is about two years old, but I think it merits repitition for pure awesomeness.

http://www.metalstorm.com/04_the_technology.html

Owner recognition systems! Imagine how many accidental deaths could be averted!
"This is your personal weapons system. I'm sorry, but my programming forbids me to allow you to shoot yourself. Have a nice day." :D

"This is your personal weapons system. I'm sorry, but my programming forbids me to allow you to shoot yourself. Have a nice day." Hey, maybe in a couple of years you'll be able to have guns with active A.I. targeting systems, then you could program them to have sass!

"Aim left, moron."

Hey, maybe in a couple of years you'll be able to have guns with active A.I. targeting systems, then you could program them to have sass!

"Aim left, moron."

lol! That needs to be done in video games, too. "Look up..No, the OTHER direction. Since when is the gods damned ground UP?"

That'd be the ebst. Ingame AI in your gun ripping your head off for missing. Best game ever? Hell ya!

Hmmm, I have no idea how this system is going to work. Anyone care to give a detailed explanation? Because it seems to me that stacking the projectiles on one another in that configuration is like trying to put two missiles into a single launch tube and firing the one nearest the launch muzzle.

It seems rather confusing.

Hey, maybe in a couple of years you'll be able to have guns with active A.I. targeting systems, then you could program them to have sass!

"Aim left, moron."

Think of this using the voice of R. Lee Ermey. :D

Hmmm, I have no idea how this system is going to work. Anyone care to give a detailed explanation? Because it seems to me that stacking the projectiles on one another in that configuration is like trying to put two missiles into a single launch tube and firing the one nearest the launch muzzle.

It seems rather confusing.

I read it in Wired a long time ago. Forgot it.

Anyone have an explanation how this thing is supposed to work without causing a misfire and the loss of the operators hand/face? Because that is what it seems like it will do given the shape and specifications.

Anyone have an explanation how this thing is supposed to work without causing a misfire and the loss of the operators hand/face? Because that is what it seems like it will do given the shape and specifications.

Here's an answer from one source, I couldn't post the link because it doesn't exist.

------------------------------------------

Australian Defence Magazine - July 1999
Gregor Ferguson - Adelaide

The Defence Science and Technology Organisation's Weapon Systems Division (WSD) at Salisbury, SA, is evaluating the revolutionary Metal Storm gun technology for potential ADF applications. And Metal Storm itself has begun marketing its technology in the USA in partnership with high-technology US research firm SAIC.

Metal Storm's multi-barrel, rapid-fire gun system lends itself to a wide variety of applications, both military and civil. But DSTO is evaluating its potential both in area denial and the protection of tactical vehicles from missile attack, according to Dr "Nanda" Nandagopal, Chief of WSD.

Metal Storm and DSTO are working together under a five-year industry alliance agreement signed in November 1997 to examine applications which require maximum kinetic energy, such as point defence of ships, vehicles and fixed installations against missile attack. The partners signed a separate evaluation and research agreement in January this year to allow DSTO to undertake its own detailed evaluation of the Metal Storm Technology, including test firings of Metal Storm prototypes manufactured by the company and DSTO.

ADM attended a firing demonstration in DSTO at Salisbury last month. The technical aspects of Metal Storm are genuinely revolutionary: inventor and company founder Mike O'Dwyer has designed an ammunition system which, for the first time, makes it possible to load a single gun barrel with multiple rounds and to fire each round either singly or in rapid succession, and in complete safety.

The maximum rate of fire for a single barrel is 45,000 rounds per minute (rpm), and in 1995 ADM witnessed a three-barrel gun using Metal Storm's technology demonstrate a rate of fire of 135,000 rpm during tests in Brisbane. Since then a 36-barrel concept demonstrator has demonstrated a maximum rate of fire of more than 1,000,000 rpm.

The Metal Storm rounds consist of separate projectiles located inside the barrel, separated by a metal "spine" in certain configurations, with the space between the rounds filled with loose propellant. When the round nearest the muzzle is fired, the gas pressure generated by the burning propellant acts on the bullet immediately behind it, causing a temporary seal within the barrel to prevent "blow-by" detonation of the propellant remaining in the gun barrel. Firing is initiated by a software-controlled electronic sequencer which allows infinite variations in the rate of fire from single-shot up to 45,000 rpm per gun barrel.

This sealing mechanism is the key to the success of the Metal Storm concept and details remain secret. O'Dwyer says only that the gas pressures created by propellant ignition cause what his patent application describes as a "molecular transfer" which seals the gap between barrel and bullet without deforming the bullet or fusing the two surfaces together. The system also maintains the correct location and separation of each round inside the barrel.

"It has taken 30,000 hours of research and $2.5 million to meet all of those requirements simply, reliably and cost-effectively," O'Dwyer told ADM. "All our prototypes have been in 9mm calibre so far because we've focussed on demonstrating and proving the rates of fire which we can achieve and the inherent safety of the concept."

"Since our first test firing in December 1993 the ammunition has been completely reliable. We've fired over 10,000 rounds and all of our misfires have been the result of things like incorrect propellant loading, incorrect primer installation and breakages in prototype electrical equipment. In demonstrations, such misfires have regularly been cleared by firing the following round, with both rounds then leaving the barrel."

O'Dwyer had anticipated extreme difficulties and allowed at least twelve months of research and development before achieving the first automatic firing. The integrity and robustness of the system staggered him. "Detail changes in bullet design haven't affected reliability so I reckon we've cut three years off the development program just by getting the bullet design right first time."

Brigadier (Retired) Mick Harris, MC, a director of Metal Storm and the company's Australian military liaison specialist, told ADM that obvious applications for Metal Storm technology include point defence for ships and high-value land-based targets such as airfields and command posts. And Metal Storm could also be means of meeting the US Army's SLID (Small, Low-Cost Intercept Device) requirement for protecting tanks and APCs from anti-armour missiles. But there are other important applications in advanced combat hand guns, in aerial fire support and in perimeter and area defence for ground forces.

Extremely high rates of fire a[B]re needed to increase the kinetic energy striking the target, according to O'Dwyer, not to increase the number of rounds actually fired. To illustrate his point, he told ADM the Raytheon Mk15/16 Phalanx 20mm Close-In Weapon System (CIWS) fitted to RAN warships fires 12.7mm tungsten sub-calibre projectiles at 3,000 rpm, delivering one round on target every fiftieth of a second, with each round separated by over 20m.

Metal Storm's alternative is a gun pod measuring 19cm in diameter and 3.25m long, containing 25 common-wall barrels of 20mm calibre, each loaded with 12 rounds and with a total ammunition capacity of 300 rounds. This would have a maximum burst rate of 75,000rpm, firing all 300 rounds in 0.24 seconds with the rounds separated by just 1 metre in flight. This would create a wall of steel between the incoming missile and its target, said O'Dwyer - a "Metal Storm" in fact, and it would take 25 Phalanx CIWS to achieve the same rate of fire.

DSTO is studying the potential application of Metal Storm technology to military vehicle self-protection. Another potential application which DSTO is examining is for an area denial weapon that complies with the Ottawa Convention controlling the use of anti-personnel land mines. A Metal Storm-type weapon could be set up on a tripod like a Claymore to cover pre-designated areas and then easily disarmed, dismantled and removed when tactical circumstances allow - unlike a conventional landmine it would not be left buried after hostilities as an unmarked and long-term threat to civilians.

DSTO, in its instrumented gun tunnel, has conducted test-firings of a 6-barrel Metal Storm concept demonstrator, manufactured in 9mm calibre by Brisbane gunsmith MAB Pty Ltd. The data from these firings will be used to evaluate the performance of the Metal Storm gun.

O'Dwyer says this technology is inherently reliable because it doesn't have any moving parts, so cannot be fouled or jam. It eliminates the weight and complication of a conventional bolt, trigger and cocking and recoil mechanism, a gain that is then reinvested by adding extra gun barrels to the same weapon. The result, says O'Dwyer, is a multi-barrel weapon of conventional weight and bulk.

The control system is all-electrical, software-based and lends itself easily to mass production. The basic requirements for the Metal Storm gun are a power source to detonate the primers (one primer is required for each projectile) and a simple sequencer so that the shooter can select the rate and volume of fire. Depending on the application, the control electronics could fit into the pistol grip of a hand gun, or in a remote control box for larger calibre applications. The power requirements are minimal - a hand gun may require little more than the battery from a digital calculator.

Production multi-barrel weapons could be reloaded using a pre-loaded ammunition block, or the weapon could be designed as a throw-away item. If the barrel only needs to fire 17 rounds or less, it could be mass-produced in lightweight ceramic or composite materials and treated as a box of ammunition which simply fires itself. Once the box is empty, it can be taken off the mounting and replaced with another box.

Because the gun has no moving parts and its control system is all-electrical, the technology also lends itself to the search in the US and elsewhere for personalised hand guns. These would contribute significantly to safe and responsible gun ownership and US law enforcement and Federal government agencies are currently studying appropriate configurations for personalised handguns, O'Dwyer told ADM.

A Metal Storm hand gun could incorporate palm print, finger print, voice print or personal identification number (PIN) technologies which would prevent anybody except an authorised user from firing the weapon. Because it has no moving parts the electronics cannot be disconnected to allow the weapon to be operated mechanically, as is the case with conventional hand gun designs. O'Dwyer told ADM he plans to pursue the $500 million a year US civil firearms market with a "Smart Gun" based on Metal Storm technology. Metal Storm has already had discussions with two major US Police Departments, he said.

All guns are bad and nasty..... in a good way.

Hmmm, sounds like this type of firearm would be somewhat cumbersome in comparison to standard handguns. Ease of reloading comes to mind.

The current method is muzzle loading. All you have to do is drop another stick of ammo down the tube. The versions i have seen the video clip for (was availible on the corporate web site) was the 36 barrel 40mm grenade variant.

Try www.metalstorm.com

Not much good for hunters ... they'd be nothing left of the target to take home. :p

This is about two years old, but I think it merits repitition for pure awesomeness.

http://www.metalstorm.com/04_the_technology.html

Owner recognition systems! Imagine how many accidental deaths could be averted!

no..technology just takes the fun out of shooting.
I will always prefer a hunting rifle. the more high-tech and complicated something gets the more that can go wrong with it

I was wondering what good a gun with no moving parts would be... but then I realized, they probably don't count the bullets as moving parts, huh? :D

Hehe, I remember reading about this design years ago, especially the 'million rounds per minute' rate-of-fire... hehe, damn. Make for wonderful last-ditch anti-missile defence. :)

I've been following Metalstorm since about 2003 or so... right after John Ringo featured it in his book "Hells Faire".

You really need to watch all the video clips if you have broadband. They demonstrate a 9mm version firing at over one million rounds per minute.

The "Area Denial" system is also very cool. It has the potential to completely do away with landmines - while having a multiple-target engagement feature not possible with emplaced systems.

Likewise the UCAV 40mm ground-patterning system for eleminating soft targets without hitting friendlies &/or "forbidden" targets is really cool.

I'm not as keen on the VLe, mainly because of the silly "activation ring" - which is bound to fail at a critical moment - but I do like the beanbag projectile.

All in all, a very cool bit of tech ftom anti-gun Oz.

no..technology just takes the fun out of shooting.
I will always prefer a hunting rifle. the more high-tech and complicated something gets the more that can go wrong with it
That’s really the whole idea … reducing mechanical complexity in the gun itself