Not a rifle, not a pistol, but really cool :-)

[maxinquaye]

He he I gotta get me one of these
How ironic coming from a nation banning guns...
Range time would be kinda expensive though. Lets see, $129 per case for surplus 9mm, times 1,000,000 rounds = $129,000 per minute on the range. Pricy.

check out the picture at www.sddt.com

TAKING BALLISTICS BY STORM
An electronic gun with
no mechanical parts fires a million
rounds per minute


by Dan Drollette in Canberra, Australia
"When you first hear of a gun without any moving mechanical parts, you tend to laugh. I know I had to withhold my giggles," recalls physicist Adam Drobot of Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), a company based in San Diego that evaluates new technologies. "But once you see the videotape of this test-firing, the giggle factor goes away."

The gun in question is something that even its inventor says comes out of left field. Termed Metal Storm, the weapon has no hammer, no trigger, no breechblock and no shell casings to eject. Equally unusual, a single barrel fires at a rate equivalent to one million rounds per minute. In comparison, the fastest conventional firearms (Gatling guns) fire only 6,000 rounds per minute.

Metal Storm's origins are unorthodox as well. It was invented by former grocery wholesaler Mike O'Dwyer, a lone Australian tinkerer with no formal education in ballistics or engineering. His previous patents are for devices such as air-cooled sneakers. ("They pump air through as you jog," he explains.) Yet after 15 years of trial and error in his tropical Queensland home, O'Dwyer came up with a gun prototype that recently fired 180 rounds of nine-millimeter bullets in 0.01 second during a demonstration before military officials in Adelaide. Metal Storm's bullets leave its barrel so quickly that they are only microseconds apart--when one bullet is flying through the air, the next is just 10 centimeters (four inches) behind. For current machine guns, the gap between bullets is 30 meters.

"It could replace our existing technology on the battlefield," says Maj. David Goyne, a weapons specialist at Australian Defense Headquarters. The gun is ideal for close-in situations, such as defending ships against incoming missiles. Goyne comments that it could also eliminate land mines in open areas such as Kuwait's deserts: a helicopter using the gun could hover above the sands and clear a minefield by spraying it from a distance, exploding mines harmlessly.

The gun works through a combination of specially designed bullets and an electronic firing mechanism, which O'Dwyer describes as "a barrel tube with an electrical wire attached." Jacketless bullets are lined up inside, nose to tail, and are separated from one another by a layer of propellant. When an electric current makes its way down the strip, the bullets are set off one by one. To stop them from going off simultaneously--a problem previously encountered when putting many bullets in a single barrel--O'Dwyer designed the bullets to work together. The high pressure caused by the firing of the first projectile makes the nose of the next one in line swell against the walls, temporarily sealing off the rest of the barrel. (In ballistics terms, the nose of the second bullet effectively acts as a breechblock to prevent an uncontrolled sympathetic ignition.) After the first bullet exits, the pressure drops, and the nose of the second one loosens up, enabling the bullet to be fired. This process continues for each successive bullet.

Other than the projectiles themselves, there are no moving parts. To get even more firepower, several loaded barrels can be set up side by side. Once a barrel is used up, it can be discarded or sent back to the factory for reloading.

Variations of electrically fired weapons have been tried before. For instance, Sandia National Laboratories developed an electromagnetic coil gun designed to hurl 100-kilogram (220-pound) satellites into orbit. But a number of differences separate the two approaches, observes Vinod Puri, senior research scientist with the Australian Defense Science and Technology Organization: "The electromagnetic coil gun demands lots of energy, achieves high velocities and sends large objects great distances. In contrast, Metal Storm requires less energy, works at lower velocities, uses normal gun propellant and sends out more, smaller projectiles per minute for shorter distances."

O'Dwyer points out another feature of guns like Metal Storm: because electronics are such an integral part of their makeup, they offer a good opportunity for built-in electronic safeguards, such as security keypads. If an unauthorized user tried to bypass the gun's security system by disabling the electronics, the gun simply couldn't fire. The device has many nonmilitary uses, too, Drobot notes. A slower version could replace the nail guns used by carpenters and roofers and may find a use in riveting and other industrial applications.

Goyne remarks that the technology still needs fine-tuning--it fires relatively small caliber bullets, for example. But physicists such as Puri say its basic design is "very solid." The Australian Trade Commission is promoting the weapon, which has attracted attention in Australia and Britain.

In the U.S., General Dynamics has tested it, and SAIC has been contracted to help develop it further. A. Fenner Milton, previously in charge of weapons acquisition for the U.S. Army and now running the army's night-vision lab, attended a test-firing of a Metal Storm prototype in Australia last year. "In my opinion, Metal Storm represents a truly innovative approach to lethality, that if further developed has great potential for defensive weapon systems that can take advantage of its extraordinarily high burst rate of fire," an impressed Milton says.

What seems to surprise most experts about the technology is its source. "It sometimes takes someone who isn't very conventional to come up with new ideas," Drobot observes. "My amazement is at the process--O'Dwyer didn't blow up a barrel or kill himself while making it."

[TheBluesMan]

Check out the rest of the company's website: http://www.metalstorm-ltd.com



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RKBA!
"The people have the right to bear arms for their defense and security"
Ohio Constitution, Article I, Section 4
Concealed Carry is illegal in Ohio.
Ohioans for Concealed Carry Website

[Gunslinger]

Holly Wow! I ain't never seen nothin' like that. A person could buy a nice house for what it would cost to feed this thing for 30 seconds.



------------------
Gunslinger

[Spectre]

This technology's actually been around a while. I remember reading about it in either Popular Mechanics or Popular Science years ago. The same article said that there seemed to be some type of enhanced effect- exponential rather than cumulatory- caused by the extremely rapid follow-up shots.

You also cannot shoot traditional ammo in it, so forget the cheap surplus.

[Jack 99]

Interesting but probably very little practical use. I'm surprised the Aussie authorities haven't arrested him yet.

[paratrooper]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Jack 99:
Interesting but probably very little practical use. I'm surprised the Aussie authorities haven't arrested him yet.[/quote]

You know the poor soul that gets that job is VERY high on the bosses S*IT list . Talk about a field of fire .



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TOM
SASS AMERICAN LEGION NRA GOA

[Juan Hunt Greer]

Actually, superposed loads, as the technique is called, goes all the way back to flintlock days ( see "Firearms Curiosa" by Lewis Winant ). They have been made in controlled-firing models as well as " roman candle " ( pull the trigger, and hold on target during bangbangbangbang etc ). I think the book is long out of print, but You can probably find a copy at any major gun show. It's fascinating reading!
crankshaft
nralife, goa, jpfo, fcsa, smvfm
paranoia is a pretty good thing to have when they're actually out to get You!!

[Dangus]

Realistically this thing will never be much more useful on the battlefield than the Phalanx anti missle system. It has terrible accuracy, extreme cost to fire, and is heavy. Also power requirements for fire would require a battery to be carried, which could be carried by a soldier, but holding a weapon firing innacurately and ultra fast would be pretty pointless.

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I twist the facts until they tell the truth. -Some intellectual sadist

The Bill of Rights is a document of brilliance, a document of wisdom, and it is the ultimate law, spoken or not, for the very concept of a society that holds liberty above the desire for ever greater power. -Me

[Gopher .45]

In the current form, Metalstorm may not be terribly useful or practical. The significance is in the concept being shown to work. Prototypes get laughed at frequently, but then the practicality aspect comes into play, modifications are made, and presto, the silly idea has an application. This happened with airplanes, automobiles, and so on.

If the gun fires bullets that are sequenced in a barrel, assuming each bullet had the same amount of propellent, as the gun fired the first bullet would have the shortest barrel length with each bullet getting more barrel. Wouldn't later bullets have a greater speed and risk impacting preceeding bullets? With a space of just four inches between them, it would seem that this might pose a problem.

[C.R.Sam]

Could be lighter and cheaper than the Phalanx system with similar applications. Oughtta raise holy ned with reactive armor.

Some wonderful excersises in bullet design, workin on wake turbulance, drafting etc. With the projectiles is such close proximity each will affect all of the others.

Gopher, how about the progectiles are in an ablative tube that is pushed forward at a rate communsurate with the rate of fire, thusly having same effective bbl length for each? Or different charge for each.

Let the gvt get in on it and it can easily become horribly complicated.

Sam

[Futo Inu]

Gopher, maybe a little less propellant can be used for each successive projectile to make up for the extra bbl length.

[paratrooper]

Too heavy ? Too bulky ? Can you say Puff The Magic Dragon ? Mount it on there with the super 40MM grenade launcher next to it .I might even re-up if I can get that duty .Talk about creating your own LZ .

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TOM
SASS AMERICAN LEGION NRA GOA