'Metal Storm' weapons may replace Crusader

[oracle]

'Metal Storm' weapons may replace Crusader (http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=12052002-105108-1155r)

From the International Desk
Published 5/12/2002 12:01 PM

WASHINGTON, May 12 (UPI) -- EXCLUSIVE


A new ballistic technology that can fire burst rates in excess of one million rounds per minute from a 36-barrel weapon was one of the reasons Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld canceled the $11 billion Crusader artillery system.

The technology is known as "Metal Storm," which is also the name of the Australian research and development company that owns it.

The fastest weapons today are mechanical Gatling gun styles that can fire at the rate of some 6,000 rounds per minute. Infantry rifles average 600 rounds, which is the firing rate for a magazine of 15 to 30 rounds.

Admiral Bill Owens, a retired former deputy chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and author of "Lifting the Fog of War," a controversial book about defense modernization, is the chairman of the board of Metal Storm Ltd. With multimillion-dollar contracts, Metal Storm works closely with the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Australian Defense Science and Technology Organization. Chuck Vehlow, a former general manager of the Boeing helicopter division, is the company's new chief corporate officer. Vehlow has negotiated big-ticket procurement contracts and technology licensing agreements with the Pentagon.

Most of Metal Storm's work is top secret. Already under development is an "area denial weapons system," including an unmanned aerial combat vehicle that will carry twelve 40-mm mortar boxes comprising a total of 1,200 tubes, and armed with 7,200 grenades. The system's unprecedented firing capabilities can lay down a continuous 50-meter-wide carpet of grenades for about two miles, firing all its grenades simultaneously with a five-yard separation on impact.

Another gun under development for a small combat aerial vehicle is multi-barreled and can fire 270 rounds onto a target in just .001 seconds without stress on the air frame or any drop in air speed.

The company's advanced individual combat weapon program is destined to replace small arms throughout the western alliance, said Mike O'Dwyer, company chief executive officer. The prototypes now being developed have a dual barrel capability to fire both 20-mm and 40-mm bursting munitions and standard 5.56-mm NATO ammunition.

The weapon will also fire "less-than-lethal" projectiles for riot control. The future infantry weapons hardware replacement program for Australia's small defense forces alone is estimated to be worth $700 million.

Metal Storm's submachine gun will be capable of firing multiple barrel rapid-fire bursts at 45,000 rounds per minute per barrel. The technology is 100 percent electronic. Its electronically variable rate of fire has been confirmed to one million rounds per minute.

The technology allows barrels to be grouped in any configuration required for a particular application because it has no moving parts, no separate magazine, no ammunition feed or ejection system. The only moving parts in this revolutionary ballistic technology are the bullets or other projectiles.

Next to "Metal Storm's" firepower, said a senior Pentagon acquisition official, the lumbering, 45-ton Crusader artillery tube would be obsolete equipment.

...


Click here to read more (http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=12052002-105108-1155r)

[DesertFox]

Buck Rogers has arrived. Those rates of fire are incredible. Can't wait to see this boy at work.

[RayChuang]

There is a system about to be operational called JSOW (Joint Stand-Off Weapon). Essentially it's a guided bomb that launches a whole bunch a small, smart bomblets that can cover a huge area during a ground attack.

Remember the infamous Highway of Death north of Kuwait City during Operation Desert Storm? Well, with 15 JSOW bombs you can get that level of destruction and then some. What took 40+ planes of bombs to do in 1991 now only require 4 planes. images/icons/shocked.gif

[DesertFox]

Doan mess wid duh Long Rangah.

[2nd_Amendment]

I want to know the life expectancy on the barrels. For accuracy you still need tight tolerances. For durability you need room to breathe. My bet is that while they'll work wonderfully they won't work for long in the field without a lot of maintenance. That's my main problem with most of the newest weapon systems. In a long conflict we'll be back to throwing rocks, or parts of the weapon systems, at each other.

[DesertFox]

Not to mention that, if you're gonna use a weapon that fires a million rounds per minute, you have to provide it with -- a million rounds per minute. The weapon itself may have no movable parts, but the ammo's gonna require a BUNCHA moving parts to move it into position and then outta the way so that things keep ratta-tat-tatting. Not to mention that nothing going that fast can be linked in chains, the way machinegun ammo's linked now.

Presumably the smart boys have solved these problems already. I'll be interested in seeing their solutions.

[2nd_Amendment]

Duh! I completely missed that. And not only must you be loading that weapon and clearing that weapon but think of the logistics in getting that much ammo to the front. I wonder exactly what level of increased transport to feed what level of increased rounds used we're looking at.

[DesertFox]

Keeping such a piece of equipment serviced with ammo, and getting rid of spent casings, is already a major challenge with 20mm ammo on a minigun. Those casings pour outuvva jet like water when that cannon's firing. But that's "only" 4-6,000 rounds per minute. A million rpm means 200 times that many casings. And how's the jet gonna carry that much ammo?

So they can't be talking jets, but self-propelled howitzers that could carry that much ammo (though not 20mm). IOW, we're back to the Golden Hose, the Vulcan, one of my all-time favorite weapons (and every other soldier's favorite, too), juiced-up and spruced up and badder'n ever.

Can't wait to see this baby.

[2nd_Amendment]

Well, I hope to hell we're talking caseless ammo here. If we're talking about actually clearing brass I can't even conceive of it.

[oracle]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by DesertFox:
Keeping such a piece of equipment serviced with ammo, and getting rid of spent casings, is already a major challenge with 20mm ammo on a minigun. Those casings pour outuvva jet like water when that cannon's firing. But that's "only" 4-6,000 rounds per minute. A million rpm means 200 times that many casings. And how's the jet gonna carry that much ammo?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

These systems have no cartriges. This is one of the reasons they can get the high rate of fire. They also have multiple shells loaded simultaneously into the barrel. As soon as the first shell is fired, the next one is instantly ready for firing. When this is coupled with multiple barrels (similar to a Gatling gun) they will unlease a hailstorm of death on fleeing Iraqi troops. images/icons/grin.gif The one system mentioned in the article has 1200 barrels or tubes and 7200 grenades.

Here's a good article from Scientic American with more details:

<blockquote>
TAKING BALLISTICS BY STORM (http://www.sciam.com/1999/0499issue/0499techbus2.html)
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 (http://www.cist.saic.com/index.html) (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 (http://www.dsto.defence.gov.au/corporate/publicity/media/mstorm.html), 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 (http://www.spanam.simplenet.com/Gatling.htm)) 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 (http://home.sprynet.com/~frfrog/ballisti.htm) 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.

...


Click here to read more (http://www.sciam.com/1999/0499issue/0499techbus2.html)
</blockquote>

[DesertFox]

Luvvit!

Thanks, oracle.

[The_RANDy_Corporation]

I'd hate to be on the receiving end of that armed with just a 30-06!

[2nd_Amendment]

That's why it will be necessary to disable them via sneakier means.

[**DONOTDELETE**]

But look at how these weapon systems would be integrated into a fighting force.

Right now, 155's are Division level artillery, no?

Are these Buck Rogers weapon systems going to be assigned to the same division level? Can these platforms be as all-weather as an artilery shell?

This whole thing smacks of the same loopy addiction to new technology that drove the Air Force to remove guns from their fighter aircraft. Didnt take long for them to put them right back.

But in this case, we will still be left with outdated and antiquated 155s.

Bah.

[DesertFox]

They'd probably be a Corps-level weapon in a ground force, but I expect their major use would be aboard ships. As noted in the article, that rate of fire would make them perfect for AAA and anti-missile defense; you could put up a literal wall of bullets and shoot down an incoming missile.

[**DONOTDELETE**]

This is old news. We should have kept it for ourselves.

[DesertFox]

For what? It's for warriors, people willing to fight, and therefore useless in Australia.

[oracle]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Seppo's:
This is old news. We should have kept it for ourselves.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Get real, this is overkill for dealing with boatloads of refugees.

[**DONOTDELETE**]

"For what? It's for warriors, people willing to fight, and therefore useless in Australia"

Australian soldiers have fought in many wars alongside Americans. In the fist and second world wars we were actually there from the start. And our contribution to both wars far outweighed yours in proportion to respective populations. Our military history is full of instances where our soldiers 'had to go help out the dumb yanks'. A recent example was during operation anaconda in Afghanistan.

[**DONOTDELETE**]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by DesertFox:
For what? It's for warriors, people willing to fight, and therefore useless in Australia.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Desert Fox, this probably happened before my time to this board. I don't know what the friction is between you and Seppo and I don't care to. I don't know if he has ever been in the military butt there is one thing that I can positively say and thatis if we are in combat I want the Aussie's and the Turk's on our side.

[**DONOTDELETE**]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Seppo's:
"For what? It's for warriors, people willing to fight, and therefore useless in Australia"

Australian soldiers have fought in many wars alongside Americans. In the fist and second world wars we were actually there from the start. And our contribution to both wars far outweighed yours in proportion to respective populations. Our military history is full of instances where our soldiers 'had to go help out the dumb yanks'. A recent example was during operation anaconda in Afghanistan.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>


I just wrote a post about your Military and how I would want them on my side in combat. Don't ruin it by starting to call names.

[DesertFox]

For Seppo's:

Yeah, you really came thru, Seppo.

I would apologize for my remark to the fine Australian officers I've known. They rank with the best anywhere, and I've known officers from just about everywhere.

But you Aussie Lefties weren't there unless forced to be, just like our own. You made things as hard as you could for the real men. For such as you I have only contempt.

For Big John:

Meet Seppo's. He has made it abundantly clear that he despises America and Americans. I give back what has been given.

[oracle]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Seppo's:
"For what? It's for warriors, people willing to fight, and therefore useless in Australia"

Australian soldiers have fought in many wars alongside Americans. In the fist and second world wars we were actually there from the start. And our contribution to both wars far outweighed yours in proportion to respective populations. Our military history is full of instances where our soldiers 'had to go help out the dumb yanks'. A recent example was during operation anaconda in Afghanistan.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

The only thing the Aussies did was come in after we did the hard and dangerous work.

[**DONOTDELETE**]

"But you Aussie Lefties weren't there unless forced to be"

I think I've told you about my army reserve backgound.

[DesertFox]

Yes, you did. Reserve duty.

[Warlady]

One thing I am certain of and that is that our allies, the Australian troops would be thoroughly disgusted at and ashamed of Seppo's anti-American views. As am I.

[**DONOTDELETE**]

"The only thing the Aussies did was come in after we did the hard and dangerous work".

Top Award For SASR Patrol Hero

An Australian SASR trooper who helped save 36 American troops in Afghanistan has been awarded one of Australia's highest military decorations. Sergeant Matthew Bouillaut, from the Special Air Service Regiment, will receive the Distinguished Service Cross from Prime Minister John Howard at a welcome home ceremony for SAS troops in Perth today.
http://www.diggerz.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=412

[DesertFox]

Seppo's brags on Australia's real heroes, safe in the knowledge that he'll never be in a position to do what they did. Reservists seldom go in harm's way.