Next month a new high-explosive munition will be fired in Singapore and
then tested again by the U.S. Army, heralding what may be a sea change
in weaponry: a gun that can fire 240,000 rounds per minute.
That’s compared to 60 rounds per minute in a standard military machine gun.
Metal Storm Inc., a munitions company headquartered in Virginia but
with its roots in Australia, has been developing a gun that can shoot
at blistering speeds, albeit in short bursts as each barrel is
reloaded.
A Metal Storm gun of any size — from a 9 mm hand-gun up to a
machine gun size or a grenade launcher — has no moving parts other
than the bullets or munition inside the barrel. Rather than chambering
a single slug for each shot - very quickly in the case of machine guns
– the bullets come pre-stacked inside the barrel and can be shot all
at once, or one at a time, as the shooter decides through the
electronic controls.
Because there are no moving parts, the weapon is less likely to jam, and will presumably need less maintenance.
Lashing many barrels together increases the number of rounds per
second. Once fired, however, each spent barrel has to be reloaded.
Starting in 2006 the company will demonstrate its prototypes with
applicability that is especially likely to interest the U.S. military.
The weapon system can be mounted on an unmanned ground combat vehicle,
an unmanned aerial vehicle, and might be used as a defense against
rocket-propelled grenades and mortars.
Metal Storm’s speed allows it to lay down a blinding wall of slugs
that can intercept and pulverize incoming enemy fire, according to
company CEO David Smith. As long as the grenade or mortar is fired from
outside a range of about 50 meters or 162.5 feet and a Doppler radar is
in use, a Metal Storm system could be an effective defense, he told
UPI.
Closer than that and there is just not time to react.
"But if you are from 50 meters and beyond, if everything can work
fast enough — the radar — there is enough time mathematically" to
shoot down incoming fire, Smith said.
At least 153 U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq by enemy rockets
and mortars since the start of the war. Nearly 2,000 have been wounded.
The grenade launcher barrel can also carry less-than-lethal
munitions, like small bean bags, sponge grenades or smoke. On Jan. 16,
the Army awarded Metal Storm a $975,000 contract to further develop its
non-lethal rounds.
"Our so-called competition is (the) Mk19 - grenade machine gun,"
Smith said. "It’s enormously heavy. It takes six people to carry it
into a battlefield scene. It’s not mobile.
"But the military has had this transition out of big system
warfighting into much lighter, higher firepower that can be carried
into battle by individuals or light vehicles. Our guns have no moving
parts — so they have the same amount of fire power at significantly
reduced weight ratio."
Metal Storm technology has been under development for about a
decade, but a series of small-business innovative research contracts
awarded recently by the Department of Energy and the Army mean
prototypes are now being produced and demonstrated.
"We are to the point we can start providing prototypes. The Army is
very, very parochial in how they buy weapon systems," Smith said. "But
now we can put it into an actual environment."
The company is also studying whether it can mount a Metal Storm
weapon on a small helicopter, particularly looking at the recoil effect
from the gun.
Smith said such a system - deployable down to the squad level –
could be useful in a place like Iraq, where it’s a common tactic for
insurgents to launch a mortar and then run. By the time soldiers on
foot or in a vehicle get to the launch site, the shooters are long
gone. But a UAV quickly launched can see where the shooters run to, and
if a gun is on board, can shoot at them.
The Australian military is testing a Metal Storm gun of its own,
the Advanced Individual Combat Weapon (AICW). The AICW combines both an
assault rifle and a 40 mm grenade launcher in a single unit with a
common trigger, allowing the shooter to choose which munition he wants
to fire without having to refit his weapon. It also allows three
grenades to be fired at once, whereas one is the only option in the
current generation of weapons.
Metal Storm Inc. will demonstrate a high-explosive munition with a
10-meter (32.5 feet) or burst radius in Singapore on Feb. 6, Smith
said, and for the Army’s Picatinny Arsenal and Armament Research,
Development and Engineering Center later that month.