The Metal Storm Weapon system is "based on an electronically fired gun-and-launcher design with multiple rounds stacked in a single barrel -- the only moving parts are the bullets themselves." Video after the jump.
O'Dwyer constructed a triple-barrel, a nine-barrel, and a 36-barrel firing prototype design that he lovingly named Bertha. "The reason for the 36 barrels was simply to indicate to ourselves and to others the future versatility of this system, in that with the 36 barrels we had 540 rounds on board and, based on the 45,000-round-per-minute rate per barrel, that gave us a maximum firing rate of 1.62 million rounds per minute," the inventor says
Beleive it or not, this was actually an Australian invention!
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Posted at 10/11/2006 00:43am by
john
so whats the catch?
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Posted at 10/11/2006 00:52am by
Mike
Yes I heard about this quite a while ago, the real question is, in what application would such bullet firing speed be needed?
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Posted at 10/11/2006 01:30am by
crudlife
this thing is incredible. i can see it accidentaly firing sometimes though. to static electricity or something
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Posted at 10/11/2006 02:29am by
Coop
The main application the have in mind is missile defence for warships. It would work on the same princile as the CWIS system that is currently in use. (link)
The 36 barrel is the most likely example. They would use it to fire a wall of bullets toward an incoming missile.
Since most missiles are designed to detonate when they encounter a large metallic mass, it would not so much shoot the missile down, but trick the guidance system into thinking it had hit the ship.
Another example of this system (though not as fun) is the Super Rapid Bloom Offboard Countermeaasures (or Super RBOC), which launches a cloud of metallic dust away from the ship. On a radar display the signature is HUGE, about 6 times the size of a destroyer, so the guidance system in the missile switches to the larger target.
Hope someone found this of interest.
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Posted at 10/11/2006 02:34am by
jasper
@mike
oke thing about this. here are enemie plains or missle comeing to your position but you dont have a Goalkeep (here)because that thing is to big but you do have a Metal storm divice now you can put a hail of bullits in the sky by a click on the mousebutton and your target is distroyed Just because you can make a carpet of bullits fly at the target makeing your change of hitting mutch higher. Or cleaning up a Mine file whit it by shooting it down from a hellicopter.
its insane this machine.
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Posted at 10/11/2006 04:59am by
ahmet
i saw this on futer wepons on discovery channel
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Posted at 10/11/2006 09:08am by
Rex
Its an amazing invention. But its use frightens me. Imagine the comanche helicopter they showed for a few second, it had all the barrels pointing down, so imagine it hovering above a crowd of people and then it fires.... horrible...
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Posted at 10/11/2006 09:59am by
Gunguy
And how exactly do you reload that thing? Metalstorm is an interesting engineering feat, but a useless weapon.
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Posted at 10/11/2006 10:14am by
Cameron at Laugh It Off
This comic strip demonstrates another use for metal strom.
Big Spider comic strip
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Posted at 10/11/2006 10:31am by
225
Imagine if they combined a large land-based system like this with a very fast reloading system. You could really unload some rounds.
The thing that bugs me is the fact that the bullets that are first to be fired travel a shorter distance in the barrel. Would they be slightly less accurate? Also, when all the rounds are released at the higher rates, would the bullets in front cause turbulence for the following rounds? I suppose this isn't supposed to be a sniper-type system with great accuracy.
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Posted at 10/11/2006 11:22am by
Diappointed
Who says mankind is not using technology to worthwhile ends? :(
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Posted at 10/11/2006 12:16pm by
Macaca
I reckon it's not really accurate on longer distances, but the sheer volume of fire is so insane that it doesnt really matter. Its like firing a shotgun but with hundreds of bullet shaped-n-sized pellets. Like the name implies: Metal (bullets) Storm (a lot of them)
How would a human body look when you unleash a multi-barrel rifle sized version of this baby? Yuck... They never mention that in weapon promo's...
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Posted at 10/11/2006 12:25pm by
kanye001
wouldn't this weapon be inaccurate with it's first bullets, and then get more accurate with the rest?
Seems stupid if that's the case for a small hand gun, however the large application of this would deal massive damage.
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Posted at 10/11/2006 1:27pm by
Jackrabbit
Seems like a current use belt fed system, or even loaded magazines would be less of a burden than changing preloaded barrels. Being a car guy, I noticed most "Leave your ass stranded" failures are due to electronincs, rather than mechanics. I wouldn't trust my life to a pistol or rifle using such a system.
But it sure is interesting.
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Posted at 10/11/2006 1:52pm by
test
Very cool stuff
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Posted at 10/11/2006 4:58pm by
udolt
What's the use of this weapon?!
Any incoming missile, or plane can be destroyed with a wall of bullets. And if the system works as shown in the vid, more precision can be obtained in bombing runs.
This is NOT a useless weapon, just think of how many incoming missiles it can shoot down with no trouble. Think of the loons making threats with nukes these days.
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Posted at 10/11/2006 6:07pm by
downwithpeople
shooting this device even once would cost a fortune in bullets.
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Posted at 10/11/2006 6:41pm by
otis
glad to see we are coming up with more efficient ways to potentially end the lives of millions of people quicker than ever...
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Posted at 10/11/2006 7:52pm by
theposter
response to 225: Since it's programmed by a computer, I would say you could avoid that issue by having the weapon fire from alternating barrels (1234123412341234 vs 1111222233334444). I'm pretty sure the first rounds would be fairly inaccurate, but I am also sure you could modify it to rectify the problem (i.e. barrel extensions or something.
And, bouncing off what UDOLT said, this _definitely_ has an application in the military -- if they fired the typical tankbuster rounds, one weapon could demolish a whole bunch of enemy tanks, trucks, weapons caches on a single flyby.
The thing that makes it scary is the black market -- imagine your local gangbangers equipped with an extremely fast firing high ammo volume pistol.
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Posted at 10/11/2006 8:27pm by
tlc
So what do you do when your metal storm pistol is out of bullets? buy another one?
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Posted at 10/11/2006 9:06pm by
Kenny
Electronic in mordern warfare? Guess that the enemys best weapon will be water or EMP :-D
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Posted at 10/11/2006 9:14pm by
Will
"shooting this device even once would cost a fortune in bullets."
That would only be a problem if the modern military was concerned with effectiveness, efficiency, and obtaining worthwhile objectives.
But the reality is that most of the US military right now is concerned with just getting larger and larger budgets, so the more wasteful a new toy is the better.
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Posted at 10/11/2006 11:28pm by
scott
glad to see we are developing this technolgy instead of umm say n korea. cmon, its not about killing people, its about having the best defense and offense that would make fighting US (the good guys, for those of you who are still unsure which side your on) a suicidal decision. even if you think anyone can mimic this concept and use it against us, we are always one step ahead. just imagine the tech the gov is working on that is top secret ;)
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