To be tested in singapore.
http://upi.com/SecurityTerrorism/view.php?StoryID=20060120-070112-5273r
New super-gun to be tested in Feb
By PAMELA HESS
UPI Pentagon Correspondent
WASHINGTON, Jan. 20 (UPI) -- 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 family
of guns that can fire at speeds of up to 240,000 rounds per minute,
albeit in short bursts.
A Metal Storm gun of any size -- from a 9mm handgun 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 dramatically increases the number of
rounds fired per second. Once fired, however, each spent barrel has
to be reloaded.
Its 40mm answer to the MK19 - the current automatic grenade
launcher in use by the U.S. military - chambers up to 15 rounds in
the barrel at once. They can be squeezed off one at a time or fired
almost simultaneously. According to the company, this gives the
Metal Storm gun 4,000 times the rounds-on-target capability of the
MK19, which has a rapid fire rate of 60 rounds per second.
Starting in 2006 the company will demonstrate its prototypes with
applicability that is especially likely to interest the U.S.
military. The grenade launching 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
means 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 unmanned 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) 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.
