New gun

Interesting development in guns.

Big John
``````````````````````````````````````````````


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 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.

© Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc.