Metal storm

Hida_Tsuzua

<div class="IPBDescription">Ph34r the turrent</div>A few weeks ago, an Australian company named Metal Storm invented Metal Storm.  Metal Storm is a firing  Mechanism that lets one fire up to 1,000,000 rounds per minute or if like explosions, 40mm rounds at 20,000 rounds per minute!  Orginally I was going to post it up as an idea of a turrent but decided it would be too broken.  However I bet you'll want to watch the videos just the same!

Website: <a href="http://www.metalstorm.com/" target='_blank'>http://www.metalstorm.com/</a>

Regular System:   <a href="http://www.metalstorm.com/videos/ms_36barrel_mpg.zip" target="_blank">Wall of Lead</a>

40mms: <a href="http://www.metalstorm.com/videos/ms_40mm_mpg.zip" target="_blank">Wall of Grenades</a>

MonsieurEvil

Heh. I saw that guys stuff a few years ago. There's only one problem with it. It needs a warhouse worth of ammo to fire of a 1 second burst. Not very practical, but nifty...

Bob_the_Alien

Sounds like you could sweep the entire enemy line with that, with high casualties.

Hida_Tsuzua

<!--QuoteBegin--MonsieurEvil+Jan. 30 2002,17:58--></span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td><b>Quote</b> (MonsieurEvil @ Jan. 30 2002,17:58)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE"><!--QuoteEBegin-->Heh. I saw that guys stuff a few years ago. There's only one problem with it. It needs a warhouse worth of ammo to fire of a 1 second burst. Not very practical, but nifty...<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span id='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Actually you can change the speed electronically so the billion bullets a second isn't the only option.  Also machines guns from WW1 to WW2 have had quite large fire rounds (nowhere near 1,000,000 but like 2-5,000 or so).  It'll be more of fixed loaction weapon then a infantry weapon.  Also could have uses in where you need lots of lead out now, but not for very long.

MonsieurEvil

Weeeeell, speaking as one of the few veterans on this board, I can tell you that having a fixed installation weapon system like that is mostly an easily destroyed target. The days of armies succeeding by building elaborate, immobile defenses died in 1990 during the gulf war. The latest actions in afghanistan also point to the incredible vulnerability fixed installations have to guided weapons.

A garden variety medium machine gun, such as an M60E3 or M240G (the mainstays of the US Army and Marine Corps) have max rates of about 600-900 Rounds a minute. However - the usual sustained rate is closer to 100 rounds a minute (3-5 round bursts). Now, a machine gunner usually carries 2-4 belts of ammo, with 100 rounds a belt. That means such a weapon is out of ammo in about 4 minutes realisticly. Firing much faster than that causes too much barrel wear and is wasteful of ammo.

Now imagine something which fires about 1200 times faster than that! Millions of rounds (let's say they are 5.56mm, which is a standard caliber) would take dozens of semi trucks to cart around. It's immense overkill. Why not just drop a few mortar or artillery rounds on the target. You kill it just as dead, and not have such a huge logistical problem, and your artillery is more portable.

It's a very interesting but impractical toy. This guy came up with this thing in the late 90's, and no one has ever bought it, for the reasons I just raised.

ChromeAngel

I believe the british navy were trialing something similar for missile defence on their destroyers/aircraft carriers.

MonsieurEvil

Ahhh, good point. A naval vessel would have much more use for something like this. Right now the US Navy uses a weapon called the Phalanx CIWS (Close-In Weapon System) on their vessels for 'last line of defense' against missile attacks. It is basically a big rotary-barrel (i.e Gatling) 20mm cannon that fires at a cyclic rate of about 6000 rounds per minute. You read that right - that's 100 rounds a <i>second</i>. It eats ammo at an enormous rate, and is completely automatic in how it operates, using radar to traverse onto it's target. The Brits have a similar system who's name escapes me.