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.
Full Story @ United Press International
and here I thought the Phalanx CIWS had a good fire rate of 4,500 rpm, this takes the cake.
Posted by: muddy at January 23, 2006 08:02 AMKewl and pointless. Awesome they can do that, but honestly, that many rounds per minute is a waste. You can't effectively use a weapon that fires that fast.
Posted by: skywalker at January 23, 2006 08:37 AMIt's my understanding from previous shows I've seen about this weapon that it's intended as an area effect and anti-projectile roles. Also the technology is thought to be able to move to hand held weapons. Taking a normally loud say M249 and turning it into a weapon with no noise and more firepower.
Posted by: muddy at January 23, 2006 08:51 AM