Re: Metal Storm
Tony.Williams_at_quarry.nildram.co.uk
Date: 02/13/05
- Next message: Michael Adams: "Re: WW1 Generals and lessons learned by Roman Army"
- Previous message: Mirco Romanato: "Re: Real Darleks going to Iraq"
- In reply to: Sharon: "Metal Storm"
- Next in thread: Dan Holdsworth: "Re: Metal Storm"
- Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ]
To: sci-military-moderated@moderators.isc.org Date: 12 Feb 2005 23:54:42 -0800
Sharon wrote:
> I'm a reporter working on an article about Metal Storm, the
Australian
> company working on an all eletronic gun. I would be interested to
hear
> from anyone who has followed the company, invested in the company, or
> who is simply an expert on this (general) area of technology. Please
> feel free to contact me at SWeinberger@accessintel.com
I wouldn't call myself an expert on the company and its products, but
I've been following reports on the development of MS with interest for
some years now and have formed some conclusions about its practical
merits.
In general, it is difficult to see many applications where it has a
clear advantage over existing technologies. I have described in as 'a
solution looking for a problem'. Its major selling point is an
extremely high rate of fire, but this is in fact of little practical
use.
The application for which its high rate of fire is currently being
advocated is the naval Close-In Weapon System (CIWS) as a last-ditch
weapon to knock out incoming anti-ship missiles. However, the major
concern about CIWS is that unless they knock out the missile at long
range, it (or its debris) will have such momentum that they will still
fly on to strike the ship. So missiles are now being favoured over guns
for this purpose as they have a longer engagement range.
Even by gun standards MS does not lend itself to long-range shooting
because the basic configuration - with rounds stacked on top of each
other - is best suited to short, fat rounds which are not good for
long-range performance. It also does not lend itself to sustained
shooting because once the barrels are empty there's a long pause while
they are reloaded.
There is one application which shows promise, however; that is for
grenade launchers attached to rifles or used by themselves. The USA is
working on a 25mm shoulder gun which uses an automatic loader. At one
time they wanted to combine the automatic grenade launcher with a
rifle, but the total weight was too high. With MS, you avoid the need
for the complex and heavy (and space-wasting) autoloader so the weight
can be much less. So I think that the MS proposal for combining their
grenade launcher with the standard Australian rifle is very interesting
and potentially has a lot of merit. Ironically, a high rate of fire is
irrelevant in this application.
Tony Williams
Military gun and ammunition website: http://www.quarry.nildram.co.uk
- Next message: Michael Adams: "Re: WW1 Generals and lessons learned by Roman Army"
- Previous message: Mirco Romanato: "Re: Real Darleks going to Iraq"
- In reply to: Sharon: "Metal Storm"
- Next in thread: Dan Holdsworth: "Re: Metal Storm"
- Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ]
Relevant Pages
|
|
