It has no moving parts. Yet, it can fire standard, small-caliber
projectiles from multiple barrels at speeds up to one million rounds
per minute. Is it still a gun?
Its creators call it Metal Storm. No moving parts mean no jams
in the traditional sense and a quiet operating mechanism. The high
rate of fire is not just a function of the number of barrels. The
cartridges are initiated with an electronic impulse.
Building on earlier technology, successfully demonstrated over
the past three years, Metal Storm continues to try to drag small
arms technology—some might suggest kicking and screaming—into
the computer age. Inventor Michael O’Dwyer said his Australian-based
company, also named Metal Storm, has found additional applications
and new ways to incorporate other technologies with its own.
Metal Storm still is ranked as a high-risk technology among the
latest in a string of efforts to achieve a real leap ahead in small-arms
technology. Prototypes have been demonstrated to the apparent satisfaction
of the U.S. Defense Advance Research Projects Agency. Metal Storm’s
owners have received more than $50 million in development dollars
from the U.S and Australian governments.
Looking beyond the traditional, a single, or multi-barreled Metal
Storm device could be added to an existing weapon on a Picatinny
rail, or current optics and fire-control systems could be added
to a Metal Storm platform. The company has taken its 9 mm pistol
and incorporated a key control device to create its own version
of a “smart gun” for possible law enforcement applications.
This variant could fire multiple rounds with a single trigger pull.
On activation, the weapon could send out a “help” signal
on a radio frequency to call for backup.
The Australian company is partnered with the U.S.-based SAIC in
a DARPA-led contract to develop a new, lightweight advanced sniper
rifle, based on Metal Storm technology. Rather than depending on
larger calibers—such as .50 caliber or 20 mm—the Metal
Storm advanced sniper rifle would use .45 caliber ammunition, with
thousands of rounds fired at a high rate of fire.
The ammunition developed for the sniper version of Metal Storm
comes in two versions. One has a .17 caliber tungsten sabot fin
stabilized projectile. The second variation has a .22 caliber sabot
round that is spin stabilized. Both variants are caseless and electronically
primed.
Some of the advantages of the sniper application noted by its developers
include a rapid reload, since the rounds come in a pre-loaded barrel.
This same technology allows the shooter to quickly change calibers
or ammunition type. It also offers the user the option to make a
quick shift to less-than-lethal, as a scenario evolves. Because
Metal Storm can be programmed to fire multiple rounds with a single
trigger pull at an extremely high rate of fire, it is conceivable
that a sniper could deliver multiple rounds, a double or triple
tap, at long range, with no recoil between rounds.
Metal Storm’s creators reduced the rate of fire in the sniper
version to a more manageable 60,000 rounds per minute to improve
the accuracy of a sniper rifle version. The company has been experimenting
with the sniper rifle for the past year.
Australia’s Defence Science and Technology Organisation is
looking at various applications for the technology, including area
denial, vehicle self-defense and a close-in weapon system. The company
also is looking at civilian applications, such as firefighting.
Australian Weapon
Most recently, Metal Storm was selected as a component of Australia’s
Advanced Individual Combat Weapon, that country’s version
of the U.S. Objective Individual Combat Weapon. Still in the concept
stage, the Australian AICW looks like an over-under system, with
the upper barrel firing an air-bursting munition and the lower firing
standard 5.56 x 45 mm ammunition. The standard Australian-built,
Austrian-designed AUG bullpup will provide the foundation for the
new weapon. The air-bursting munition will be based on Metal Storm
technology. O’Dwyer said it should be possible to apply the
technology to the larger 20 mm round.
Metal Storm was listed on the Australian stock exchange in 1999
and has raised over $215 million from private speculators. The corporate
strategy to date has been to concentrate on research and development
and aggressive international marketing to improve the technology’s
long term chances of survival.
As with any new technology, Metal Storm does not come without skeptics.
Many of them are small-arms designers and engineers with years of
experience in research and development, as well as production engineering.
The weapon’s inventor is not from the milieu of the small-arms
world. He is an inventor with “out-of-the-box” ideas.
Most of the questions from experienced small arms manufacturers
involve the physics of firing multiple rounds simultaneously down
a barrel. Manufacturers wonder about the effects of the gases, which
inevitably must be initiated to thrust any projectile down the barrel.
What impact do the gases propelling one projectile have upon subsequent
projectiles, as they travel down the barrel and out the muzzle?
The high rate of fire also has some asking about the effects on
the mechanics of the barrel, including wear.
Metal Storm’s primary sources of funding, however, are from
government agencies and capital investors who are used to gambling
on promising concepts and recognize the high-risk nature of this
new and different technology.
Virginia Hart Ezell is president of the Institute for Research
on Small Arms in International Security and a reserve lieutenant
colonel in the U.S. Army Ordnance Corps.