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Difference between revisions of "Metal Storm Weapons"
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The technology's main shortcomings are reloading and varying ballistics; a Metal Storm weapon must have an entire pre-loaded barrel or barrel section replaced each time it is empty, and since the loads are stacked in the barrel, each successive projectile travels down a longer barrel and therefore has slightly different ballistics. This has largely limited practical applications of the technology to mortars and repeating grenade launchers where varying accuracy is not a major concern. | The technology's main shortcomings are reloading and varying ballistics; a Metal Storm weapon must have an entire pre-loaded barrel or barrel section replaced each time it is empty, and since the loads are stacked in the barrel, each successive projectile travels down a longer barrel and therefore has slightly different ballistics. This has largely limited practical applications of the technology to mortars and repeating grenade launchers where varying accuracy is not a major concern. | ||
| − | The technology does not seem to have been particularly successful; while Metal Storm produced a range of concepts and demonstrators, their largest contract appears to have been supplying 500 MAULs and 5,000 less-lethal barrels to Papua New Guinea for law enforcement use, and the company's shares were suspended in July 2012 and Metal Storm Ltd placed into voluntary administration. Their US-based subsidiary Metal Storm Inc filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in October 2014. | + | The technology does not seem to have been particularly successful; while Metal Storm produced a range of concepts and demonstrators, their largest contract appears to have been supplying 500 MAULs and 5,000 less-lethal barrels to Papua New Guinea for law enforcement use, and the company's shares were suspended in July 2012 and Metal Storm Ltd placed into voluntary administration. Their US-based subsidiary Metal Storm Inc filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in October 2014. Metal Storm's patents, intellectual property, trademarks and existing weapon prototypes were acquired in August 2015 by Australian defence R&D company DefendTex, which has stated it intends to market them under its existing brand. |
'''Weapons using Metal Storm technology have been featured in the following video games and television series:''' | '''Weapons using Metal Storm technology have been featured in the following video games and television series:''' | ||
Revision as of 10:47, 7 December 2015
Metal Storm Weapons are a series of proposed (and prototype) weapons created by the Australian company Metal Storm Ltd. These weapons use superposed loads in a single barrel with electrochemical ignition, allowing for enormously high fire rates due to a lack of moving parts. While quoting a cyclic fire rate of any kind is slightly misleading (since these weapons have no action and therefore no cycle of function) their headline proof-of-concept demonstrator, a 36-barrel rig called "Bertha," fired 180 shots at a total fire rate of one million rounds per minute (ie, 5 shots from each barrel at ~27,777 RPM), making it the fastest-firing gun in existence. This rig had notable pressure problems due to firing while the preceding bullet was still inside the barrel, and was not a practical weapon system. The Metal Storm VLE pistol appears to have also essentially been a proof of concept demonstrator to show how much the technology could be miniaturised.
The technology's main shortcomings are reloading and varying ballistics; a Metal Storm weapon must have an entire pre-loaded barrel or barrel section replaced each time it is empty, and since the loads are stacked in the barrel, each successive projectile travels down a longer barrel and therefore has slightly different ballistics. This has largely limited practical applications of the technology to mortars and repeating grenade launchers where varying accuracy is not a major concern.
The technology does not seem to have been particularly successful; while Metal Storm produced a range of concepts and demonstrators, their largest contract appears to have been supplying 500 MAULs and 5,000 less-lethal barrels to Papua New Guinea for law enforcement use, and the company's shares were suspended in July 2012 and Metal Storm Ltd placed into voluntary administration. Their US-based subsidiary Metal Storm Inc filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in October 2014. Metal Storm's patents, intellectual property, trademarks and existing weapon prototypes were acquired in August 2015 by Australian defence R&D company DefendTex, which has stated it intends to market them under its existing brand.
Weapons using Metal Storm technology have been featured in the following video games and television series:
Metal Storm AICW
AICW was the Australian equivalent of the XM29 OICW program, pairing a 5.56mm KE module produced by Steyr and based on the Steyr AUG rifle series with a 3-round 40mm grenade launcher produced by Metal Storm. Though testing was successful, the project did not proceed further, though Metal Storm did attempt to market a variant of the grenade launcher as the 3GL.
Video Games
| Game Title | Appears as | Mods | Notation | Release Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory | Not usable | 2005 | ||
| Soldier of Fortune: Payback | Cut; only accessible with mods | 2007 |
Metal Storm VLE
The Metal Storm VLE or O'Dwyer VLE pistol was a proof-of-concept demonstrator showing the degree to which the technology could be miniaturised; several variants were produced, using either rear-inserted barrels or break-open frames, with the most common a render produced for the TV series Future Weapons showing a four-barrel version with two 9mm lethal barrels and two 15mm less-lethal barrels.
Television
| Show Title / Episode | Actor | Character | Notation | Air Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Future Weapons/Maximum Impact | Richard Machowicz | May 3, 2006 |
Video Games
| Game Title | Appears as | Mods | Notation | Release Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Soldier of Fortune: Payback | ALX | 2007 |
Metal Storm Redback RWS
Redback was one of a series of 40mm implementations of Metal Storm technology in grenade launchers and mortars, where the variable per-shot accuracy would be less of a problem. The Redback system was a four-barrel remote weapon station designed to replace the Mk 19 grenade launcher on vehicles and drones.
Video Games
| Game Title | Appears as | Mods | Notation | Release Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Call of Duty: Black Ops II | Mounted on the "Assault Drone"; incorrectly functions as a machine gun instead of a grenade launcher | 2012 |
Metal Storm MAUL
MAUL (Multi-shot Accessory Underbarrel Launcher) is a Metal Storm-based semi-automatic accessory shotgun designed to compete with pump or bolt action accessory shotguns such as the Knight's Armament Masterkey and M26 MASS. It uses a front-loading 5-shot preloaded barrel, and can fire either standard slug or shot or less-lethal loads, though only one type of load can be used at a time due to the nature of the weapon.
Video Games
| Game Title | Appears as | Mods | Notation | Release Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Call of Duty: Ghosts | "Bulldog" | w/ various attachments | In both standalone and underbarrel configurations | 2013 |
| Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare | "Bulldog" | w/ various attachments | Standalone only | 2014 |