The Arny is Looking at the Metalstorm 9mm Pistol

H

Hard Ball

New member
The Army recently asked Metalstorm Ltd to demomstrate their Metalstorm 9mm pistol which has a cyclic rate of fire of 60,000 rounds per minute. These are prototype weapons, byt they worked well enough. Modes of fire include single shot, double tap or triple tap. When Tamara gets her hands on one of these the entire Atlanta area will be in danger,
The Army seems to be impressed and has given Metalstorm Ltd some R&D funding to continue their developmentThe demonstration pistols are 9mms, but the basic design could be adaoted to other calibers.
A proposed version would fire either 9mm bullets or 15mm low lethality projectiles. Both types could be loaded on the pistol at the same time. The caliber to be fired wouls be selected by the user.
 
Hard Ball, are you sure of these numbers? A thousand rounds a second seems impossible, and you would need a truck-mounted setup to carry your ammo around with you. :-)

-Moss
 
They claim an adjustable rate of fire up to 1,000,000 rounds per minute. I believe that they also market beachfront property in Del City, Ok.
 
60,000 rounds a minute ? What kinda hicaps come with that pistol ? ...considering you could unload a 20 rd mag in .02 seconds :rolleyes: .

That I would HAVE to see.
 
Go to the website and read the technical paper (1.3Mb Acrobat).

Remember, those righteously high numbers are cyclic, not "effective", rates-of-fire. Actually, with this weapon, "cyclic" is somewhat of a misnomer, as there aren't any moving parts to "cycle". Multiple, fixed, barrels (think Mitrailleuse, not Gatling), each of which contains multiple rounds of caseless ammo stacked atop each other in the same barrel: multiple barrels can fire at once, and each barrel is ready to fire again as soon as the preceding projectile clears the muzzle. No waiting for clunky slides or bolts or hammers or firing pins, just another little jolt of voltage and the next round's on it's way...

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"..but never ever Fear. Fear is for the enemy. Fear and Bullets."
10mm: It's not the size of the Dawg in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog!

[This message has been edited by Tamara (edited October 22, 2000).]
 
This has been mentioned on TFL before; actually the concept is an old one- a VERY old one. It goes all the way back to flintlock days, and it is technically called superposed loads. You can look up an early example of it in " Firearms Curiosa " by James Winant. At the time, it was a method of having more than one "round" ready to go at a time. The only real difference is in the electrical firing means.
crankshaft
paranoia is what I'll stick with as long as they stay out to get me!
 
Tamara has it right. Her description of the basic Metalform action is abolutely correct.
Of course the number of shots any Metalform pistol or rifle can fire is limted by the number of rounds loaded at the instant you start firing. After these rounds have been fired you cannot fire again until you have reloaded. However, you could fire all the loaded rounds at the cyclic rate if you decided to do so.
The 9mm Metalform pistol demonstrated to the Army had four barrels in its barrel group. Each barrel was loaded with seven rounds so a total of 28 shots were available. The shooter can select single shots (semiautomatic), double tap, triple tap, or "high energy." If he selects double tap for example he can fire 14 double taps without reloading. After that he must replace the fired enbloc barrel group with a fresh loaded barrel group before he can fire again.
 
I gotta admit, this is brilliant "thinking outside the box". As a serious science-fiction geek as well as a self-confessed gun nut, I've spent many a skull session on "the next step in personal firearms". Gauss weapons, ETC propellant, flechettes, plasma guns, are all common lines of thought. This, on the other hand, really came out of nowhere...

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"..but never ever Fear. Fear is for the enemy. Fear and Bullets."
10mm: It's not the size of the Dawg in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog!
 
Several people I have discussed this with have said 'All right, Hard Ball, suppose it does work. what is it good for?"
One thing which occurs to me is firing double taps against multiple opponents. I have heard many arguments as to whether you can afford to take the time to fire doiuble taps when engaging opponents or should fire single shots to speed up your target enggement rate.
With the Metalstorm design you can deliver instantaneous double taps and engae multiple targets just as fast as you can fire single shots from a conventional weapon. That could be a real life saver.
 
Mind boggling ballistic scenarios.

If we dump a whole slew of high speed projectiles out in close proximity to each other with random variences in absolute and relative speeds. Interfering shock waves, wake turbulance etc etc.....

Even two at a time gives rise to problems.

Wonder if a specific target can be hit.

Great for phalanx type system where the idea is to get a lot of shot out there for the incoming to run into but do I really want one for carry?

YES

A far cry from the S&W 1854 repeater that used caseless ammo and thus qualified for the term "no ejector".

Sam...so many toys, so little time.
 
Watched the video.
I, too, am a sci-fi geek as well as professed firearms enthusiast.
All I have to say is (Keanu Reeves voice) "whoa."
One question though: With all those rounds stacked in there, isn't your first shot always going to be less accurate than the last shot in the barrel, since the first shot will have the shortest barrel length?
Or am I just nit picking?

caliban
 
Pick Nitters get the best ants.

If the propellant charges are equal, then successive rounds from a given bbl would be faster than the ones ahead of them.

If hollow base, they could assemble in flight and effectively spear the target en masse/en train.

Sam...and I haven't even had a drink...yet.
 
I think its a terrible system.

I would like to see it go away.

I do however see its value as a stand off system - or an automated disposable unit to replace the claymore.

For an issue weapon?
HECK NO!
 
Hmmm...after reading all this, I wonder what a good spin doctor could make of the instantaneous cyclic rate when I fire a round of buckshot from my 12 gauge...
 
Armed Forces Journal International did a write up on it this month. Interesting Idea. I argee with George about it being an issued weapon. One neat thing the article in AFJI mentioned making an aircraft system to fire rockets using the metalstorm idea.

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Shop Smart! Shop S-Mart**** That's right I'm a gear whore and proud of it***
 
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