The weapon known as Metal Storm was initially proposed by Australian inventor Mike O’Dwyer in the 1990s. Specifically, his company, Metal Storm Inc, developed a 36-barrel test system capable of firing one million projectiles per minute.
As stated in it year 2006 O’Dwyer himself reported that the People’s Liberation Army (China’s armed forces) offered 100 million dollars for that technology.
That movement made the United States Department of Defensewho chose partner with Mike O’Dwyer to explore new weapons systems to bring to the battlefield.
However, the project suffered a large number of technical and logistical problemswhich ended up resulting in the abandonment of it and, finally, in the bankruptcy of Metal Storm Inc in 2012.
Nevertheless, Despite this scenario, it continued with its commitment to this technology and maintained its investment by using its own scientific and technological resources to develop it.
Up to 450,000 shots per minute per barrel
And the fruits of that decision are already beginning to see the light. China has made its ‘Metal Storm’ weaponequipped with at least five cannonscan shoot up to 450,000 rounds per minute per barrel.
To achieve this high figure, a team of researchers from Taiyuan (industrial center of central China) has developed a disposable magazine in the form of a container loaded with barrels preloaded with bullets.
After firing, the barrels and entire container are discarded as a single disposable unit. This gives the weapon a increased loading speed and one Reducing barrel wear without sacrificing accuracy.
Additionally, researchers have devised a electronic trigger with coils to be installed in the ‘Metal Storm’ weapon, since the mechanical triggers of traditional machine guns do not allow reaching that very high number of shots per minute.
