No, a new weapons technology, that looks like it will raise firing rates of weapons from the current top thousands-per-minute (on the Navy’s Phalanx system) to millions per minute.
O’Dwyer’s design does away with most of the moving parts of a conventional gun. Bullets are lined up one behind another in the barrel and separated only by propellant, which is ignited electronically. There’s nothing mechanical to break down.
“When we ignite the propellant that’s right in front, behind the leading bullet if you will, that pushes that bullet out,” O’Dwyer said. “What happens because of the nature of the invention, the bullet that’s immediately behind it, when the high pressure is applied to the nose of that bullet it actually expands and locks in the barrel. So progressively as we move down the barrel, we fire, the one behind expands and locks, and then unlocks and away it goes. It sounds simple, and in its operation it is simple, but the physics are very complex.”
The firepower is astounding. In 1/25 of a second, 180 bullets can shred a wooden door. It happens so fast, it sounds like one pop.
With the bullets already lined up in the barrel and no moving parts for loading, it’s easy to set up arrays of barrels, which lead to the incredible firing rate.
While much of the story on the page talks about other technologies, it sounds like this could be a significant advance in everything from handguns to artillery, such that the present cartridge-and-clip tech will someday seem as quaint as powder-and-shot.
(The page has the text of the story available by download. It’s worth doing, just to see some incredibly cool graphics of the system in action.)
What we need are faster ways to kill those who don’t agree with us.
An interesting argument. Of course, the ability to deliver higher firepower into a more precision area may actually end up saving lives, just as the development of “smart” bombs allowed the US to do what we did in Afghanistan without carpetbombing the whole place.
Note that the current high fire-rate weapon, the Phalanx, is used in a defensive role, as anti-aircraft and anti-missile.
The article (and the video) also show how the technology may have application in things like firefighting.
Mmm. Guess I will leave it to you guys to support war technology. I do agree that defense is a good thing.