This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2009) This article has an unclear citation style. The references used may be made clearer with a different or consistent style of citation, footnoting, or external linking. (January 2012) This article appears to be written like an advertisement. Please help improve it by rewriting promotional content from a neutral point of view and removing any inappropriate external links. (February 2009) This article may contain original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations. Statements consisting only of original research may be removed. (May 2010)

Metal Storm Limited

Type	Public
Traded as	(ASX: MST)
Industry	Defense
Fate	voluntary administration
Founded	1994
Headquarters	Brisbane, Australia
Key people	Terence James O'Dwyer, Chairman[1]
Website	http://www.metalstorm.com/

Metal Storm Limited was a research and development company based in Brisbane, Australia that specializes in electronically initiated superposed load weapons technology and owns the proprietary rights to the electronic ballistics technology invented by J. Mike O'Dwyer.^[2] Metal Storm represents both the name of the company and the technology. The company maintains a subsidiary in Arlington, Virginia, U.S.A..

Metal Storm requested their shares be suspended from trading on 20 July 2012.^[3] As of 26 July 2012 (2012-07-26)^[update], the company has been placed in voluntary administration.^[3]

Technology [edit]

Metal Storm uses the concept of superposed load; multiple projectiles loaded nose to tail in a single gun barrel with propellant packed between them. The Roman candle, a traditional firework design, employs the same basic concept, however, the propellant continues to burn in the Roman candle's barrel, igniting the charge behind the subsequent projectile. The process is repeated by each charge in turn, ensuring that all projectiles in the barrel are discharged sequentially from the single ignition. Various methods of separately firing each propellant package behind stacked projectiles have been proposed which would allow a "single shot" capability more suitable to firearms.^[4]

J. Mike O'Dwyer, an Australian inventor, observed that these methods did not eliminate the problem of unintended propellant ignition caused by hot gases "leaking" back up the barrel. J. Mike O'Dwyer's original Metal Storm patents demonstrated a method whereby projectiles placed in series along the length of a barrel could be fired sequentially and selectively without the danger associated with unintended propellant ignition.

In the original Metal Storm patents, the propellant immediately behind the projectile closest to the muzzle of the gun barrel was ignited by an electronically fired primer, the projectile was set in motion, and at the same time a reactive force acted on the remaining stacked projectiles in the barrel, pushing them backwards. By design, the remaining projectiles would distort under this load, expanding radially against the gun barrel wall. This created a seal, which prevented the hot propellant gases (expanding behind the lead projectile) prematurely igniting the remaining propellant charges in the barrel (blow-back). As each of these propellant charges was selectively (electronically) ignited, the force "unlocked" the projectile in front and propelled it down the gun barrel, and reinforced the radial expansion (and hence the seal) between the projectiles remaining in the barrel and the barrel wall.^[5]

Subsequent designs discarded the "distorting shell sealing against the barrel" concept in favor of containing the propellant in "skirts" that form the rear part of each projectile. These skirted projectiles differ from conventional shells and cartridge units in that the skirts are part of the projectile, and in that the skirts are open-ended (at the rear). The rearward seal to the skirt is provided by the nose of the following projectile in the barrel. As in the previous design, the firing of a projectile results in a rearward impulse on the remaining projectiles stacked in the barrel. This results in the skirts of the remaining shells in the barrel being compressed against the following shell heads, effectively creating a seal that prevents hot gases in the barrel triggering unintended propellant ignition ("blow-back") along the length of the barrel. Metal Storm also introduced inductive electronic ignition of the propellant, effectively from outside the barrel. This overcame technical issues in maintaining physical contacts with the propellant charges, which due to the compression effectively shift slightly backwards within the barrel during firing^{[citation needed]}.

The skirt-to-nose joint has, in recent designs, incorporated an easy-release arrangement that allow the shells to be clipped together to form robust ammunition "munition tubes", which can be transported more readily than individual shells, and inserted directly into Metal Storm barrels. Metal Storm has indicated that the tubes can be "pulled apart" and reconstructed in the field to make up custom combinations of ammunition, and to facilitate "topping off" a partly discharged tube that is still in the barrel^{[citation needed]}.

Products [edit]

Minigun [edit]

A Minigun with a belt of separate firing chambers also exists.^[6]

MAUL [edit]

The Multi-shot Accessory Under-barrel Launcher (MAUL) is an electronically fired, 12-gauge shotgun for use as an accessory weapon to a range of weapons, such as the M4 or M16 rifle, or as a stand-alone 5 shot weapon, providing a range of lethal (buckshot and slug) and non-lethal (blunt impact, door breaching, and frangible) munitions, all preloaded in 5 round "stacked projectiles" munition tubes. Metal Storm reported^[7] the first shoulder-firing of the MAUL during tests on 24 April 2009 at its test facilities in Chantilly, Virginia.

36 barrel prototype [edit]

Metal Storm has created a 36-barreled stacked projectile machine gun, boasting the highest rate of fire in the world. The prototype weapon demonstrated a firing rate of just over 1 million rounds per minute for a 180-round burst, with a claimed maximum rate of fire of 1.62 million RPM (i.e., 45,000 RPM for each barrel).^[8]

Foreign interest [edit]

In 2000, Chinese agents approached Michael O'Dwyer, inventor of the Metal Storm 'super gun' technology, and offered him US$100M to go to China to develop the technology.^[9][10] O'Dwyer refused and informed the Australian government of the approach. Since then, the Chinese have developed technology^[which?] and calls their military development program, 'Metal Storm'.^{[11][12][source needs translation]}

Sales contracts [edit]

On 6 November 2009, Metal Storm announced it had received an order from Defense Research and Development Canada for three MAUL 12 gauge Multi-shot Accessory Under-barrel Launchers together with ammunition.^{[citation needed]}

On 15 March 2010, Metal Storm announced an order from the United States Marine Corps to provide 45 Improvised Explosive Device/Explosive Ordnance Disposal (IED/EOD) training kits, valued at US$691,610 with delivery completed within 120 days. On 9 July 2010, Metal Storm announced that it had delivered 60% of the kits.^{[citation needed]}

On 20 April 2010, Metal Storm announced it had been awarded a contract worth US$1,477,860 with the US Marine Corps for the Mission Payload Module - Non-Lethal Weapon System (MPM-NLWS) program, expected to be delivered over 12 months.^{[citation needed]}

As at 3 August 2010, Metal Storm have signed a contract with value of US$3,365,000 with Papua New Guinea's Correctional Services Minister Tony Aimo to supply 500 MAULs and 50,000 rounds of non-lethal ammunition for use by correctional services officers.^[13]

Personnel [edit]

Directors [edit]

• Terence James O'Dwyer, Director since 30 March 1998, Chairman since September 2005
• Lee John Finniear, PhD: Managing Director since 24 May 2007 & CEO since 19 February 2007
• John R. Nicholls, Director since 1 September 2006
• Trevor William Tappenden, Director since 1 July 2008
• William Henkel, Director since 2 November 2010

Total personnel [edit]

In a Form 20-F filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission dated 30 June 2008, Metal Storm reported that it employed 30 staff as of 31 December 2007.

Patents [edit]

• Metal Storm Patents at the European Patent Office
• Metal Storm Patents at the US Patent Office
• Metal Storm Patents at the Australian Patent Office

Patent holders [edit]

• J. Michael O'Dwyer
• John Ramon Bambach
• Sean Patrick O'Dwyer (J. Michael O'Dwyer's son)

In popular culture [edit]

Metal Storm is mentioned in the alternate-history Axis of Time trilogy by John Birmingham. They are involved with naval close-in weapons systems, the Remington G4 combat rifle, and the VLe 24 3-barrel pistol.

The O'Dwyer VLe,^[14] a prototype Metal Storm handgun, is featured in the John Ridley novels What Fire Cannot Burn and Those Who Walk In Darkness. It is also mentioned in Jeremy Robinson's Chess Team series of novels and novellas.

Metal Storm weapons mounted on the chassis of an M1A1 Abrams tank are featured in When the Devil Dances and Hell's Faire books by John Ringo as stand-alone weapons. They are also installed on the upper deck of the SheVa Self-propelled artillery vehicle 'BunBun' as an improvised secondary weapons system.

Metal Storm assault rifles were also mentioned (and used by the IG-88 bounty hunter team) in the Matthew Reilly action novel Scarecrow.

An episode of the TV series CSI: Miami "Guerillas in the Mist" featured the "DX-4 Vaporizer" a fictional weapon based on the Metal Storm concept.

The technology was featured in a segment of the Discovery Channel's Future Weapons (episode 3 of season 1).

A Metal Storm sniper rifle is featured in the video game Call of Duty: Black Ops 2.

A Metal Storm-style firearm, the size of a battle rifle, called the Typhoon, is featured in the video game Crysis 3, firing at 30000 rounds per minute.

Similar Weapons [edit]

• Volley Firing Infantry Weapon
• Nordenfelt gun
• Close-in weapon system

See also [edit]

• List of modern armament manufacturers
• List of multiple barrel firearms

References [edit]

1. ^ "Metal Storm Limited - Resolutions Passed at Annual General Meeting". Business Wire. 21 May 2004. Retrieved 13 February 2007. ^{[dead link]}
2. ^ "Metal Storm Weapons". Popular Mechanics (Hearst Corporation). 7 December 2004. Retrieved 22 January 2012. "Through his company, Metal Storm Ltd., the Australian inventor hopes to apply this technology to a variety of military and commercial products worldwide." 
3. ^ ^{a b} Staff (26 July 2012). "Metal Storm up for sale". The Australian. AAP. Retrieved 27 July 2012. 
4. ^ for example Scott in 1902 and Broyles in 1974
5. ^ [Dan] (1999-04). "Taking Ballistics by Storm: An electronic gun with no mechanical parts fires a million rounds per minute". Scientific American. Nature America, Inc. Retrieved 3 August 2010. 
6. ^ http://www.freepatentsonline.com/20050262996.pdf
7. ^ Metal Storm Completes First Shoulder Firing of MAUL Shotgun, IBT, 30 April 2009, accessed 10 May 2009
8. ^ Gourley, Scott (September 2001). "Metal Storm Weapons". Popular Mechanics. Hearst Communications 
9. ^ [1] O'Dwyer offered 100M to go to China
10. ^ [2] China's desire for inventor's gun just tip of iceberg
11. ^ [3] China's CIWS Research for ship defence.
12. ^ [4] Hyper-velocity ballistic missile defence
13. ^ "Metal Storm win multi-million contract". The Sydney Morning Herald (Sydney: Fairfax Media). 3 August 2010.  Unknown parameter |access date= ignored (help)
14. ^ O'Dwyer VLe

External links [edit]

• Official website
• Metal Storm Limited Share Price Information
• Metal Storm live firing in US
• Transcript of interview with Mike O'Dwyer and others in 2000 (ABC)
• [5] Metal Storm 36 barrel prototype test firing.
• MAUL and 3GL on Defense-update
• [6] China's CIWS Research.