For those of you who haven’t been to www.metalstorm.com, go there now and watch the video that explains just what this product is. There, did you see it? Good, now we can move on.
For those who didn’t go and just kept reading, I’ll try and explain just what this weapons system is in as few words as possible. Unlike convention firearms, which rely on a variety of moving parts including a clip, trigger, firing pin, and a variety of others, Metal Storm weapons have one moving part… the bullet. The ammunition is loaded straight down the barrel, one behind the other, and the rounds are ignited through an electrical pulse. As such, these weapons are lighter weight, require no casing, fire at a faster rate, have deadlier accuracy… and the list goes on.
The other most notable advantage of Metal Storm weapons are that the system is adaptable. Metal Storm technology has been applied to hand guns, rifles, anti-aircraft weapons, grenade launchers, and the list goes on. Metal Storm weapons are also customizeable, often with two or more barrels (since the barrel is the really dangerous part anyway) that carry multiple kinds of ammunition. As such, the system is relatively fluid, and can easily accomodate whatever needs a person may have for it, whether that need is to be mounted on a helicopter gunship, or to be put in the hands of a front line soldier.
Like many high tech weapons, Metal Storm systems can also be left unmanned. This means that huge swaths of country can be watched by soldiers through the weapon’s sensors from miles away. These unmanned weapons need no food, no sleep, no support, and unless their power is interrupted, they can guard and watch open country, freeing up human soldiers for other tasks they may be desperately needed for.
Now, since I’ve listed out most of the advantages, let’s discuss the loopholes and possible downsides that no one seems to want to talk about regarding this system. Metal Storm weapons, as mentioned above, work off an electronic signal. Setting off conventional rounds in an enemy’s gun at the push of a button is more or less impossible, unless you bomb a munitions dump. It wouldn’t be far fetched to say that a Metal Storm weapon, if the electronic signal is imitated or shorted out completely, could be rendered totally useless.
Additionally, Metal Storm is a high tech weapon that isn’t common in large numbers. Expensive, and uncommon, are a bad combination for a useful battlefield weapon. With a high price, there won’t be large numbers of them purchased, which means that unless a person has the time and proper parts, fixing a downed unit may very well be impossible. Even the vaunted prowess of a Metal Storm sentry, watching for the enemy across no man’s land could be easily invalidated the first time it slaughters friendly soldiers due to a communications snafu… something that a breathing soldier with eyes and a mind wouldn’t do.
Though I’ll admit, Metal Storm technology is shiny, and deadly. It could, as the name implies, fill the air with a hail of bullets and completely destroy an enemy convoy or a battalion of tanks if launched from the air. In the modern world of warfare though, shock and awe tactics like Metal Storm may go the way of nuclear weapons, chemical bombs, and hydrogen bombs. It doesn’t matter how much firepower you can bring to bear if the enemy is hiding inside a friendly population, or have hostages. For example, finding terrorists with conventional tactics won’t work unless your enemy lines up across from you on a field and identifies themselves. So it doesn’t matter how fast you can fire or how big the explosion you can make, if you can’t find the enemy.
Metal Storm weapons, on the flip side, would provide a massive advantage to a smaller, more mobile force facing a larger, more conventional one. The ability for one man or a small team manning a Metal Storm launcher to destroy an entire armed camp in the space of half a dozen minutes (something that can be done just as well with accurate artillery fire), would be a great advantage to forces that favor guerilla tactics (whether those forces be US Special Forces, PLO terrorists, or even IRA extremists). This system will be particularly useful to those unconventional warriors who are fighting a more conventional force that still expects their enemy to fight them when the enemy is out gunned and out numbered. Metal Storm, in this situation, could provide quite the advantage to the underdog.
