The United States Marine Corps put their best foot forward once again for the 30th annual Modern Day Marine (MDM) show at Quantico, Virginia. This year’s show was very well attended by both vendors and USMC personnel, with many new vendors on display. Over 8,500 attendees, mostly USMC, kept the over 400 booths energized. The discussions at the show had most of the attendees and vendors very pleased and planning on returning the next year. MDM is always a highly rated show for interaction with not only the higher ranked and hopefully decision makers, but with the rank and file Marines. Most vendors are aware that this is what builds their brand as the young Marines move up in rank they remember the lessons learned not only on the battlefield, but on the display floors as well.

There were many booths for organizations supporting the USMC and veterans. One group in particular SAR would like to bring to our readers’ attention: The U.S. Paralympics Military Program. This group is working with the U.S. Paralympics to help sponsor more of the thousands of severely wounded veterans into the active sports programs they provide. www.usparalympics.org or www.semperfifund.org.

AAI LSAT (Lightweight Small Arms Technologies) is a technology based program managed through the Joint Service Small Arms Program Office (JSSAP), located at the Army’s Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center at Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey. The focus of LSAT is:

• Reduce the weight of weapons carried by warfighters by 35 percent
• Lower the ammunition weight by more than 40 percent
• Maintain or improve lethality and reliability over current systems
• Improve ergonomics and logistics
• Reduce training and maintenance time

These promising technologies continue to be matured and tested. Current program objectives are to:

• Develop the cased telescoped ammunition and light machine gun to TRL 7 and conduct an operational demonstration
• Continue maturation and demonstrations of the caseless ammunition and light machine gun
• Develop and demonstrate a cased telescoped rifle to TRL 5 (www.aaicorp.com)

Beretta– The TRG Folding Stock can be retrofitted to all TRG precision sniper rifles without any modifications to the weapon itself. Front to rear: PX4 .45 ACP SOCOM trials pistol with Gemtech Blackside suppressor. TRG-42 PSR .338 Lapua Magnum rifle with standard sidefolder. Beretta owns Steiner so they are featuring the Military 4-16×50, and the suppressor is the Surefire LLC model FA338SS. The Harris Bipod was chosen for this. The TRG stock system accepts Remington 700 USMC Short action and the M24 long action. Scope is the Schmidt & Bender PMII. The Harris bipod is chosen for this. (www.berettale.com)

One of the busiest booths at the show was the FNH USA booth with its emphasis on small arms for the warfighter. The SCAR program was well received with a constant flow of Marines looking over the rifle system, and the sniper and M3M .50 displays were also busy. (www.fnhusa.com)

The General Dynamics MK47 Grenade Machine Gun is a lightweight new generation of launcher that has been well accepted by testers and users alike. The idea for making it squad portable was put to Eagle and they designed a 4 pack system for packing this out – one pack that is for the MK47 itself, the next for tripod and FCU, and the next (add as many as you want) to carry the soft box ammo carriers in either 32 or 48 rounds. The soft carriers reduce the bulk of the ammo containers, but once loaded, will fit inside the original ammo cans the 40x53mm linked grenades come in making for a quick fit in a Humvee or other vehicle. (www.gd-ots.com) or (www.eagleindustries.com)

C. Reed (Trey) Knight III holds the M110 Carbine, the newly adopted Knight’s Armament Company 7.62×51 mm sniper rifle in its shorter profile. The patented dimpled ‘Heavy’ barrel delivers expected HB accuracy and consistency results, while providing lighter weight and more rapid cooling. 7.62mm M110 Carbine (P/N: 25749) pictured with Leupold 1.1-8x CQBSS (optional P/N 25884)

Prolific parts and weapons supplier LaRue Firearms presented several caliber variations of their Optimized Battle Rifle. The 7.62x51mm carbine version (shown) provides semiautomatic long range capability in a smaller package. (www.laruetactical.com)

The LMO/VLTOR manufactured PKM 7.62x54R machine gun that LMO has been supplying to USG customers. LMO is the GSA contractor armorer trainer for U.S. and foreign small arms, as well as a long-time supplier of unusual munitions. (www.longmountain.com)

LWRC featured their M6-G series rifles with the reliable short stroke gas piston operation they are well known for in their M16 based platforms. The REPR in 7.62x51mm was quite popular with the USMC attendees and is a contender for consideration on sniper systems. (www.LWRCI.com)

ManroyUSA.The MK43 Mod 0 EBS (Electro-optical BoreSight assembly) is utilized for accurately aligning weapons with their sighting systems. The EBS employs a state of the art color video camera and permits a single user to accurately and remotely align the weapon to the sight from the safety of the gunner’s position. The EBS provides a safe, easy to use, accurate, fast and reliable tool for boresighting that yields high first round hit probability. The ease of use of the EBS minimizes the time required to perform boresighting and maximizes the convenience and the frequency of the procedure. The EBS retains its accuracy over a wide range of environmental conditions and permits the alignment process to be accomplished at up to 2,000+ meters. (www.manroy-usa.com)

McCurdy’s Armor Dynamic Defense Materials, LLC is supplying a portable armored wall system named in honor of fallen Marine Corporal Ryan McCurdy. This armor system is fast to set up and as a single wall is effective up to 7.62mm threats. An interior wall can be added as well as sand-fill to bring that protection up to 12.7mm. (www.ddmat.com)

The Metal Storm Multi-Shot Accessory Underbarrel Launcher (MAUL) is an ultra-lightweight 12 gauge gun system that attaches to the barrels of the M4 and M16 Modular Weapon Systems (MWS). With Metal Storm’s stacked round firing system, the war fighter can load and fire five shots simultaneously in a single chamber, maximizing mission effectiveness. (www.metalstorm.com)

Nammo-Talley and Raytheon The new 83mm SERPENT shoulder fired launcher is a reloadable tube using a variety of task chosen ammunition that may be fired from enclosure. The three current workhorse rounds are the Novel Explosive for Urban Use, the High Explosive Anti-Armor, and the High Explosive Dual Purpose. The SERPENT weighs 10 pounds (4.5 kg), has an overall length of 32.4 inches (82.2 cm) in the carry position, and has a range of 500 meters (1,640 feet). (www.nammotalley.com) and (www.raytheon.com)

MSG Military Systems Group started in 1984 and has been supplying mount and weapon related products ever since. They are a GSA provider and are online at the e-buy system. (www.milsysgroup.com)

US Ordnance- STS US Ordnance’s display featured a twin M2HB .50 caliber machine gun set up with right and left hand feeds. US Ordnance has numerous government contracts on the M2HB as well as the MK43 Mod O (M60E4) 7.62x51mm machine gun. The twins are set onto a naval mount that is one of the featured products of Special Tactical Services, LLC. STS is committed to providing the highest level of training possible to all of their clients and their main business line is providing GS approved training as well as contracted security in operations. (www.usord.com) and (www.spectacserv.com)

Rheinmettal and Vingtech provided a variety of solutions and enhancements for the 40x53mm platforms. Perhaps the most interesting was the Vingtech MK19 Capability Upgrade. This system was combat proven on the HK GMG and brings new accuracy to the MK19 system. Upgrade package includes the Vingmate Fire Control System, Vingtech Combi Softmount and the Vingtech Video Trainer. (www.vingtech.com)

RPG Stopper – The ShotScreen RPG Defeat System is an active protection system that can be mounted on new or retrofitted LAVs and a variety of other vehicles and stationary platforms. The system releases a wave of small diameter, low velocity non-lethal pellets from several non-slewing locations to defeat multiple anti-tank type RPG grenades. To defeat an incoming RPG, two adjacent warheads are fired to form an overlapping pattern of pellets. The cloud of pellets travel to the intercept plane at a low rate of speed. This pattern, or ‘shot screen,’ intercepts the RPG round at close range from the protected vehicle and neutralized the RPG to nullify its lethality. This is done by short-circuiting the electrical path in the dual cone nose as shown in the picture. In an alternate version, it pre-detonated PG7s at a significant stand-off distance. (www.gd-ots.com)

Magpul has been providing a prolific line of upgrade products as well as their in-house weapons designs, but the game-changing P-Mag 30 is still one of the hottest items at any show. (www.magpul.com)

Carl Zeiss presented some new products: Front: 4×30 fixed 4x ballistic prop compensated with 8 degree field of view; L-R NSV-1000 long range night vision, IRV-600 IR-Thermal Imager 1.2km range to detect a human, NSV-600 Intermediate range image intensifier, 6-24 x 72 Hensoldt military optic, Rear: Spotter 60 20-60x spotter optic. (www.zeiss.com)

Tippmann Ordnance Company, related to the longtime U.S. company that produced the Tippmann miniature fully functional one-half scale Browning machine guns and air rifles/paintball equipment, has produced a series of training gear that is pneumatically operated. Training suicide bomber vests, roadside IEDs, and the new M1A-M2 Mortar Launcher (shown). The M1A-M2 is a paint marker system resembling a military crew served mortar, similar in visual impact with a standard military 81mm mortar. The marker system is a 62mm, smoothbore, muzzle loading, gas/Co2 operated, manually fired, high angle-of-fire training device. The device propels a 20 oz. marker round (water soluble marker paint), with a 4 round per minute firing cycle rate, with an effective range of approximately 500 yards, providing a 70+ feet in diameter ‘kill zone’ while employing a maximum operating pressure of 200 psi. (www.tippmannordnance.com)

In keeping with their tradition of support at MDM, SureFire had a well-stocked booth. Of note were the mil-spec rifle suppressors. Top to bottom: FA762K for 7.62x51mm rifles weighing 19 oz (539gr) and has a length of 8.4 inches (19.1 cm); MICRO for the 5.56x45mm rifles weighing 12 oz (340gr) with a length of 4.0 inches (10.2cm); MINI for the 5.56×45 rifles weighs 14 oz (397gr) with a length of 5.0 inches (12.7cm). (www.surefire.com)

Marine Corps Warfighting Lab – The MCWL is an effective group whose mission is to “Conduct concept-based experimentation and wargaming to develop and evaluate tactics, techniques, procedures, and technologies in order to support the warfighter by enhancing current and future warfighting capabilities.” This is accomplished through the various divisions of the lab; Science & Technology Integration; Global War on Terrorism Operations; Experiment Division; Technology Division, as well as several other groups. (www.mcwl.quantico.usmc.mil)

Metal Storm is a radically different concept for weapons and ammunition, the brainchild of a self-educated Australian inventor with brilliant intuition for practical applications in engineering, physics and electronics. Following its genesis in the early 1990s, this novel electronic ballistics technology has suffered from what might charitably be termed unrealistic expectations.

Early claims of a rate of fire capability at 1 million rounds per minute inspired some fanciful applications ranging from covert wrist guns to missile defense. Metal Storm has been a darling of the media, frequently seen on the Discovery Channel and others in highly sensationalized depictions of supergun abilities. In one particularly memorable TV episode of CSI Miami, Metal Storm-like guns were seen literally vaporizing anyone who was on the muzzle end of this terrifying weapon.

Million Rounds a Minute

James Michael O’Dwyer was 47 years old in 1991 when he sold his successful food wholesale business to devote his full energies to various inventions. Two years later, he bet the remainder of his life savings and all the money he could borrow on development of a unique weapon system that, he strongly believed, would have revolutionary applications in military and law enforcement.

Years of work in O’Dwyer’s backyard garage/laboratory ultimately yielded what would become the internationally patented Metal Storm System. A breakthrough came in 1996 when a formal study by US defense giant Lockheed Martin provided essential third-party validation for the radical concept.

Building on success of his single barrel prototype, constructed with the help of a local Australian engineer named Graham Bugden, O’Dwyer’s next breakthrough came in captivating media attention with a dramatic demonstration video. News organizations worldwide picked up the demo clip showing an incomprehensibly fast burst of 9mm rounds from a box of 36 bullet-stacked barrels that O’Dwyer had whimsically named “Bertha.” A lightning strike blast of 180 rounds stormed out in about one hundredth of a second. Yes, that’s a rate of fire better than one million rounds a minute.

Bertha showed the way to a variety of devices utilizing O’Dwyer’s clever stacked munitions principle. Prominent among these are a “smart” handgun, remotely fired munitions to replace traditional minefields, close-in protection for vehicles against ambushers and incoming rockets, plus gun pods for robotic vehicles.

But, thus far, none of these has achieved commercial success.

Game-Changing Technology

Finally, after many years of work, fueled by multimillions of dollars in developmental funding from private investors, industry partners and various military entities, the radically unconventional Metal Storm system seems on track for fielding in key roles in the Global War on Terror.

We recently talked to Metal Storm to separate the truth from the fiction and get an update on how the company has progressed from the patent office to the marketplace.

Peter Faulkner, General Manager of Metal Storm Incorporated, the U.S. licensee of Metal Storm Limited in Australia, told us, “The company has become intensely focused on product development over the past three years and the work is beginning to pay off. We are close to offering the military and law enforcement communities real products rather than ideas.”

The real products Faulkner is referring to are the MAUL, 3GL and FireStorm. Not nearly the million rounds per minute, battlefield clearing supergun once imagined by the Metal Storm inventor, but certainly more relevant to current tactical applications.

MAUL Underbarrel Shotgun

Breaching shotguns of various types are in widespread use by American forces; all relatively heavy and mechanically actuated in form and function essentially unchanged for more than a century.

The Office of Naval Research, acting on behalf of the US Marine Corps, turned to MS for a better solution. Of particular interest was the need to more efficiently launch the devilishly effective FRAG-12 fin-stabilized high explosive 12 gauge projectiles.

This was a Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory project to see if these specialized breaching rounds could be stacked. MS delivered a bench test gun that proved successful as seen in live fire video linked on the MS website. This has led to an ONR contract to actually build a weapon for the M4 carbine, the weapon of choice for MOUT scenarios, along with lethal and non lethal rounds.

It’s now known as MAUL, a particularly appropriate acronym derived from its formal name of Multishot Accessory Underbarrel Launcher. Backed by funding of nearly a million dollars from ONR, this slim, light, electrically-fired semiauto clamp-on quickly loads with slip-in tubes pre-packed with up to five rounds of various types. MAUL is fast tracked for delivery to the Navy by June 2009 for more detailed operational evaluations.

Caliber: 18mm (12 gauge)
Ammunition: Lethal and less-lethal
Capacity: Up to 5 rounds in preloaded sleeves
Operation: Manually reloaded, electrically fired, semiautomatic
Weight Empty: 2 pounds

3GL Three Shot Grenade Launcher

The 40mm grenade launchers currently in US and allied military service that are suitable for mounting to a primary weapon such as the M4/M16 family are single shot devices. Critical seconds are lost in reloading during intense firefights.

MS offers an alternative in the light and fast-firing 3GL, a semiautomatic grenade launcher with a trio of beefy 40mm rounds stacked in a single barrel. While externally similar to recent modular grenade launchers with a pistol grip and rail mount points, the 3GL can be manually loaded by the soldier with three rounds in any combination of ammunition types, potentially from irritant cloud to high explosive.

Battery-powered electronic ignition cuts weight and complexity, allowing ultra-fast firing and improved reliability. The grenadier can immediately engage up to three targets, “walk” his rounds to a precise impact point, or put multiple rounds into a single target for maximum effect.

Caliber: 40mm
Ammunition: All common less lethal to lethal payloads
Capacity: 3 rounds
Operation: Manually loaded, electrically fired, semiautomatic
Weight Empty: 5.1 pounds
Configuration: Stand alone or attached to host weapon

The 3GL weapon and a new family of 40mm grenades that can be individually loaded by the grenadier are developing rapidly in close partnership with Singapore Technologies Kinetics (STK), known as one of the largest defense firms in Asia.

Dr. Lee Finniear, Metal Storm Limited’s CEO, confidently anticipates system safety certification so that sales demonstrations can begin soon. “We can confirm that early in the New Year (2009) we expect to qualify the 3GL and ammunition for safe man-firing….”

Multi-Barrel Versatility

Uncle Sam has fielded a wide range of remote controlled weapon mounts suitable for use on vehicles big and small for land, sea and air operations. Their common characteristic is undesirably heavy weight due to the requirement for supporting large and energetically recoiling traditional mechanical guns like the massive .50 cal. M2HB and 40mm MK19.

Metal Storm offers a compelling alternative in Redback, a 4 barrel cluster with advanced fire control and automatic target tracking as an ultra-smart remotely operated weapons system (ROWS). Produced in cooperation with STK and Electro Optical Systems (EOS), it consists of a lightweight gimbal, mount and weapon, weighing approximately 150 pounds. It includes a combat proven fire control system that has thermal and imaging sensors as well as a laser rangefinder with a 5,000 meter range.

Considerable weight is saved in mounts and the overall system because the MS concept eliminates the bulky housings and complicated mechanical apparatus needed for feeding, extraction and ejection. Additionally, a simple and effective coiled spring around each barrel and built in shock piston systems efficiently counters recoil.

Redback offers a dual role capability with significantly improved lethality and target effect, instantly attacking multiple targets with different munitions and providing a lightweight offensive and defensive capability for all vehicles or fixed assets.

And most dramatically, Redback has shown the capability to intercept rocket propelled grenades using STK’s COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) 40mm airburst munitions. It automatically tracks and registers targets, slewing at speeds up to 700 deg/sec and can acquire and fire at 3 targets in approximately 1.2 seconds, selecting the appropriate munition for each target.

A recently developed universal “tail” housing for its propellant load and primer makes nearly all existing low velocity 40mm projectiles suitable for use in Redback including high explosive, enhanced blast, air burst, and less lethal munitions. This is an important logistical consideration for economy of manufacture and ammunition commonality.

Firepower can be precisely controlled to deliver one or more munition types to target simultaneously, with the operator able to choose both fire rate and ammo to provide an intense and accurate salvo of munitions.

David Pashen, Chief Engineer and Development Manager for Metal Storm’s Australian headquarters, tells us that the work done to date on Redback has been very successful.

“We’ve undertaken tests last year to prove the effect of our rounds on an RPG warhead,” Pashen said, “showing that our system was able to place and detonate two rounds alongside a simulated incoming RPG warhead in full flight.

“The next steps for Redback,” Pashen said, “will be responding to specific customer demands for the capability and the integration of sensors leading into the full automation of the system.”

FireStorm

The four barrel weapon cluster on Redback has given rise to FireStorm, a lighter, simpler and less expensive way to discharge various types of 40mm munitions, tailorable to the tactical situation. As with Redback, electronic ignition of the stacked ammo allows variable firing rates from single shots to as high as 1,800 rpm per tube in recent testing.

FireStorm is said to have performed well in a recently-completed technology demonstration of a Mission Payload Module – Non-Lethal (MPM-NL), loaded with a selection of “less lethal” chemical and frangible ammunition newly developed by engineers at the Metal Storm US operation. Given the challenges of firing stacks of these rounds without wrecking their fragile projectile cones, this is a remarkable accomplishment unto itself.

The MPM-NL experiment in crowd control was funded by US Marine Corps Systems Command, seeking a better way to handle large scale threats without resorting to deadly force. Metal Storm officials expect to learn sometime in 2009 if contracts are to be awarded.

Battle ‘Bots

The relatively light and definitely fast-shooting FireStorm offers advantages that give it particular prominence in the fast-growing need for arming military and law enforcement robots. Metal Storm weapon modules have been successfully fired aboard Foster-Miller’s TALON and, most recently, iRobot’s Warrior.

The US Navy’s ultra high tech SPAWAR (Space and Navy Warfare Systems Command) has recently evaluated a robot-riding FireStorm system for its “Anti-Personnel Unattended Weapons Pod” on its own unmanned ground vehicle (UGV).

Arthur Schatz, who’s been with Metal Storm from the very beginning and is now VP for Business Development of the US corporation, explained that the purpose of the project was to “show the capability to have robotic systems, networked through a central command post, and patrol a given perimeter for base, area, border or facility protection.”

Schatz, a retired US Navy Commander whose professional contacts had been invaluable in obtaining initial military funding for O’Dwyer’s radical concept, told us that this latest contract culminated in a successful demonstration of the system and – when funding comes available – follow-on work is anticipated.

What’s Next?

Dr. Lee Finniear, CEO of the Australian Metal Storm Ltd, is predicting commercial success in the near future for MAUL, 3GL and FireStorm. He also sees “a number of derivatives…we plan to expand our munitions to provide the suite of lethal and less lethal munition natures that customers expect.”

Compatibility with robotic platforms is also an ongoing key focus. “The electronic lightweight nature of our technology provides substantial advantages for weaponizing small and mid-range robots,” Finniear said.

For the medium term, Finniear revealed that Metal Storm has no immediate plans to enter the arena now entirely dominated by traditional high velocity systems like the MK19 grenade machine gun. “We are finding a niche in close-in to medium range weapons and have also invested heavily in less lethal applications of our weapons.”

All in the Family

Finniear has ambitious goals for the future of the Metal Storm system, particularly in view of the collaboration agreement with STK. “Our development plan will provide the company with a family of low velocity weapons, a suite of supporting munitions, and an additional caliber in the 12 gauge MAUL weapon, he told us. “This platform really adds value to Metal Storm as a company and provides the commercial base to deliver a much wider range of capability applications.”

Postscript

Credible news reports dating from 2006 reveal a pattern of energetic attempts by China to acquire Metal Storm’s technological secrets. It is said that the Peoples Liberation Army has offered a bounty of as much as $100 million Australian dollars (about $68 million USD) for data packages. O’Dwyer himself is reported to have emphatically rebuffed an invitation accompanied by a similar sum to live and work in Beijing. There must be more to all this than just Roman Candles.

Unique Stacked Ammunition

The secret of Metal Storm is an electronically initiated, stacked projectile system that removes the mechanical elements required to fire conventional weapons. Projectiles in the barrels are lined up nose to tail and patented technology provides the ability to fire each round independent of the other. When the propellant of one round in the stack is ignited the other rounds are not affected.

Rather than using a firing pin impacting on a primer, Metal Storm weapons are electronically fired utilizing a computerized fire control system which precisely controls the ignition signal to each round in the barrel. As there is no need to mechanically reload the barrel after each round is fired, Metal Storm has complete control over the timing and rate of fire. The weapon can be used to deliver a single round or dozens of rounds instantaneously at the target.

When combined with airburst munitions, Metal Storm weapons can use precisely timed firing to create a pattern of fragmentation and blast to meet specific needs, such as to intercept an incoming RPG or missile.

Due to the light weight of Metal Storm barrels, most non-infantry configurations use multiple barrels, usually between 4 and 64. This provides increased firepower and the ability to mix munitions – to have a weapon configured to respond to different threats in different ways – such as having less than lethal or marker rounds instantly available as an alternative to the use of lethal force.

Inventor Mike O’Dwyer’s first Metal Storm rounds were essentially caseless, not unlike multiple loadings of a musket with powder topped by a patch and a cone shaped Minie Ball. These were specially contrived to take advantage of recoil forces causing “wedging and sealing” of the rounds behind. So, unlike the Roman Candle, firing the foremost one in the barrel would not normally ignite the next.

While this performed quite well, only proprietary Metal Storm loadings could be used. Practical considerations have since led to the development of a special “tail” that facilitates individually loaded cartridges for Metal Storm’s 40mm family. Now, many COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) projectiles for 40mm low-velocity weapons can be readily adapted for firing. This is particularly important to Metal Storm partner Singapore Technologies Kinetics with its extensive catalog of munitions ranging from crowd-control sponge grenades to cave-clearing thermobarics.

The new tail has undergone a great deal of development and iterative testing; producing a unit that is easy to load individually and also provides the ability to hold the rounds together during firing. Although preliminary tests have been carried out on the HEDP and practice round, the tail can be retro fitted to other munitions with little or no effort. This enables them to be fired from a 3GL launcher, either in single or stacked configurations dependant on their length.

Mindful of an oft-raised concern, we asked David Pashen, Chief Engineer and Development Manager in the company’s Australian home office, about vulnerability to accidental detonation from outside electrical sources. An emailed response from this former Major in the British Army’s Royal Mechanical and Electrical Engineers is worthy of presenting here in full:

“All Metal Storm weapon systems are designed to meet military standards for EMI (electro-magnetic interference) when used on Ground Mobile, Aircraft and Shipboard applications. As the energy levels required to initiate the charge are high, the chances of accidental detonation are extremely small. In fact to date in all tests of high levels of electronic interference it has not been possible to ignite a charge on our system. The most challenging of the use environments would be on the deck of a Navy ship or fitted to a helicopter. A high powered radar dish whilst it is operating can be problematic; however the ability to shield our technology electronically from interference in such extreme circumstances precludes any potential hazard.”

Find Out More

Metal Storm Limited has a particularly information-rich website with excellent photos and videos, plus detailed descriptions of its many products, technologies and capabilities: www.metalstorm.com

Metal Storm Limited is a multi-national defense technology company engaged in the development of electronically initiated ballistics systems using its unique “stacked round” technology. The company is headquartered in Brisbane, Australia and separately incorporated in the US, with an office in Arlington, Virginia.

Metal Storm is working with government agencies and departments, as well as industry, to develop a variety of systems utilizing its proprietary technology; an electronically initiated, stacked projectile system which removes the mechanical steps required to fire a conventional weapon. Effectively, the only parts that move are the projectiles contained within the barrels. Multiple projectiles are stacked in a barrel, each separated by a propellant load. The technology allows each projectile to be fired sequentially from the barrel.

Metal Storm’s fully loaded barrel tubes are essentially serviceable weapons, without the traditional ammunition feed or ejection system, breech opening or any other moving parts. Metal Storm barrels can be effectively grouped in multiple configurations to meet a diversity of applications.

Metal Storm technology enables a new generation of “network centric” weapons that connect with today’s battlefield. Importantly, Metal Storm enabled systems are all capable of local or remote operation through a computerized fire control system.

The elements which differentiate Metal Storm technology provide for a number of key capability advantages not available from conventional weapon technology:

• Increased lethality from conventional warheads
• Cumulative effect of firepower
• Simultaneous delivery of different munitions
• Instant selectable choice of munitions
• Variable rates of fire
• Intense bursts of repeatable firepower
• Scaled response
• Remote operation

Mr. Metal Storm

“For the first twenty minutes I thought Mike was certifiably mad.” General Wayne Downing, Former Commander of US Special Operations Command

Downing recalled this troubling observation from his initial contact with the intensely focused O’Dwyer, who was making yet another in a seemingly endless string of impassioned but ultimately futile sales presentations in Australia and America.

But that quickly changed. “After thirty minutes I realized that Mike had stumbled on probably the most revolutionary thing that could be done with firearms in about the last five hundred years,” Downing said.

The retired General, a legend in the Special Operations community, was so impressed with O’Dwyer’s radical invention that he accepted the top position at Metal Storm Limited, coming aboard in October 1999. Over the next seven years, Downing’s reputation and contacts are said to have contributed substantially to multimillion dollar government contracts for further development of the technology in various novel applications.

Midnight Brain Storms

Going Ballistic, an Australian Broadcasting Corporation television documentary from 2000, has a collection of fascinating interviews with O’Dwyer himself and key persons in his life and work.

Through it we learn that the inventor admits to being “not a particularly good student” during his high school years in a small town in Queensland, Australia. Interested primarily in the odd combination of physics at school and working on cars in his stepfather’s auto repair business, after graduation he chose to enter the workplace rather than continue on to college.

O’Dwyer’s personal and professional traits contributed to a quick rise to management level in retail and then in founding his own highly successful food wholesale company. But his compulsion for invention would not relent and the products of inspiration when he would awaken suddenly in the middle of the night began to fill a bedside sketchbook.

His son Sean recalls pages upon pages of “engines and wings and carpets and electrical points… maybe 50 ideas.” Passion for invention eventually overcame the need for comfort and security in the business world. With the blessing of his wife Rhonda, O’Dwyer sold everything in 1991 and literally took a giant step into development of his amusing concept for running shoes cooled by forced air generated from each impact on the ground.

But breezy footwear would soon give way to a dream of fantastic firepower.

Mrs. O’Dwyer recalls the genesis of Metal Storm in 1993 as yet another of her eccentric spouse’s insomniac insights. “He just woke up and he said ‘I’ve improved the gun. I’ve got to go and put this on paper,’ and he doodled for an hour or so.”

The revolutionary concept at the heart of today’s Metal Storm technology has been described by its inventor as a modification of the common fireworks Roman Candle so that its projectiles may be initiated with computerized precision.

Doodles eventually took form in a single barrel prototype and, after much ammunition experimentation, proved the practicality of sequential electronic firing of stacked caseless projectiles. With the system’s enormous military potential clearly foreseen in his fertile imagination, Mike O’Dwyer sought to convince Australia’s military establishment to bankroll further development.

“To say that I was treated as though I was a friendly kook,” the inventor recalls, “would be a polite description of the response.”

Undaunted, O’Dwyer set off to America, only to experience months of futility being rebuffed by every possible contact in the Pentagon. His luck didn’t change until after the system received a successful technical validation from a major US defense contractor.

This must have been what it took to convince Australia’s Defense Science and Technical Office (DSTO) to take a closer look, soon followed by significant funding and direct collaboration in hardware development. In addition to facilitating a distinctive trio of Metal Storm weapons from pistol to cannon caliber, the partnership gave much-needed official gravitas. Now, the “kook” inventor had the backing of serious scientists and engineers from his homeland’s defense establishment.

Blossom Point Demo

The reader is urged to access the MS website www.metalstorm.com and click the VIDEOS link. Skip the latest postings for now and reach back to July 2000, when several of the mysterious new Metal Storm weapons were live fired for key military and government representatives at the Army Research Laboratory’s Blossom Point Facility in Maryland.

This extraordinary demonstration, a joint presentation by DSTO and Metal Storm, along with new US partner Science Applications International Corporation, was attended by a number of decision makers from DARPA, the American military’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. With deep pockets to bankroll cutting-edge technologies, DARPA’s backing was eagerly sought.

It’s likely that the fellow wearing a straw hat, fleetingly seen in the video, is O’Dwyer himself, cheerfully firing his VLe handgun and touching off a megafast burst from a bench test pepperbox containing six pistol caliber barrels. This produces a devastating effect on a rack of target boards and then an oddly wired tube blows 40mm holes in a junk car.

While clear tactical applications for these lethal curiosities would not gain real acceptance until several years later, it should be evident to those who view this historic video that the “certifiably mad” inventor was definitely on to something big. DARPA’s emissaries apparently agreed and, in November 2000, entered into an unprecedented developmental agreement with DSTO, together committing some $50 million dollars.

This correspondent first met O’Dwyer in May of 2001 at the prestigious NDIA Small Arms Conference, where Metal Storm had a display booth and also presented a formal technical paper to influential US and Allied defense industry personnel. Having elbowed through the crowd gathered to watch the heretofore little known firm’s dramatic video clips, we were approached by a slight and somewhat owlish fellow who introduced himself as Mike.

Turned out this was the modest but intense inventor, who proceeded to give our modest but intense magazine a personally guided tour of his visionary applications for the decidedly radical Metal Storm System. Alas, Mike had no hardware on hand to fondle and no planned participation at the annual event’s customary live fire demonstrations. So we politely listened, accepted colorful brochures and promised to stand by for further news.

Mike made sure we were on Metal Storm’s list for press releases and they began regularly arriving; product pages, as it were, for a growing catalog of delightfully intriguing weaponry.

We soon learned, for example, that techno-spooks at DARPA had awarded more than $10 million to Metal Storm for an “Advanced Sniper Rifle.” No, the end result wasn’t fielded, but that doesn’t mean the program’s resulting data package for launching innovative projectiles at hypervelocity will not find practical application elsewhere and later. It’s Metal Storm’s proprietary intellectual property that they just haven’t gotten around to yet for further development.

O’Dwyer continued to promote Metal Storm technology with missionary zeal, envisioning all manner of applications – not just military. At the heart of its civilian potential was a versatile mortar box with specialized loadings. These could be for precision fireworks displays, “sky typing” advertising messages, bombarding wildfires with suppressant chemicals, spreading pesticides and fertilizer, and mineral exploration seismology.

Nothing Personal, Just Business

While the scope of this article does not include details of the corporation’s complicated financial history, the wild ride for Metal Storm’s shareholders has been reliably reported over many years. New applications and new government experimental contracts were periodically trumpeted in press releases and news features, but no real orders for hardware were forthcoming. Investors, many of whom were regular folks of modest means, were justifiably unhappy.

Veteran insiders in the corporate structure are quick to credit O’Dwyer’s demonstrated genius and tireless promotional contributions. But, we were told in carefully crafted statements, the time came when it was necessary for “the face of Metal Storm” to step aside.

A corporate press release from February 2005 announced Director O’Dwyer’s retirement with the bland assurance that “he will continue to provide consulting advice to the company from time to time in an informal, unpaid basis.”

The inventor/founder signed over “certain existing and future intellectual property rights,” and agreed to “certain non-competition arrangements.” Then, in recognition of nearly two decades in building Metal Storm, O’Dwyer received a severance package of a half million Australian dollars (about $345,000 USD).

A gentleman to the end, James Michael O’Dwyer is quoted in the same release with a rather gracious parting shot. There is much to be learned by those who carefully read it and consider all that has been reported in this feature:

“Over the past twelve months, Metal Storm has been assembling a skilled team of qualified engineers and associated professionals to concentrate on commercialization of the technology. Now that the team is fully operational, I believe it is time to pass the baton to what is a new generation. I am confident that under the leadership of David Smith, the team can complete the next stage of the company’s development,” O’Dwyer said.

Editor’s Note: This wraps up Robert Bruce’s three part series on military robots with a quick look at some current systems and then some crystal ball gazing. For those who are wondering why a “gun magazine” is devoting so much space to electromechanical gizmos and gadgets, we offer the observation that men with guns on the battlefield have always dreamed of ways to be more lethal and survivable. For American and allied forces directly engaged in the Global War on Terror, this dream is an immediate practical concern as a matter of life or death. Most all of the technologies in use and in the pipeline to make robots work better also make the common soldier’s weapons better. From all-weather sights to seeker projectiles, from stabilized mounts to directed energy beams, robotic research profoundly influences manportable weaponry. So, consider these articles a preview of what you’ll probably be reading about in SAR a dozen years from now. – Robert G. Segel

They have no fear, they feel no pain. They need no sleep and they don’t complain. They’re dead shots with a variety of weapons in any kind of weather day or night. And – if killed in action – nobody has to write a letter to their families or pay out life insurance benefits. They’re “weaponized robots” and more of them are on the way to the battlefield.

Nothing New

Unmanned war machines have been around for more than a hundred years. It is said that bomb equipped balloons were launched by both sides in the American Civil War with the object of causing destruction behind enemy lines. Land and sea mines are primitive autonomous weapons, waiting with infinite patience until bumped into.

The “Kettering Bug,” a bomb-carrying biplane with pre-set robotic controls, was flight tested by Americans late in WWI. German scientists picked up the idea and two decades later were sending robot ramjets against London in the form of V-1 “Buzz Bombs.”

In the 1950’s the US Air Force began arming jet fighters with Sparrow AIM-7 rockets, the first “fire and forget” weapons for air-to-air combat. In the Vietnam War “Firebee” AQM-34L recon drones saved countless numbers of American airmen by flying photo and electronic recon missions over Hanoi and Haiphong. It proved particularly useful at pinpointing both conventional anti-aircraft weapons and the increasingly deadly surface-to-air missiles supplied by the Soviet Union.

The Tomahawk Cruise Missile, initially fielded in 1983, is still flying extraordinary distances over hostile terrain to deliver high explosive payloads with pinpoint accuracy.

Building on the work of Israeli forces in the use of very small recon aircraft, America adopted the Pioneer UAV in time for the 1990-91 Gulf War. There, the 416 pound drone earned the distinction of being the first robot to accept the surrender of enemy combatants.

“The USS Wisconsin deliberately flew its Pioneer low over Faylaka Island. When the Iraqi defenders heard the sound of the UAV’s two-cycle engine, they knew they were targeted for more naval shelling. The Iraqis signaled surrender by waving handkerchiefs, undershirts and bed sheets.” American Forces Press Service

Why Robots?

The United States Armed Forces enjoy significant technological superiority over current and near future adversaries. This, serving highly trained and motivated warfighters, enables Americans to dominate almost any battlespace day or night and in any weather. But too many of the tasks that must be performed involve putting humans at unnecessary risk. Of course, combat has always involved degrees of risk and resulting casualties, but there is no excuse for sending men into a meat grinder when machines will do as well or better.

Robots in their many current and emerging forms offer a lot to human counterparts in the combat zone. Just about any tactical task – from hauling supplies, to reconnaissance, to the application of lethal force – is now or will soon be done in part or in whole by machines.

A tremendous variety of robots are working right now for American land, sea and air forces. Some of these include crawlers like MATILDA and TALON (recently equipped with weapons), rollers like DRAGON RUNNER, flyers like PREDATOR, and swimmers like RMS. But, as they say, “we ain’t seen nothin’ yet….”

The Science of War

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is central to the application of existing and emerging scientific knowledge to every aspect of human conflict. Its mission is to maintain the technological superiority of the U.S. military and prevent technological surprise from harming our national security. This is done by sponsoring “high payoff research” that bridges the gap between fundamental discoveries and their military use.

A quick glance at some recent programs launched by DARPA, just in the area of Urban Warfighting, shows how cutting-edge science is being applied to some very practical military uses. Contractors have been given six to twelve months to present “feasibility demonstrations” for 36 highly intriguing concepts, including these with distinctly robotic overtones:

• Firefight Aerial Sensor and Mapper
• Air-Dropped Vertically Traversable Unmanned Ground Vehicles
• Electroadhesive Wall-Climbing Robot for Three Dimensional Mobility in Urban Environments

“Potential applications for such robots… include surveillance, reconnaissance, pathfinding, deception, weapon delivery, transporting artifacts, and small scale actuation. Applications may include minefield detection wherein small sensors are mounted on hopping robots or robots with multi-task capabilities, intelligence gathering in city pipelines, robots in large numbers for decoy applications, or extremely small robots that might be injected and pick a door lock.” DARPA Distributed Robotics Overview

DARPA’s Distributed Robotics Program is looking for revolutionary approaches to extremely small robots, reconfigurable robots, systems of robots, biologically-inspired designs, innovative methods of robot controlling including innovative interfaces, and methods of implementing pooled capabilities and/or layered intelligence. We can get a better idea about what all that means by looking at some specific projects funded by DARPA and actually being worked on right now by various groups in industry, academia and high-speed science labs.

• Robot Sentries. “Sandia’s Intelligent Systems & Robotics Center is developing and testing a robotic perimeter detection system for Small Unit Operations. The objective is to demonstrate the viability of using a cooperative team of robotic sentry vehicles to investigate alarms from intrusion detection sensors. This cooperative team concept can significantly reduce the workload and increase the effectiveness of a single warfighter in the battlefield. ”Sandia National Laboratories
• Autonomous Army Ants. SWARM (Smart Warfighter Array of Reconfigurable Modules) “DARPA Software for Distributed Robotics (SDR) program is developing robot behavior and software to enable very large groups of very small, very inexpensive robots to perform useful tasks. SDR will allow human operators to control robot ‘swarms’ without having to consider what each individual robot is doing. ”DARPA Strategic Plan
• Combat Crabs. “Modeled after a crab, Aerial II ALUV (Autonomous Legged Underwater Vehicle) is designed to remove mines and obstacles on land and underwater in the surf zone. Its unique brand of legged locomotion capitalizes on a crab’s agility, stability, and efficiency and will allow Aerial to scramble over obstacles and crevices that traditional wheeled vehicles would find insurmountable.” iRobot Corporation

Future Combat Systems

The US Army is going through the agonizing process of “Transformation” from heavy forces structured for large scale conflict against conventional adversaries to those that are light, fast, flexible, and far more lethal. All types of robots are a big part of that transformation.

“Future Combat Systems (FCS) is catalyzing the Army’s transformation to the Objective Force. It will be a networked system-of-systems that includes manned and unmanned ground vehicles, along with various unmanned air vehicles. The goal is to develop Units of Action that have the lethality and survivability of an M1-based (Abrams tank) heavy force, but with the agility of today’s light forces.” DARPA Strategic Plan

In addition to a family of manned vehicles, FCS, as currently envisioned, will include four distinct types of ground robot platforms.

• NLOS-LS (Non-Line-of-Sight – Launch System) is a roving robotic mortar carrier.
• ARV (Armed Robotic Vehicle) is a hunter-killer heavy armored car with sophisticated sensors, guided missiles and a high velocity main gun.
• MULE (Multifunction Utility/Logistics and Equipment) is actually several types of vehicles built on a common chassis. Depending on equipment and configuration, it can be a supply carrier, air assault weapons platform, countermine system, and even a autonomous ambulance named “Valkyrie” after the mythical Nordic creatures that flew fallen warriors straight to Valhalla.
• SUGV (Small Unmanned Ground Vehicle) is the only one actually in service now, typified by MATILDA and TALON EOD robots that have been recently upgraded with remote teleoperated weapons platforms.

FCS also includes four classes of unmanned air vehicles ranging from small model plane style recon flyers used at the platoon and company level, through larger fixed wing and rotary wing recon, to the potential for flying an Apache-type robot helicopter with air-to-ground and air-to-air attack capabilities

Lethality Components

With directed energy weaponry including lasers and focused microwaves developing at a high speed, it is now fashionable in future combat circles to talk about “lethality components” as opposed to the old term “guns” used by men and machines. Some other interesting new concepts include:

• Electrothermal. “An electrothermal gun uses electrical energy to heat a propellant that is allowed to expand rapidly to create a force on the ordnance. The force is capable of accelerating a projectile to high speeds thermodynamically.” Federation of American Scientists
• Magnetic. “It’s the fastest gun in the world,” says physicist Marcus Knudson, lead scientist on Sandia’s magnetic propulsion project. “At 20 kilometers per second… would send material from New York to Boston in half a minute.” Sandia National Laboratories News Release
• Metal Storm. “Our electronic ballistics system (demonstrating a 40mm multi-tube array on the TALON robot) has no mechanical parts and provides a lightweight, compact weapon which carries a payload of sixteen shots, ten more than the existing alternative. The system is capable of variable rates of fire, selected and fired by remote control. We intend to undertake further development of the Metal Storm system with a view to increasing the payload to 48 shots.” Mike O’Dwyer, Director of Scientific Innovation, Metal Storm
• Smart Munitions. These are already being widely used in the form of artillery shells and “smart bombs” like JDAM that ride beams from laser designators to impact with uncanny precision. So, why not more, smarter and smaller versions that don’t need a designator? “These smart munitions could be defensive or offensive, be vehicle-mounted on the various Future Combat Systems manned and unmanned vehicles, and/or be carried by the Objective Force Warrior or future warriors. Quick-reaction fire-and-forget miniature smart munitions would improve lethality against enemy vehicles and personnel….” US Army Space and Missile Defense Command

Death From Above

“DARPA is conducting three unmanned air combatant programs: the Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV) with the Air Force, UCAV-N with the Navy, and the Unmanned Combat Armed Rotorcraft with the Army. These aircraft will be teamed with manned systems on the ground and in the air….” DARPA Strategic Plan

The Navy and Air Force UCAVs are basically unmanned fighter jets with most of the same characteristics and capabilities as the ones that human pilots are flying in now. The program is progressing quickly and early versions are taking off without human aid, navigating on their own, doing high-value recon, and releasing “smart” ordnance in flight.

As for the Unmanned Combat Armed Rotorcraft, this will be “an all-weather, highly autonomous and survivable unmanned rotorcraft fully integrated into the Army’s Objective Force combat maneuver force structure. Capable of autonomous mission planning while in flight, the UCAR will request guidance from a human operator only for tasking and final weapons authorization.” Boeing News Release

Man-in-the-Loop

DARPA recognizes that, as hard as it is oftentimes for people to work together, a lot of sober thought and hard work needs to go into optimizing man-machine teams of the near future. Studies are underway to analyze how humans act, think and communicate and how robots might be equipped to handle our very different levels of physical and mental competence.

Increasingly smart robots will be working with humans whose baseline intelligence has not measurably improved in the last thousand years. Undaunted, DARPA is pressing forward with some spooky initiatives that just may have a payoff in helping scared, exhausted and information-overloaded soldiers work smarter and hit harder on future battlefields.

• Brain Boosters. “Our Augmented Cognition program looks to directly (but non-invasively) measure human cognitive load so that information may be presented to the warfighter or commander in a way that does not overload human cognition when mental processes are pressed to the limit, and that takes advantage of spare ‘processing power.’ This will make those working under high-pressure circumstances much more effective, and will fundamentally change the nature of the human-machine interface, finally creating interfaces that adapt to the user rather than the other way around.”DARPA Strategic Plan
• Brain Machine Interface. Kicking augmented cognition up several notches, we find DARPA eagerly pursuing the eerie goal of making something happen just by thinking about it. “This program is finding ways to detect and directly decode signals in the brain so that thoughts can be turned into acts performed by a machine. The long-term Defense implications… are enormous; imagine U.S. warfighters that only need use the power of their thoughts to do things at great distance.” DARPA Strategic Plan

Command and control aren’t the only areas of human-robot interaction that DARPA is interested in. Improving the soldier’s comfort, stamina, load-lifting, distance-marching, lethality, communications, and survivability are urgent goals so that men can keep pace with their machines.

• Bionic Man. “The overall goal of the Exoskeletons for Human Performance Augmentation (EHPA) Program is to develop devices and machines that will increase the speed, strength, and endurance of soldiers in combat environments. Projects will lead to self-powered, controlled and wearable exoskeletal devices and/or machines and demonstrations of their utility in military applications. Inclusion of exoskeleton technology into land-based operations could potentially increase the capabilities of the ground-based warfighter and radically alter the current military doctrine.”DARPA Defense Sciences Office
• Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies (ISN). A nanometer is one billionth of a meter, a length scale where the rules of classical physics don’t readily apply. ISN researchers aim to “…create a 21st century battlesuit that combines high-tech capabilities with light weight and comfort. Imagine a bulletproof jumpsuit, no thicker than ordinary spandex, that monitors health, eases injuries, communicates automatically, and maybe even lends superhuman abilities.” ISN

So, if all goes as planned over the next ten to twenty years the battlefields will swarm with armed robots of all types working for and with super soldiers. With luck this unstoppable team will be on the side of the good guys.

The internet has everything you need to know about Robotic Warriors of all types. Some good places to start are:

• Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International: www.auvsi.org
• Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency: www.darpa.mil
• Department of Defense Joint Robotics Program: www.jointrobotics.com
• Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies: http://web.mit.edu/isn/
• MACHINEBRAIN.COM: www.machinebrain.com
• Sandia FIRE ANT in action: www.sandia.gov/isrc/fireant.html