Australia develops supergun

[Provost Harrison]

Heard of this absolutely years ago, it's not new...

[Kuciwalker]

They should do this for an artillery piece... hehe

That would be fun to watch

[Kramerman]

Originally posted by The diplomat


Have you seen the Sea Shadow? It's a stealth warship.

See pic:

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ship/sea-shadow-bay.jpg

and,

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/s...dow-140417.jpg

blah, the Sea Shadow is nothin...

The Leviathan class, which is still decades from productions, is of a trimaran design (similar to the sea shadow, but having a central hull as well) and HUNDREDS of meters long. Its main armament is, what elsebut two fantastic rail guns, ontop of an assortment of missiles and an army of unmanned underwater, surface, and aerial vehicles that are carried internally. Sooner, a stealth destroyer, similar looking to the sea shadow but much larger and more... err... utilitarian... should be around in about 2012ish. Hopefully they'll have some of these Aussi metal storm thingies on 'em to protect against missile attack.

the sea shadow was mostly just a prototype to see if stealth ship tech could work. other than that it is currently a pretty pointless vessel

[Jack_www]

Originally posted by Solver
I can't friggin' believe it. A grenade laucnher with a million rpm... give Al-Quaeda one such thing, and they'd need a column of Tanks to dispatch of the threat.

You have to realize that such a gun could not hold a million rounds, the article said it could hold about 560 rounds. The million rpm is that the gun itself could handle such a high rate of fire, but other factors would limit the actuall rpm.

[FrostyBoy]

Provost, so what if it's not new? Because you know, no one else needs to know?

[Q Classic]

mr. president, we must not allow a metalstorm gap!

[Urban Ranger]

Looks like some kind of media hyping for the device. I am highly skeptical of such claims.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Zylka
When the first bullet in the stack is fired, the next bullet expands and locks into the barrel.

More crap.

I am amused that it is claimed that the next bullet gets into the barrel. Yowzas!

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by The diplomat
I wonder if the tech for these supercavitating torpedoes could be applied to submarines? A sub is basically just a big torpedo in a sense. It should be possible to apply the tech to subs. It would make noise like crazy, and thus would lose its stealth, but it would have the advantage of insane speeds. Nothing could touch it.

One word: power.

You simply cannot get enough power for either the torpedoes or the subs to go that first to begin with.

[Provost Harrison]

Originally posted by Sn00py
Provost, so what if it's not new? Because you know, no one else needs to know?

No, you should already know too

[CICSMaster]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger


More crap.

I am amused that it is claimed that the next bullet gets into the barrel. Yowzas!

Now don't take this wrong, I'm gunna enlighten yous.

The way this thing works is that ALL the projectiles (read bullets) are PRELOADED along with the propellant. And the way it fires is that the projectile at the end of the barrel is eletronically fired by setting off it's propellant. This causes the preceeding projectile in the barrel to momentarily flex causing it to trap the propellant gases in front of it. This forces the fired projectile to exit the barrel. Milliseconds later the preceeding projectile, now the front most projectile relaxes and it's propellant can be electronically ignited.

Think of a barrel with 64 projectiles preloaded (along with 64 bits of propellant). What gives you the great firing rate is that you only have to wait for the projectile to relax from firing of the frontmost propellant and you can fire the next projectile. Also, because all barrels are preloaded with munitions, you don't need munitions changing equipment, so you simply gang many barrels together - as many as you want.

[Proteus_MST]

Sounds like you have to develop a fast Barrel Changing Equipment though, to exchange spent Barrels against loaded ones.

[Zero]

Originally posted by DinoDoc
It wasn't a very good answer. What's wrong with more firepower?

its not effective

[Zero]

Originally posted by Kramerman


well, for use as anti-personnel, as the MG-42 was, it would be pointoless, but this would be an awesome anti missile defense system.

yeah exactly

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by CICSMaster
The way this thing works is that ALL the projectiles (read bullets) are PRELOADED along with the propellant. And the way it fires is that the projectile at the end of the barrel is eletronically fired by setting off it's propellant. This causes the preceeding projectile in the barrel to momentarily flex causing it to trap the propellant gases in front of it.

The barrel is metallic yes? That means if you pass a current through the barrel to "eletronically fire" some propellant the whole barrel will be electricfied, igniting all the explosives inside.

Here are some interesting questions:

1. How do you embed and control electronics in a metallic gun barrel that could reach hundreds of degrees in temperature?

2. What causes a projectile to "flex?" I am assuming "flex" means "expand," not bend or deform.

3. How do you prevent the explosives inside the barrel from going off due to a rise in temperature?

4. Normally, guns cannot be fired over a certain rate because overheating of the barrel will cause jamming. How is this problem solved?

Originally posted by CICSMaster
Milliseconds later the preceeding projectile, now the front most projectile relaxes and it's propellant can be electronically ignited.

Metal does not just flex and relax of its own accord. What causes the projectile to "relax?"