A thesis presented to the Faculty of the U.S. ArmyCommand and...

A thesis presented to the Faculty of the U.S. Army
Command and General Staff College in partial
fulfillment of the requirements for the degree

MASTER OF MILITARY ART AND SCIENCE General Studies

by
STEVEN G. MISKINIS JR, MAJOR, U.S. ARMY

DATES COVERED (From - To)
AUG 2010 – JUN 2011

Option 2: Ammunition in Series
This ammunition is a recently developed design that arrays ammunition in the
barrel of a weapon system, with alternating projectiles and combination propellant-primer pellets. In this case, the barrel is strengthened to function somewhat as a chamber, as well. When fired, the primers are electrically initiated from the front to the rear of the weapon’s barrel-chamber very rapidly. The result is a very high rate of fire, with a lightweight projectile. In terms of compatibility, there is no feasible way to fire this type of ammunition configuration from existing U.S. Army rifles and light machine guns.
The differences in the designs and operation of these weapons and the Metal Storm variety that uses this ammunition in series are too extreme to allow for compatible use.
Metal Storm ammunition is designed for specialized weapons that have an entirely different cycle of function.
2 For these reasons, this ammunition type does not pass the compatibility criterion.
In terms of maturity, only the Metal Storm manufacturer currently has weapon
systems designed to fire this type of ammunition. The manufacturer does have
operational weapon systems, and even advertises possible DoD uses on their website.
However, there is no literature that indicates that any military uses this ammunition in
rifles or light machine guns, or that Metal Storm is even developing a weapon or
ammunition for such an application Also, there are no indications in the literature that
suggest any consideration for adoption by the U.S. Army.
Were this weapon system and ammunition type proposed for use as a new rifle design, it would very likely take longer than 10 years to get it designed, produced, tested, and fielded to U.S. soldiers. Therefore, this ammunition option does not pass the maturity criterion.