Deadliest weapon ever invented- Metal Storm

[AsahinaKimi]

A friend of mine showed me this... o .. m...god.

[Warpy]

1. Oh, terrific.

The next war is going to be such fun.

It'll likely be fought here, so get ready to run.

[AsahinaKimi]

3. Makes you wonder where they will

Test it out... and I wonder how eager they are to use it?

[Warpy]

14. It's probably why they're beating war drums for Syria

They don't give a shit about that country or the people in it. They don't give a shit about this country and bankrupting it completely on new wars we can't possibly win. They just got a new toy and want to try it out.

[Sand Wind]

2. Lol the last one is mad ....nt

[Plucketeer]

4. Meanwhile.....

we're euthanizing Desert Tortoises thanks to sequester measures. Space aliens will visit this dessicated, devastated rock in the future and just shake their bulbous heads in disbelief.

[delrem]

10. It's sad about the Desert Tortoises. The money is *there*, it's a question of

how to get it into the right hands.

I wonder about how to do that.
There has to be some gov't guaranteed involvement for anything of the scale "protecting the ecology" to work, even if in an 'sustaining idle' mode. There has to be gov't regulation, if only to guarantee that funds from gov't and private donations are well spent and not pocketed by some hot-shot entrepreneur.

As for private donations, the will is there. Witness the public reaction to the story of the puppy blinded by cataracts that were removed after donations that provided operating funds for the charity generally, for all the other dogs.. I believe the idea of "funds for a sound ecology" would be viewed favorably, but only if all funding, from gov't or from charity, is subject to strict regulation and an enforcement arm.

After reading Plucketeer's message I looked up "Desert Tortoise" and found
http://rt.com/usa/desert-tortoises-euthanize-nevada-024/
Now, whatever one might think about RT, and some have strongly negative thoughts, insomuch as that article correctly describes the *financing* of that desert turtle conservation center, it describes a totally negative, ecologically unfriendly funding model.
That model is an abomination.
The funding comes from *fines* against developers who destroy desert turtle habitat -- so the conservation center depends on that *destruction*.
So what do they do when they've destroyed it all, the species is near extinct? No more funds come in so they shut down the center and euthanize most of the endangered turtles.

[Orrex]

6. So that's what happened to Jared-Syn

Holy shit.

[LongTomH]

7. I wonder if anyone is considering a code of ethics for engineers that might make them think twice...

.....about working on super-killers like this?

I know of at least one engineer who left the aerospace industry rather than work on Star Wars/SDI; I'm sure there were others.

[AtheistCrusader]

17. I think the Manhattan Project already answered your question.

[HubertHeaver]

35. Not the Manhattan Project as much as Operation Paper Clip

The Manhattan Project was begun in response to a project that was already underway in Germany. Post war Operation Paper Clip absorbed the Nazi scientists and co-opted the Nazi programs.

[localroger]

37. Not so

The Manhattan Project was begun more on the abstract principle that if such a superweapon was possible, we would have it. It was uncertain at the start of the Manhattan Project whether a bomb could be realized in time to be used in the war, and while the possibility of a German bomb was used to keep some of the scientists' enthusiasm up at the higher levels nobody seriously believed they had a chance (and, in fact, it was known by the end of 1943 that they didn't). By 1944 the Manhattan Project wasn't really about WWII at all; it was about position in the postwar world where it was becoming obvious the US and Russia would face off against one another.

[HubertHeaver]

41. Accept the idea the Manhattan Project was, by 1944, not really about WWII you (generic you) then

accept the notion the use of the bomb was not really necessary to end the war. Be careful with that one. No matter which way you go you are buying into someone's self-serving propaganda.

[localroger]

42. The use of the bomb was not about ending the war

The war was over, everyone at the top knew the Japanese were ready to surrender and there was going to be no mainland invasion, and the Potsdam Declaration was delayed until after Trinity to see if it was worth wording it to goad the Japanese into giving us an excuse for a little science fair experiment before things were finalized. This is all made quite plain and very well documented in Richard Rhodes' The Making of the Atomic Bomb, which won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award and which I don't think anybody considers "self-serving propaganda."

[HubertHeaver]

43. What other sources do you have?

[localroger]

45. Seriously?

There are others, but most of those who came after reference Rhodes, and Rhodes is generally credited with dragging most of the history of Bomb into the light of day, digging up obscure documents and interviewing the principals who were still alive in the process. Rhodes had tremendous access because he is a respected historian, and lest you think he has some kind of atomic related agenda his next project after Dark Sun was a biography of John James Audubon.

TMotAB has over 50 pages of footnotes. I recommend reading it, and if you have an issue with any of his conclusions follow his notes. They are the primary sources most other writers end up sourcing.

[HubertHeaver]

46. Yes, seriously.

I had never heard of this particular author before. My only exposure to his writing thus far is to read reviews on Amazon. That is inadequate and I will resolve that inadequacy as soon as the book arrives. That said, every author writes from a specific and highly personal point of view. In short, he has an agenda. I think I see Rhodes' agenda but I will reserve judgment until I read.

[cpwm17]

8. The sick f@#*ers are in charge

These weapons are designed by and created for use by them.

[TreasonousBastard]

9. This is a promotion video, and there probably isn't a...

working unit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metal_Storm

It's basically a roman candle, and past attempts had a habit of blowing up, melting, or trying to send all the rounds out at once, ending in blowing up or melting.

This guy thinks he solved the problem, but his company is broke, leading some to think he hasn't solved the problem.

Besides, think of the ammo box. A 50 caliber round weighs 1.3-1.5 ounces, sometimes more. Sixteen thousand of them weigh close to a ton. If you use that up in a second or so, you need a lot of those boxes.

[delrem]

11. hmmmm, sounds true.

There's also the fact that the US military is sufficiently weaponized to do anything no matter how destructive already. What the military is looking for is robotics, to deliver "punishment" from bunkers (or cubicles) half a world away.

Cannon-fodder is supplied by private armies recruited from the most brutal or from the most desperate. The world of the 1% that the military defends ensures (by definition!) that there will always be plenty of those. The owners of the armies, the military contractors, are the 1%.

[kristopher]

15. I don't think they use casings.

And that is a large percentage of the weight.

[TreasonousBastard]

27. Very large, but I was using the projectile itself...

http://www.inetres.com/gp/military/infantry/mg/50_ammo.html

[xocet]

12. Deadly, yes, but it is not a hydrogen bomb.

Explosion @ Time Index 4:54.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

13. Needs a theme song...

[AtheistCrusader]

16. This concept is 20 years old, has never been deployed (though the chinese are working on it)

most of the stock footage/CGI in that video is literally from the 90's, and the company that made the weapons is on death's door, going out of business.

[Submariner]

18. Obviously an NRA masturbation video

Wayne LaPierre's substitute for viagra.

[99th_Monkey]

34. Yep. NRA porn, if ever there was. nt

[Orrex]

33. That's the most preposterous thing I've ever heard

You're talking about Aliens, not Alien3.

[adieu]

20. Hopefully,

we'll have our George Zimmermans manning these babies. You know, the perfect people to know when to pull the trigger and when to stand down.

[paleotn]

21. Not to worry folks....

....as mentioned above, this isn't new technology. Secondly, there's two big limiting factors with this weapon system.....ammo and overheating barrels. At 16K round per second, it's probably the biggest ammunition hog ever invented. After firing a ridiculous number of rounds in mere seconds, the operators either have to wait for the barrels to cool before firing again or replace them. Not terribly practical in most real world situations. Just some reprobate, defense contractors wet dream, nothing more.

[GreenStormCloud]

22. You are too easily impressed.

The military value of this system is near ZERO. Once it is fired the bullets must be reloaded into each barrel. So the weapon is going to have a long downtime after being fired. Regular military full-auto is either belt-fed so thousands of rounds can be fired without reloading, or uses quick change magazines.

Super rapid fire is useful ONLY if you don't have to stop to reload.

In real combat this system would be next to useless.

[Progressive dog]

23. Quite an ad, I wonder where it holds all those end to end bullets

or why with it's deadly accuracy it needs so many.
"Deadliest weapon ever invented" wouldn't pass the FTC truth in advertising rules.

[ET Awful]

26. It's not a manufacturer's statement, it's an episode of a series on Discovery called

"Deadliest Weapons Ever Invented".

The OP dropped the "s" from "Weapons".

[Snake Plissken]

24. The cartoons of how it can be used are pretty impressive

now if they just need to convince the military to battle cartoon opponents

[Lenomsky]

25. It's a Video Game right?

OMFG!

[02potato]

28. Don't forget what happens on the receiving end.

WARNING GRAPHIC BUT TRUE

http://www.thewe.cc/thewei/_/images11/insanity/remains_of_us_soldier.jpe

http://www.xfirstaidkits.com/v/First-Aid-Uglies/

AND SO ON...

[heaven05]

30. yep

deadlier and deadlier personal kill weapons.

[heaven05]

29. deadlier and deadlier

better kill ratio. Especially with large protesting crowds.

[salib]

31. Gun porn

[AsahinaKimi]

38. I always wondered what was meant by

Gun Porn, Now I know!

[benld74]

32. Better ways to kill fellow human beings every day

[AsahinaKimi]

39. That could be a tv slogan

for Halliburton .. or Dick Cheney

[MrMickeysMom]

36. Hokey Smokes, Bullwinkle...

Answers the question, "How many people in the path of my enemy can I take out for daring to live in the first place?"

Sounds like the military industry lives on. Now, if only we can get angle investors to build a safer public transit system or feed people without GMOs...

Hope lives eternal, whilst these killers could care less.

[AsahinaKimi]

40. I think they are more

interested in finding ways of taking out the population, rather than aiding comfort to the enem ... um... us.

[yoloisalie]

44. Just imagine what we could achieve

if we just quit think of new ways to kill people and instead set our minds to developing clean energy.