New weapon?

[Dannyalcatraz]

Here's an article about the prototype that inspired this- invented in the backyard of an Aussie with (as I recall) no formal training in engineering...and it actually is a railgun variant. O'Dwyer's Metal Storm prototypes range from sidearms to indirect fire weapons.

Metal Storm

What sets it apart is that it doesn't require vast amounts of power like the ones at the weapons lab at UT Austin and other research facilities. The downside, of course, is because its a lower power weapon, its projectiles are merely supersonic in velocity, as opposed to traveling at meaningful % of C.

 

[Maldur]

Metal storm is not a railgun system, its a explosive charge driven system.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Right. Metal Storm is more a means of firing similar-to-conventional charged projectiles at high rates of fire by "stacking" multiple projectiles within a singe barrel, and electrically initiating them within fractions of a second of each other.

While still someting of a science project, it's been demonstrated in weapon applications, where railguns are still essentially science projects.

There's no technical relation whatsoever between the Dread weapons system mentioned in the first post, Metal Storm, or the railgun.

 

[Bryon_Soulweaver]

Hmmmm..... More kinda cool/scary weapons. The US is already getting closer to the railgun but its in laser form, saw it on Discovery Channel last year.