Putting the ‘fun’ back in war funding

by James Bryant, May 30th, 2007, 7:00 am

Normally I come to you as Hoover’s resident automotive guy, but I also cover companies in the aerospace and defense industries. With wars raging in Iraq and Afghanistan, and another potential one looming in Iran, defense is attracting a lot of attention — and a lot of money. 

Now that President Bush has signed the latest war funding bill, I thought it might be terrifyingly fun to look at a couple of companies at which the US Department of Defense is spending your money. You’ve probably never heard of these companies, but once you have you may lose a little sleep, or invest a little money. I’m not here to judge. 

Metal Storm is a cheekily named company out of Australia and they have invented a gun that makes a Thompson submachine gun look like a super soaker. With partners including Electro Optic Systems Pty Limited and ST Kinetics, Metal Storm is developing a fearsome technology. The Redback weapons system is designed to detect a threat, acquire the target, then pepper it with 40mm projectile fire — hence the storm of metal. The Redback utilizes Metal Storm’s electronically initiated (read: no firing pin) stacked projectile system. Aside from the projectiles spitting out the muzzle, the actual gun has no moving parts — and it shoots so quickly that it has a theoretical rate of fire approaching one million rounds per minute (dang, my shoulder hurts just thinking about it!). One practical use for the Redback would be to protect military vehicles from rocket propelled grenades. Other uses being tested are the weaponization of unmanned ground and aerial vehicles - think RoboCop without the hackneyed one-liners. 

Ionatron is also working on making the weapon of the future. The company is developing a Laser Induced Plasma Channel directed-energy weapon, or put in layman’s terms — a ray gun. The company describes this weapon as shooting “man-made lightning” that is aimed by a laser beam similar to the laser sights used on conventional weapons. The intensity of the lighting bolt can be adjusted to either kill or merely stun an adversary (”He’s dead, Jim“). The weapon has been tested in the lab, but will not be fielded in battle for years, if at all — thank goodness.