- Imagine a gun with no recoil, no sound, no heat, no gunpowder,
no visible firing signature (muzzle flash), and no stoppages or jams of
any kind. Now imagine that this gun could fire .308 caliber and .50 caliber
metal projectiles accurately at up to 8,000 fps (feet-per-second), featured
an infinitely variable/programmable cyclic rate-of-fire (as high as 120,000
rounds-per-minute), and were capable of laying down a 360-degree field
of fire. What if you could mount this weapon on any military Humvee (HMMWV),
any helicopter/gunship, any armored personnel carrier (APC), and any other
vehicle for which the technology were applicable?
-
- That would really be something, wouldn't it? Some of
you might be wondering, "how big would it be," or "how much
would it weigh"? Others might want to know what it's ammunition capacity
would be. These are all good questions, assuming of course that a weapon
like this were actually possible.
-
- According to its inventor, not only is it possible, it's
already happened. An updated version of the weapon will be available soon.
It will arrive in the form of a tactically-configured pre-production anti-personnel
weapon firing .308 caliber projectiles (accurately) at 2,500-3000 fps,
at a variable/programmable cyclic rate of 5,000-120,000 rpm (rounds-per-minute).
The weapon's designer/inventor has informed DefRev that future versions
of the weapon will be capable of achieving projectile velocities in the
5,000-8,000 fps range with no difficulty. The technology already exists.
-
- The weapon itself is called the DREAD, or Multiple Projectile
Delivery System (MPDS), and it may just be the most revolutionary infantry
weapon system concept that DefenseReview has EVER come across.
-
- DREAD: The Skinny
-
- Name:
- DREAD Weapon System
-
- Type of Equipment:
- Multiple Projectile Delivery System
-
- Killer Features:
-
- Fires .308 caliber and .50 caliber metal projectiles
accurately at up to 8,000 fps (feet-per-second)
- Features an infinitely variable/programmable cyclic rate-of-fire
(as high as 120,000 rounds-per-minute)
- Electrically powered and virtually silent
- Capable of laying down a 360-degree field of fire
- Mountable on any military vehicles, includes humvees
and helicopters
- Weighs only 28 pounds
- Magazine capacities of at least 50,000 rounds of .308
Cal., or 10,000 rounds of .50 Cal. ammo
- Related Links:
-
- DREAD Centrifuge Weapon System (Centrifuge Gun)
-
- Armed/Weaponized Infantry Robots for Urban Warfare and Counterinsurgency
Ops
-
- DefRev Update: Centrifuge Weapon System Tech for Future Warfare
Applications
-
- Robo-Soldier Ready for Combat Deployment to Iraq for Urban Warfare/CI
Ops
- Equipment Guide
-
-
- The DREAD Weapon System is the brainchild of weapons
designer/inventor Charles St. George. It will be 40 inches long, 32 inches
wide, and 3 inches high (20 inches high with the pintel swivel mount).
It will be comprised of only 30 component parts, and will have an empty
weight of only 28 pounds. That's right, 28 pounds. The weapon will be capable
of rotating 360 degrees and enjoy the same elevation and declination capabilities
of any conventional vehicle-mounted gun/weapon.
-
- The first generation DREAD (production version ), derived
from the tactically-configured pre-production weapon, will most likely
be a ground vehicle-mounted anti-personnel weapon. Military Humvees (HMMV's)
and other ground vehicles (including Chevy Suburbans) equipped with the
DREAD will enjoy magazine capacities of at least 50,000 rounds of .308
Cal., or 10,000 rounds of .50 Cal. ammo.
-
- But, what is the DREAD, really? How does it work? In
a sentence, the DREAD is an electrically-powered centrifuge weapon, or
centrifuge "gun." So, instead of using self-contained cartridges
containing powdered propellant (gunpowder), the DREAD's ammunition will
be .308 and .50 caliber round metal balls (steel, tungsten, tungsten carbide,
ceramic-coated tungsten, etc...) that will be literally spun out of the
weapon at speeds as high as 8000 fps (give or take a few hundred feet-per-second)
at rather extreme rpm's, striking their targets with overwhelming and devastating
firepower. We're talking about total target saturation, here. All this,
of course, makes the DREAD revolutionary in the literal sense, as well
as the conceptual one.
-
- According to the DREAD Advantages Sheet, "unlike
conventional weapons that deliver a bullet to the target in intervals of
about 180 feet, the DREAD's rounds will arrive only 30 thousandths of an
inch apart (1/32nd of an inch apart), thereby presenting substantially
more mass to the target in much less time than previously possible."
This mass can be delivered to the target in 10-round bursts, or the DREAD
can be programmed to deliver as many rounds as you want, per trigger-pull.
Of course, the operator can just as easily set the DREAD to fire on full-auto,
with no burst limiter. On that setting, the number of projectiles sent
down range per trigger-pull will rely on the operator's trigger control.
Even then, every round is still going right into the target. You see, the
DREAD's not just accurate, it's also recoilless. No recoil. None. So, every
"fired" round is going right where you aim it.
-
- One of the ammunition types the DREAD will be delivering
downrange is the "Collision Cluster Round," or "CCR,"
that will be used to penetrate hard targets. The Collision Cluster Round
(CCR) is explained in more detail on the munitions page of the DREAD Technology
White Paper (links below). The DREAD Advantages Sheet also lists all the
other advantages that the DREAD Weapon System enjoys over conventional
firearms.
-
- And, all this from a weapon that doesn't jam. Remember
how at the beginning of the article I wrote "no stoppages or jams"?
The DREAD won't jam because, according to its inventor, it can't jam. The
DREAD's operating a nd feeding mechanisms simply don't allow for stoppages
or jams to occur. It thus follows that the DREAD Centrifuge Weapon will
be the most reliable metallic projectile launcher/ballistic device on the
planet. DefRev is not at liberty to publish exactly why the DREAD can't
jam, since Mr. St. George hasn't given us permission to describe the gun's
operating and feeding mechanisms in any detail.
-
- The only thing the DREAD's operator will really have
to worry about is running out of ammo, which isn't likely. Any reasonably
skilled gunner (Humvee, APC, Apache attack helicopter, etc.-- doesn't matter)
should be able to avoid running through all 50,000 (or more) rounds of
.308 Cal. or 10,000 (or more) rounds of .50 Cal. ammo prematurely, especially
when he or she can dial down the DREAD's cyclic rate to 5,000 rpm or slower,
if necesssary. Even if it becomes necessary to increase the DREAD's magazine
capacity to upwards of 100,000 rounds (.308 Cal.) or 20,0000 rounds (.50
Cal.), and run the weapon all day and all night for weeks on end, this
will have absolutely no effect whatsoever (positive or negative) on the
reliability or durability of the weapon system. The DREAD is both heatless
and frictionless, and doesn't generate any high pressures. So, there's
virtually no wear and tear on the system, no matter how many rounds are
fired through it back-to-back, even if it's run constantly on full-auto
at 120,000 rpm, the whole time.
-
- DefenseReview.com (DefRev) is an online tactical technology magazine that focuses
on advanced tactical armament, tactical equipment/gear (including combat/tactical
camouflage technology), and tactical training/instruction for military
infantry forces. DefenseReview.com strives to provide the most up-to-date
information on law enforcement (LE) SWAT/SRT and military Special Operations
(infantry)/Special Warfare (SPECWAR) technology developments as quickly
as we learn about them.
-
- http://DefenseReview.com
-
-
- Comment
From George Paxinos
5-27-5
-
- Hi, Jeff
-
- Strangely enuf, I thunk of that one as a kid, wanted
to get a wheel about 2 feet in diameter and a small engine to do this for
a kid's gang war on a raft on a lagoon in South Africa, kept it theoretical,
but release was a problem: either one had some electromagnetically-activated
valve with no hysteresis at the end of the tube, or else the wheel had
to ride in a curved housing witht he tube open and the last ball rubbing
the wall, so lots of friction and frictional energy loss on the ball on
its way out rubbing the housing until the gap came.
-
- Also, plenty of centrifugal stress! -- how to make, it,of
what materials? .. but even if they have solved that now, you still have
...
-
- RECOIL!!! -- there ain't no such thing as a free lunch
-- this guy's baloney notwithstanding! -- THERE IS RECOIL PROPORTIONAL,
WITH A MINUS SIGN, TO THE ENERGY OF THE EXITING BALLS! At 8'000 fps, that
energy, even with only a few balls per second, is HUGE!!!
-
- Fourthly ... it will not fire them all on the same trajectory:
as each exiting ball reduces angular momentum and rotational velocity as
it exits (with recoil), the effect on trajectory would be much as when
one turns off the garden hose or one's bladder empties and the stream reduces
to a dribble that falls on one's shoes (there is a nice Jewish joke about
that, but out of place here) -- as angular momentum is reduced and rotational
velocity falls with each succeeding ball's exit, the stream will dribble
off.
-
- Finally, ballistic coefficient or how well a projectile
in a fluid medium retains its velocity is, with even a high-densuty tungsten
or uranium ball, still abysmally low; even at 8'000 fps (I'd like to see
the wheel or sufficient radius that holds up for long at that speed), this
must still be considered a relatively short-range weapon. Not to say it
would not do awseome damage close-up, only that I see practical difficulties
and the schmuck who designed it did not think this through at all, only
has some half-arsed concepts of a pipe-dream.
-
- ... and ... almost as a PS -- God help the weapon's operator,
if the release timing ever screws up -- !!!
-
- Comment
- Steve Davis
- 5-30-5
-
-
- Dear Jeff,
-
- We reviewed the new Dread gun & Patent Figs. and
Mr St.George has created what we believe is nothing short of Apocalyptic.
-
- All the amateur slag reports nothwithstanding, this weapon
is so awesome it will destroy almost anything anywhere. It will do exactly
what he says, no BS at all, it will work virtually perfectly, effortlessly
wiping out a large percentage of humanity in short order.
-
- It is even more dangerous than most weapons because it
is not much more complicated than a disc brake system in terms of metals
and machining and centrifuge technologies are extermely powerful and fully
refined these days. He even worked for a major centrifuge company, Shaples,
so he knows his stuff.
-
- It means that all waring factions can have this weapon
within a year, and massed produced in less than two years.
-
- We were very impressed with the simple cam lock ball
bearing stops which regulate the flow of ammo balls, real inginuity, and
it allows for total selection of rounds, plus the simple keypad selector
regulates RPM's. Dual pistol grips make for good hand control even with
some strong centrifugal forces. Not sure about sighting, as it shoots out
tangentially off the left side, weird but sightable somehow.
-
- What is not disclosed is 'range'. A rifle bullet has
range and accuracy because it is a spinning aerodynamic shape, and balls
just wont do that. But like a shotgun, quantity makes up for quality, and
these rounds will probably go hundreds of feet quite well, far better than
a shotgun. It will certainly rival a gattling gun and may be able to defend
against rockets or even cruise missiles if it has much range.
-
- This is one scary weapon especially for crowd, urban
and insurgent control, but as we have seen, insurgents are really able
to dish out the firepower these days, and it will not be long before they
have similar simple weapons, dread boobie traps or even mounted on dread
suicide cars !
-
- In God We Trust
Steve
-
-
- Comment
- From Richard
- 5-30-5
-
- Hi, Jeff:
-
- "RECOIL!!! -- there ain't no such thing as a free
lunch -- this guy's baloney notwithstanding! -- THERE IS RECOIL PROPORTIONAL,
WITH A MINUS SIGN, TO THE ENERGY OF THE EXITING BALLS! At 8'000 fps, that
energy, even with only a few balls per second, is HUGE!!!"
-
- Paxinos is mistaken.
-
- There is no recoil in DREAD because the force is transfered
laterally against the interior wall of the barrel as the metal ball spins
out towards its target. The barrel absorbs what would normally cause recoil
in a conventional weapon.
-
- He's also mistaken about the effect of one ball following
another down range, as the lead ball produces a vacuum, if you will, that
helps the following ball stay on target, much like how I hang close to
a large truck on the highway to reduce drag on my own vehicle.
-
- Best Regards,
-
- -Richard
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