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Title: New DREAD Weapon - Devastating, Jam-Proof And Silent
Source:
DefenseReview via Rense
URL Source: http://rense.com/general65/dread.htm
Published: May 27, 2005
Author: David Crane
Post Date: 2005-05-27 18:45:59 by Eoghan
Keywords: Devastating,, Jam-Proof, Weapon
Views: 239
Comments: 44
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. World Exclusive Video! DREAD Weapon System: Devastating, Jam-Proof, and Silent.
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#5. To: Tauzero (#3)
I bet it's cancelling recoil. Centrifuge gun makes me think it's a glorified sling shot. Maybe a plate spinning at a high rate that moves the bullets to the outer rim and then releases them. This, however, would have a recoil. What you would need is two plates, one on top of the other, spinning in opposite directions. They both release a bullet at the same instant. Here, there would still be a recoil, but one recoil would cancel the other. Sort of like two cannons, back to back, that fire at the same moment. The advantage of the plate arrangement is that recoil can be cancelled with both projectiles fired in the same direction.
Looks to me to be more of a weapon using centrifugal force, a high-tech sling. I'm interested in knowing how the inventor overcame the obstacles encountered by previous attempts to weaponize this type of energy such as accuracy and the energy requirements of the rotation mechanism.
The guys at the Alamo should have had several of these weapons. Travis, "There's 5000 Mexicans out there." Crockett, "What! are we pouring more concrete, today?" I guess that you had to be there... Cheers, all.
What this video..(slow to load its Quicktime) what i gather from this is the reason there is no recoil is because the ammunition is propelled by centrifical force.. and by saying its totally undetectable..seems to say there is no explosion (no gases) propelling the ammunition? Movie
Here's the patent (Weapon for Centrifugal Propulsion of Projectiles, patent no. 6,520,169). You can look it up un the USPTO.GOV website if you're interested in reviewing it. Also a New Scientist article here (where I found the patent name) and more info. http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7365 best regards!
The pictures are not available at the USPTO site, the links are broken. I would like to get them if you know how. Thanks
DREAD WEAPON SYSTEM: Devastating, Jam-Proof, and Silent
I always thought that some day they would come out with some kind of ray gun that would shoot a beam at people and instantly turn them into dust. I bet they are already working on something like that.
Even if the ammo is propelled by centrifugal force there is a recoil. A rock in a sling shot wants to travel in a straight line. The cord in the sling shot is constantly changing the direction of the rock's motion - making the rock go in a circle. The tension in the rope is what is popularly called centrifugal force. (I think it's actually centripidal force, but I can't remember.) When the rock is released, the tension instantly goes away and the force that was counteracting the tension, your hand, recoils. There is an equal and opposite reaction to the action. If you had two sling shots going at the same time, but twirling in opposite directions, and both rocks were released at the same instant, and in exactly the same direction, then the recoils would cancel, and there would be no net recoil. I think something like this is happening. I remember problems in freshman physics where we tried to get an action without a reaction by using weird motions to accelerate a particle. It just wasn't possible.
Thanks Dakmar, I'm looking for the patent drawings. They will show how this thing works.
LIAR! What if that rock is spinning, liar? What if it's spinning for Jesus, pagan? What if it's spinning for massa, boy?
I have no idea about the physically plausible part of any of that, I just try to show intent...
Just don't tell anybody about that trebuchet thingy we built that made an AMC Pacer exceede the speed of light. That whole thing about turning all the Republicans into homo pederasts is probably something we don't want to take credit for.
They have a thing like this in the park up in Chevy Chase. It's a spinning wheel that pitches tennis ball to little kids when they play a kind of softball. It always pitches the ball at the same speed and in the same spot so the kids can hit it. It sits on the ball diamond and looks like a wrecked wheelbarrow with it's wheel still going around.
Bush, Gannon, Rove and the rest of the team arn't interested in dust. They are working on a ray gun that instantly turns people into homos.
pssst...Esso and Dak beat them to it.
I've watched that video, but I need to ponder this a bit more, maybe even crack open and old engr text...but That satellite mounted scene in the video makes no sense. Any expulsion of mass however propelled will cause 'thrust' (similar to recoil) and would move the satellite's position. They may be claiming there is no recoil from explosive charges, but however the round is released there is an opposing force that must be absorbed (by the helicopter or vehicle). Based on the video, the device is a disk with a barrel mounted radially out from the center and it appears the rounds (spheres) exit along that radius, which implies however the centrifugal energy is applied, it is *not* applied at the edge: Imagine a top-down view like above. Ignore the horizontal line, or better still shift it up to the 40% grid line on the chart so it's still horizontal but then connected to the center of the larger circle and the edge of the inner circle - that would make it the 'barrel'. The barrel is mounted along the radius of the larger circle, which is also tangential to the smaller inner circle. Perhaps the larger rotating disk feeds a round to the edge of the inner disk where they meet and the inner disk then accelerates the round around to the center where the round is released at the center of the larger circle into the barrel, with most of its energy at that point being directed along the barrel. Perhaps the round is held and released with magnets, and maybe even guided into the barrel with a magnetic funnel. Both disks rotate in the same direction, say counter clockwise, the larger disk imparts some of the kinetic energy to the round and then transfers it to the inner disk which imparts all the final energy. The larger disk serves as the 'clip' or 'belt' and holds a resevoir of rounds (which get replenished somehow) and also serves as the feeding mechanism, while the smaller disk serves as the 'firing' chamber. Perhaps Adamselene, our resident physicist has a thought or two?
I credit my enlightenement to Bill Monroe, Stanley Brothers, and the Dillards.
If the gun is mounted on a platform, and if the gun takes a round that is stationary wrt the platform and ejects from the round from platform a a high velocity, then the platform upon which the gun is mounted must absorb a recoil equal and opposite to the force that accelerated the round. It doesn't matter what path the round took to achieve it's ejection velocity. The conservative field, when integrated up, will be equal to the force required to accelerate the round to the velocity at which it was ejected from the platform.
Oh sure, blame it all on me, when it was really all because of Democratic international gangsters.
Recall that when a slingshot fires a rock forward, it recoils sideways. Hence, two oppositely spinning slingshots could fire two rounds forward with no net recoil. Sort of like two convetional guns firing in exactly opposite directions.
seriously, L'edOL ;)
I wonder if you could build a BB gun version of this thing using an old record player.
Shhhhhh, it's a secret!
Here's another great invention. They sell it at a bike shop in Lanham Maryland:
I don't think so, it seems you'd have a huge dynamic imbalance spinning two objects in opposite rotation without a counterbalance.
I think it uses the feeding ammo as the counter balance. The description said something about radiating spokes where the ammo fed. The sling shot exmple was just to show how the recoil could be cancelled.
The world headquarters of the Anti-Monkey Butt corporation is in Buda Texas. Christine could probably stop in sometime and tour the operation. I always wanted to live in Buda. I might still move there some day.
patient and cautious and slow, dropped into their blood- less hands a few hours of warmth. I made the round with him once for kicks. You know how old people lose all shame about eating, and it makes you puke to watch them? Old junkies are the same about junk. They gibber and squeal at sight of it. The spit hangs off their chin, and their stomach rumbles and all their guts grind in peristalsis while they cook up, dissolving the body's decent skin, you expect any moment a great blob of protoplasm will Hop right out and surround the junk. Really disgust you to see it. "Well, my boys will be like that one day," I thought philosophically. "Isn't life peculiar?" So back downtown by the Sheridan Square Station in case the dick is lurking in a broom closet. Like I say it couldn't last. I knew they were out there powowing and making their evil fuzz magic, putting dolls of me in Leavenworth. "No use sticking needles in that one, Mike." I hear they got Chapin with a doll. This old eunuch dick just sat in the precinct basement hanging a doll of him day and night, year in year out. And when Chapin hanged in Connecticut, they find this old creep with his neck broken. "He fell downstairs," they say. You know the old cop bullshit. Junk is surrounded by magic and taboos, curses and amulets. I could find my Mexico City connection by radar. "Not this street, the next, right... now left. Now right again," and there he is, toothless old woman face and cancelled eyes.
pretty poetry ping above
Agreed. That is why the satellite scene in the video puzzled me. For all practical purposes a satellite firing the DREAD is effectively firing thrusters - same as recoil - and the satellite will be pushed (thrust) in the opposite direction - which seems like a problem for a satellite. Well I don't agree that two opposite spins can simultaneously fire forward (one direction) without any force component in the 'backward direction'. Your statement would be true if two shots were fired in exactly opposite directions (as in your "sort of like"), but you did say both shots "forward", nor does the DREAD appear to be configured for opposing dual shots.
Burkeman, was it you talking about how Heinlein had gift for decribing horror?
I think you are right. Think of the two sling shots in outer space with no other forces. Now draw a box around the firing platform, whatever it is. Two bullets are at rest WRT to the platform. The two bullets are then accelerated - somehow, we don't care how - and then ejected from the "box" at hight speed. The kenetic energy of the box is increased by an opposite and equal amount.
Agreed. For a satellite, that equal & opposite kinetic energy (thrust) would be a problem, I would think. For a vehicle or helicopter with a much larger mass and it's own opposing motive power, it would be manageable recoil. So I don't understand the 'no recoil' claim.
Something has to be absorbing the recoil or cancelling it. The ring within a ring that you showed might be the answer. Maybe the energy of the recoil is used to spin up one of the rings somehow. After a burst is fired, a brake could slow the ring. Here you would have no linear recoil, but unless you again had counter rotating rings your platform would have the spin moment transferred to it when the brakes were applied.
Hmmm....need to think about that - 'tis a puzzlement. The satlellit example remains for me the determining 'thought experiment'... any object expelled will produce an opposite thrust - that's what 'rocket science' is all about. Or it might just be marketing disinformation (you know, "a lie")?
Bottom line is you impart a net linear momentum to a mass. With a long enough rail gun, you get a smooth reactive force, via a lower acceleration over a longer amount of time. This big gun at its high rate of fire and bullet velocity is going to impart a non-trivial reactive force to the vehicle. The time it takes a bullet to get from rest to its exit velocity determines whether that force will begin suddenly -- with a jerk -- or not.
I pondered this a little bit more today while performing chauffeur duties for my wife and daughter. Suppose you had two rocks spinning about a stick in your hand and one was suddenly released. You'd feel a pulling perpendicular to the velocity of the released rock, in the direction of the other rock. So you rev this gun up, and at the first instant this gun is fired you get rather than a recoil a crosscoil, presumably directed towards the ground. (Remember that old right hand rule... in this case thumb = axis of rotation, index finger = vector of bullet.) Hence, two oppositely spinning slingshots could fire two rounds forward with no net recoil. They won't be quite in the same plane though. At first you'll get a net torque about the same axis as the direction in which you are shooting. Then, as the opposing devices rotate 90 degrees this torque becomes a recoil, assuming the two rotating devices remain unbalanced. If rounds fed from the magazine proceed to keep the device balanced, then you have essentially the same situation as steady-state, continuous fire, with a constant force pressing the gun back. TANSTAAFL
In the case of two actual sling shots, no recoil is a slight-of-hand made possible by standing on the earth. Consider: We start with two sling shots at rest, both pointed towards the ground. You start one, and then wait one half-period before starting the other. In this first half period we provide a net forward force to the first rock. While we have them spinning, we provide each one a rotating force, which causes an oscillating torque on us, and in each full period provides no net forward or backward force to either rock. In the last half period we provide a net forward force to the second rock. At the actual instant of release, no forward/backwards force is felt by the person.
No recoil is a physical impossibility.
#6. To: TommyTheMadArtist (#4)
I would lay money dimes to donuts it's a rail gun.
#7. To: Eoghan (#0)
#8. To: crack monkey, Tauzero (#5)
#9. To: Zipporah, lodwick (#8)
#10. To: Zipporah, lodwick (#8)
#11. To: lightmind (#10)
#12. To: Eoghan (#0)
#13. To: Zipporah (#8)
#14. To: Dakmar (#11)
#15. To: crack monkey (#13)
A rock in a sling shot wants to travel in a straight line.
#16. To: lightmind (#14)
#17. To: Dakmar (#16)
#18. To: Dakmar (#15)
#19. To: Diana (#12)
I always thought that some day they would come out with some kind of ray gun that would shoot a beam at people and instantly turn them into dust. I bet they are already working on something like that.
#20. To: crack monkey, Esso, Dakmar, Diana (#19)
#21. To: Zipporah, crack monkey, Tauzero, adamselene (#8)
#22. To: christine (#20)
#23. To: Starwind (#21)
#24. To: Dakmar (#22)
#25. To: All (#23)
#26. To: Esso (#24)
Democratic international gangsters.
#27. To: Dakmar (#16)
#28. To: christine (#26)
#29. To: Dakmar (#22)
#30. To: Dakmar (#22)
#31. To: crack monkey (#25)
Hence, two oppositely spinning slingshots could fire two rounds forward with no net recoil.
#32. To: Esso (#31)
#33. To: Dakmar (#22)
Anti-Monkey Butt Powder
#34. To: crack monkey (#33)
I had some uptown customers Bill took care of, and Bart knew a few old relics from hop smoking times, spectral janitors, grey as ashes, phantom porters sweep- ing out dusty halls with a slow old man's hand, cough- ing and spitting in the junk-sick dawn, retired asthmatic fences in theatrical hotels, Pantopon Rose the old madam from Peoria, stoical Chinese waiters never show sickness. Bart sought them out with his old junky walk,
#35. To: TommyTheMadArtist, Don (#34)
#36. To: crack monkey (#23)
the platform upon which the gun is mounted must absorb a recoil equal and opposite to the force that accelerated the round.
Hence, two oppositely spinning slingshots could fire two rounds forward with no net recoil. Sort of like two convetional guns firing in exactly opposite directions.
#37. To: Burkeman1 (#34)
#38. To: Starwind (#36)
Well I don't agree that two opposite spins can simultaneously fire forward (one direction) without any force component in the 'backward direction'.
#39. To: crack monkey (#38)
The kenetic energy of the box is increased by an opposite and equal amount.
#40. To: Starwind (#36)
nor does the DREAD appear to be configured for opposing dual shots.
#41. To: crack monkey, Adamselene (#40)
Maybe the energy of the recoil is used to spin up one of the rings somehow.
Something has to be absorbing the recoil or cancelling it.
#42. To: TommyTheMadArtist, crack monkey (#4)
There is no recoil on a weapon that there is no compressive blast to propel that projectile.
#43. To: crack monkey, Starwind (#13)
sling shots
#44. To: crack monkey, Starwind (#13)
sling shots
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