Re: Metal Storm

Alan E Brain wrote:

> > Yes, it fires a lot of ammo. But you throw away the barrels and load
> > a new magazine/barrel assembly every time you have to reload the
> > mother.
>
> But as the barrel needs only a limited lifetime, it can be very light.
And there's no separate magazine to carry.

Unfortunately, the lifetime of the barrel is not determined by its
weight, but by the relative hardness of the rifling compared to the
driving band.  The weight of the barrel is determined by pressures in
the barrel (pushing weight up) and the
acceptable number of accidental ruptures (lower safety = lower weight).

I am neither a metallurgist nor a gunsmith, but I do know that barrels
are replaced due to the rifling being worn out.  Rifling wear is worse
when the barrel gets hot, which is why heavy machineguns rotate through
a number of barrels when firing
intensively.  For a reduced lifetime barrel to be lighter, there must be
some fatigue phenomenom at work that makes the barrel weaker with avery
shot fired.  But the elasticity of the material makes this less than
likely.