It seems to me that the only ‘area weapon’ that may come close to equaling the rate of fire and indiscriminate fire-control system of Metal Storm (as described in her article) is Wanda Fish’s writing.
I’m sorry but I just don’t have the time to address the sheer scale of the inaccuracies, untruths and abundantly creative nonsense in her article.
I am unsure what surprises me more: Wanda Fish’s uninformed, alarmist, exaggerated and distorted hyperbole or that such a tirade survived On Line Opinion’s editorial scrutiny.

Well Wanda, what a disturbing article.

The content is disturbing - and even more disturbing is lack of substantive evidence to support your alarming assertions. The role of terrorists is to instill fear. Is that the aim of your article?

Your parting shot is a total give-away.

I agree with the previous posters. They are more eloquent than I am.

Cheers
Kay

PS: Wanda, when we experience a terrorist attack in this country - which could be the place where you live - what do you want the Howard Government to do in order to preserve your life and the lives of your loved ones?

Metalstorm, accoring to Ms Fish, is capable of firing a million rounds a minute. The difficulty is that it runs foul of Newtonian physics, in that one million rounds a minute provides for massive recoil, so either the projectiles are tiny, or are of very low velocity, or are a very short burst. It would be feasible to create 'shotgun' ammunition capable of being fired from standard rotary gattling type weapons, such as the Vulcan cannon, to produce half a million projectiles per minute, but there is no military effectiveness in doing this.

Firestorm uses a series of projectiles and propellant already loaded into barrels, which can of course be clustered together. Each barrel does not have 'traditional ammunition feed, ejection system, breech opening or any other moving parts' however, once each barrel has been expended it has to be replaced. In effect each barrel is like a gun's magazine that must be replaced when empty. This replacement process will take time, which will reduce the average number of rounds per minute capable of being fired to around the same number as those capable of being fired from a 'traditional' automatic weapon.

Metalstorm fires lots of small projectiles at a high rate of fire from a weapon of a certain weight. Another weapon, of the same weight, may fire one projectile weighing the same as all those little Firestorm projectiles put together, and may have a greater effect on the target. The weight of projectile and the amount of propellant will be the same, except the larger projectile may be better at penetrating an armoured target or carrying a load of high explosive than Metalstorm will ever be capable of.

Being hit by one or two bullets results in same military effictiveness as being hit by 100, or 1000, or the proverbial million.

Dear Wanda,
I provide this advice, not in any way to insult or denigrate, but rather, out of sincere concern for your well being from one who had a very well misspent youth in the mushy fields and freak trails and can recognise your signals.

Your thought processes appear to mimick those of schizophrenics and those with a history of heavy hooch use in teenage years. You extrapolate to totally improbable extremes and then take that extrapolation on board as self evident, incontestable, evidence of demon status. Simple medical MRI scans can establish the presence of this condition quickly and rather cheaply. It is treatable. We only have one life, sweetie, please get it checked. You deserve better than this.

Now,all you right wing [deleted for innapropriate language] have to go a bit easy here,you are offending the sensitivities of the the left who know full well that all Anglo Saxions are responsible for all the world's problems of pollution,poverty, corruption,and wars.It is so simple and written in leftist black and white.

What happens Wanda if the US pulls out of the Middle East and you no longer can afford the petrol for your car or the cost of the groceries because of the lack of fuel?

The existence of the US in the Middle East is about self interest,but any nation who buys it's oil is also benefiting.Those who buy Middle East oil and bag the US,are nothing but a bunch of hypocrites.The US is doing the dirty work for many nations who benefit and just snipe from the side lines.

Yes,it all smells a little bit fishy,and does make us wonder.

This is a Year 12 essay if I've ever read one. Written in journalese and replete with all those baddie white men concepts such as fat US generals making obscene profit from war,"innocent" civilians being killed and its all coming from an Aussie backyard inventor. Its enough to make me stand in front of one out of pure guilt!. But no, there are already human shields there is no need for more.

This simplistic emotionally based nonsense is thankfully rejected by the majority of rational people. Some might swallow it hook,line and sinker but then they would all be Fish wouldnt they?.