D.r.e.a.d.

[MoDyna]

This is going to take all the fun out of war!

http://www.military.com/soldiertech/0,14632,Soldiertech_DREAD,,00.html?ESRC=soldiertech.nl

[LeVar Burton]

120,000 rounds a minute? Thats all?

[Mugzy]

Man, thats a scary sounding gun!

[Chacal]

Two thoughts:

1- The accuracy of spherical projectiles is notoriously low. I wonder how they manage that.

2- They don't mention breakage. Think of the rpm needed to achieve 8000 fps linear velocity. What happens if something breaks?

Also...

As an embassy security weapon, the less-lethal/non lethal mode would most likely be the way to go, in most cases. Less-lethal is usually adequate for any crowd control or riot control situations. However, let's say the crowd starts storming the gates, and now presents a lethal threat to the occupants inside. Well, just pull your Marines inside, switch your remotely-operated battery of DREAD's on over to lethal mode, and make survival above ground impossible for anyone outside the embassy.

Alternatively, you could stop providing reasons for the crowd to want to storm the embassy in the first place.

[BladeRunner]

Dam
Talk about stopping power, say the first round killed you and
it takes 2 seconds for you to hit the ground, hmmm thats
1000 rounds hitting you in that length of time.

It will be interesting to see how the insides work, Newtons
law says, "For every action, there is an equal and opposite
reaction."
Whats going to soak up the enegry of throwing that much
mass in one direction?

[MoDyna]

I think centrifugal force. Something like that can spin about its center at a very high rate of speed and be very stable. As for the shape of the projectile, back in the civil war they were not able to make round shot with little dimples on them like they do now with golf balls. Notice the article showed one.. Anyway I'm no physicist, proof is in the pudding so to speak. Let them build one and see if it works.

[deathBOB]

What if you hit that with a shell and damaged it? Would it explode outward and kill everyone near it? Seems dangerous.

[Conscious*]

Don't stand near it.

[RCglider]

I can see the recoil being minimal if there are counter rotating discs, but energy out still requires energy in and it would seem the power needed would be extremely high, like in the Mega Watt range.

Also, imagine the curve the balls would have. How would it be aimed?

The accuracy wouldn't be that good, and the rate of drop would be high. Then again, how accurate does it have to be with that rate of fire!

Here's some cool stuff. I think they make a gun that factors out to 1,000,000 RPM.
http://www.metalstorm.com/

[SavageParrot]

Originally posted by Chacal
What happens if something breaks?

You could always throw it ala Captain America

[DocTrebor]

Since when did war become fun (besides in video games?).

[SavageParrot]

Since you started firing at people you don't have to look in the eye first...