Outback Has The West’s Fastest Gun
The newly developed Variable lethality enforcement (Vle) gun has been called the globe’s smartest firearm by the Guinness Book of World Records and is being evaluated by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Project Agency.
Developed by Australian self-tutored physicist Mike O’Dwyer, the Vle can communicate in several languages, transmit sounds to law enforcement authorities, and discharge lethal and non-lethal bullets. Furthermore, it will operate only when in the hands of its licensed owner, thereby providing greater security.
The technology is being made and marketed by a Brisbane, Australia-based firm called Metal Storm, which is working with the New Jersey Institute of Technology to ensure that the gun operates only after identifying the registered user’s grip.
The firm has also produced a gun 36 times larger than the Vle that can fire at a rate of one million rounds a minute.
A single cylinder can be used as a pistol, or several can be combined to fire larger sprays of bullets.
Both weapons are considered to be lighter, less expensive, and faster than standard guns, and can also connect more easily to computers. “Because it’s electronic, it can interface with other electronic systems, intelligence systems that can tell it what to do and you don’t need a person there,” explains Metal Storm general manager Ian Gillespie.
Abstracted by the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center(NLECTC) from theAustralian IT (03/30/04) .
