What could be the most powerful machine gun in human history is being developed by the Chinese scientists and engineers.
This weapon consists of five or more barrels, with each barrel capable of firing bullets at a rate of 450,000 rounds per minute. The resulting barrage has an unprecedented density, capable of intercepting hypersonic missiles traveling at speeds in excess of Mach 7.
By comparison, the maximum rate of fire of the US military’s most powerful Phalanx system is just 4,500 rounds per minute.
Refilling ammo for one armed which consumes millions of bullets per minute is considered an insurmountable challenge. But Chinese researchers in Taiyuan, an industrial hub in central China, have developed an ingenious solution: a replaceable magazine shaped like a container filled with barrels, each filled with bullets. After the bullets are fired, the disposable barrels are simply thrown away with the entire container.
This box-type rotary firing technology can “improve loading speed, reduce the decrease in barrel strength and accuracy due to repeated loading, and achieve the combat objectives of multiple strikes, continuous operations and counter -fast attacks,” said the project team led by Lu. Xutao, associate professor of mechanical and electrical engineering at North China University, wrote in a peer-reviewed article published in the Chinese Journal of Detection & Control in December.
Traditional machine guns use mechanical triggers, but they cannot meet the demand of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) for 7,500 shots per second. To solve this problem, Lu and his colleagues developed an electronic trigger made of coils.