That is not really the point as u see, the current assult rifles can fire 700 plus round a min and no soldier will really do that. The key is ability. If required, it can discharge rapid fire rounds and i think its before the gun recoils. That means, it can put a few bullets in a spot accurately.
I think this clearly has an edge over normal guns. I think it will have less recoil, and most impt, no more jams. Fire an M16 before? If u did and it jams, its fustrating and deadly in battle situations.
Ah, I thought you were talking about the typical vehicle mounted or towed Metal Storm, not the VLe pistol type.
Accurate bursts are only a real issue when it comes to handgun, which is why the ability of an electronic triggering device to discharge multiple rounds before recoil affects accuracy was a big emphasis when they introduced the VLe. Rifles, at least those chambered for the 5.56 NATO, aren't as affected by the recoil due to two reasons. One, they are heavier. More mass means more force needed to move it. Two, they're usually designed with the axis of movement of the bolt running in a straight line, directly into the shoulder, as with the AR-15 family design.
The most promoted angle on Metal Storm is still it's ability to fire millions of rounds within a very small time frame, and few infantry will ever be able to fire that many because of recoil and logistics. In fact, M16A2s don't have a fully automatic setting because users tended to leave it on that setting, spray, and empty the magazine in the middle of a firefight too quickly. The problem was basic psychology really. Whilst being shot at, people tend to be thinking about many things other than how many rounds are left in the magazine, or how long he's been holding on to the trigger. By allowing a three round burst at most, the new M16 design forced the user to consciously release the trigger, in other to continue firing. This basically achieved two things, it allowed him to conserve and keep track of ammunition more easily, and it gave him time to reacquire the target in between trigger squeezes. Bottom line is rate of fire, Metal Storm's greatest advantage, really doesn't matter at all in most infantry combat situations.
Of course, that the guns won't jam is a major advantage. But don't forget that electronics tend to be more fragile than cast aluminum bolts and springs, and remember, they run off batteries. Currently the loads that troops carry already consist of a fair bit of batteries. Batteries for their AN/PEQ-2, night vision scopes and binoculars, laptops, radio, GPS, flash lights, the list goes on. All those devices aren't critical to your survival, but imagine if you run out of batteries in a hostile environment and because of that, your weapon doesn't work anymore.
So no, until they create power packs that last weeks or months of constant usage in portable Metal Storm devices, and the packs are small enough to fit ON the gun and to put in pockets (so spares aren't troublesome to bring around), I don't see it taking off for infantry either.
