Discovery Channel series "Future Weapons"

[jmervyn]

Oh please. I've yet to see a weapon save lives. All they do is take 'em.

You've had two viable answers already, and we didn't even discuss the ability of metalstorm to extinguish fires. I even heard talk of being able to use it to deploy <food>, though I think that's downright silly.

But the ability of a weapon to save lives can be seen when it intimidates the enemy into keeping their head down, which is exactly what Metalstorm can do. I sure wouldn't want to try to attack one.

Not the ground penetrating weapons. That's what the Rods-from-God (tm) are for. Deep penetration of hardened bunkers (i.e. Iranian nuclear sites) with a single strike. Unlike our current tactic of dropping multiple bombs on the same hardened target until it's destroyed.

Insofar as I know, Metalstorm doesn't look like it has much in the way of penetration capability, so it won't do the job with direct fire weapons such as AT guns. But aside from the rate of fire, it can throw HEAT or other explosive shells nicely.