http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2000/12/8/172124.shtml

[url]http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2000/12/8/172124.shtml[/url]

SOF did an article on this a while back. (at least 1 or 2 years ago) Can't dig it up right now. If you're interested Email me and I will find the issue.

They have several versions with a different number of barrels and calibers, I think between 20 and 100 barrels depending on the config. It is a big square shape bundle of barrels that fire almost like a black powder gun. It is loaded, automaticly, by a dropping a charge of propellant in the barrel via a slot in the rear portion and by dropping a slug (really a ball) in through a slot in front of the one for the powder. In order to save space the barrrel lengths are all different and therefor the loading slots are in different locations, giving it the super high rate of fire/loading. In a way it is like a mini-gun with barrels firing and loading all in one big cycle. This is just bigger and faster, instead of the barrels moving to new locations and operations like a minigun, the loading and firing operations come to them, so to speak. That allows for a much higher rate of fire but requires a lot more wieght and barrels. One interesting side effect is that it does not load or fire accuratly due to the weird barrel lengths and the speed of the loading system. So it gives off a HUGE beaten zone during firing (greatly differing velocities). Supposedly the navy is looking at one of the larger ones for close range anti-missile defense, just putting up a literal wall of lead. There is a vehicle mounted version, ship mounted version and a "man portable" version. I cant see much use for the vehicle or man portable versions since they are really heavy and you must carry seperate loads of bulk powder and slugs/balls. There are a bunch of other neat things about the design but I dont know much about it and Im not going to type for an hour to try and explain half an answer.

Even though it's not in production, is super expensive and is not practical for civilian use, Shumer and Finestein will be on the bandwagon to have it banned.