Australia’s own weapon of terror

O’Dwyer recalls watching World War II footage of kamikaze aircraft attacking Allied ships and the difficulty of dealing with them. When he developed the weapon and launched the company in 1999, he had no way of understanding how this invention could turn the tide in a war waged by suicide bombers and a world besieged by terrorism.

The company, which is now listed on the Australian Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq Small Cap Market, has offices in both Australia and the United States. Metal Storm employs 60 staff, is headquartered in Brisbane, Australia, and incorporates offices in Washington DC and a defence engineering capability located in Seattle, operating as ProCam Machine LLC.

Its partnerships with the US military, Boeing, Lockheed and Dragonfly have pushed Metal Storm’s share price value up by more than 50 per cent in six months with many unsuspecting anti-war investors sharing indirectly in the profits of war. The top 20 shareholders of Metal Storm include ANZ, Citicorp, Comsec and J.P. Morgan. News of these top shareholders will be of significant interest to Australian investors, many of whom are moving to ethical investments that do not profit from war.

In December 2004, Metal Storm announced that DARPA, the central research and development organisation for the US Department of Defense, had selected the company's proposal, titled Metal Storm Weapons for Urban Environments, for a contract award, subject to successful completion of contract negotiations.

O'Dwyer is a passionate advocate of applying technology to modern warfare and networking in defence thinking. Now he runs his company with like-minded warriors. Recently appointed CEO David Smith was president and chief operating officer of SenSyTech Inc, a publicly traded high-tech defence organisation. David Smith signed a contract with Dragonfly Pictures Incorporated (DPI) in June 2005, and reported to shareholders and the public on the Metal Storm website that the contract “will be the first opportunity for Metal Storm to conduct live airborne test firings and one of the first tests of its kind utilizing a Class III UAV. It provides us with an outstanding opportunity to demonstrate the capabilities and advantages of our weapons system for airborne operations and should generate great visibility into the very large Unmanned Aircraft Community.”

The board of directors is also stacked with retired American warriors. The current deputy chairman is General Wayne Allan Downing who still uses the title of “General”, although retired from the US Army. Appointed as a director of Metal Storm Limited in October 1999, General Downing resigned from the board in October 2001 following his appointment as US National Director and Deputy National Security Advisor for Combating Terrorism. Following “completion” of this role, he was reappointed as a director of the company in October 2002. Downing commanded all US special operations forces during the 1989 invasion of Panama and commanded a joint special operations task force deep behind Iraqi lines during the Gulf War.

The former chairman of Metal Storm was Admiral Owens, who was a submariner for more than 20 years and commanded the US 6th Fleet from 1990-1992, which included the time of the Persian Gulf War (1991). From 1994-1996, he served as vice-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Now retired from the military, he is vice-chairman and co-chief executive officer of Teledesic, a satellite communications company.

There is indeed a deadly storm brewing on the horizon of the war on terror. Only this time it is not the suicide bombers who threaten our world. It is Metal Storm in the hands of the Coalition of the Killing.