The newest Millennium.

The US Navy recently completed testing of Lockheed Martin's Millennium Gun (an Oerlikon Contraves development) in an effort to validate and qualify the naval cannon technology for fleet self-protection. The Millennium typically fires bursts of eight Ahead rounds at a rate of 1000 rounds per minute. Each Ahead round is individually programmed to expel a cloud of 152 razor-edged cylindrical tungsten pellets just ahead of the target. These will shred any aluminium airframe to pieces, and recent tests have also proven that they could prematurely trigger the fuze of incoming mortar bombs. The US Navy has funded ground testing familiarisation for Navy personnel and validated the Ahead lethality on a selection of target ranges. Lockheed Martin has supplied the gun system and technical assistance for the testing sessions.