The Bullet Curtain system, developed by China’s largest arms maker Norinco, employs a unique “plane-to-point” interception method, creating a wall of projectiles to blanket incoming targets with overlapping firepower.
It was revealed in the April edition of the Norinco publication Modern Weaponry.
“Imagine the target is a fly. The traditional air-defence interception is like throwing stones at the fly continuously … and now the barrage system is like swinging a fly swatter, which covers the entire area where the fly may move,” Yu Bin, the chief designer of the system, said in the report.
“While traditional air-defence weapons only hit at a single point, we are building a canopy capable of countering a saturation attack,” he said.
The barrage system features a 4×4 tight arrangement of 35mm gun barrels for various types of ammunition to deliver an unprecedented rate of fire while maintaining quick reload capabilities, according to the article.
It fires 35mm advanced hit efficiency and destruction (AHEAD) ammunition that spits hundreds of sub-projectiles each to form a barrage against drones. For larger and faster targets, such as missiles, Yu said the team had developed new “serial and parallel ammunition”.
The system also integrates radar, an optical detection system, fire-control system, integrated management system and ammunition with the platform.