Brisbane, Australia -- Defence technology specialist Metal Storm announces it has been awarded a major production contract to supply 500 MAUL(tm) weapons and 50,000 rounds of non-lethal ammunition.

The contract, valued at US$3,365,000, has been placed by the Correctional Service of Papua New Guinea and was signed by the Minister of Correctional Service, the Honourable Tony Aimo MP and the Acting Correctional Service Commissioner Mr Henry Wavik. MAUL(tm) weapons will be deployed to Correctional Service Officers in charge of security at prison facilities throughout the country, providing non-lethal response capabilities that can be lifted to immediate lethal response if necessary.

The Minister, the Honourable Tony Aimo MP said that PNG Correctional Service sees the capacity of MAUL(tm) to deliver a rapid and escalating response as exactly what is necessary for security in PNG prisons.

"PNG is delighted to be able to source weapons at the leading edge of shotgun technology and we hope in due course to have about 1500 of these weapons in service", the Minister said. He expects ratification of the urgent purchase through the usual government protocols shortly, and the first 50 weapons to be delivered by February 2011.

Metal Storm CEO, Dr Lee Finniear, said the production contract was a watershed for the Company after many years of research, development and testing.

"This order for a significant number of weapons and substantial quantities of ammunition is an important milestone in the Company's commercial development" said Dr Finniear. "We see this application for MAUL(tm) as absolutely what it was designed to deliver, being a lightweight, semi-automatic non-lethal weapon that can be rapidly scaled to lethal force if necessary".

"MAUL(tm) also has the advantage for PNG that if weapons fall into unauthorised hands they cannot be used with conventional ammunition purchased illegally. This supports Government initiatives to stem the flow of illegal weapons in PNG ".

"This initial order for 500 MAUL(tm) weapons, is for a single organisation within Papua New Guinea. Looking at the number of similar organisations worldwide, it clearly indicates that the global market potential for MAUL(tm) is very large", he said.

Metal Storm Chairman Mr Terry O'Dwyer said that the production contract came at an ideal time for the Company.

"International interest in our weapon systems is building rapidly" he said, "as our marketing continues, the Company expects to identify opportunities of a similar or larger size over the coming months."

Metal Storm
03.08.2010