METAL STORM CORRECTION
BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA - 5 January 2005 – Metal Storm Limited (ASX trading code: MST and NASDAQ Small Cap ticker symbol MTSX).
On 21 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.
DARPA has since advised Metal Storm that the company’s proposal was not selected and that the formal notification the company had received from DARPA was in error, as was the original press statement released by DARPA (since corrected), which included the Metal Storm proposal in a list of 37 projects that had been selected for potential funding.
Interim Chairman Terry O’Dwyer said that the company had made the announcement in good faith following the receipt of formal written and verbal notifications from DARPA, and after the publication by DARPA of its press release which confirmed that the Metal Storm proposal had been selected.
“Whilst this would have been a good opportunity to work with DARPA it is important to note that this action will not impact on the Company’s development program or planned demonstrations of its weapons system capabilities, including those related to urban warfare scenarios”, Mr O’Dwyer said.
About Metal Storm
Metal Storm Limited is a defence technology company engaged in the development of electronically initiated ballistics systems using its unique “stacked round” technology. The company is headquartered in Brisbane, Australia and incorporated in the US, with an office located in Washington DC and a defence engineering capability located in Seattle, operating as ProCam Machine LLC. The company has invented a ballistics technology that has no known conventional equivalent. Metal Storm is working with government agencies and departments, as well as industry, to develop a variety of systems utilising the Metal Storm nonmechanical,
electronically fired stacked ammunition system.
About DARPA
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is the central research and development organization for the Department of Defense (DoD). It manages and directs selected basic and applied research and development projects for DoD, and pursues research and technology where risk and payoff are both very high and where success may provide dramatic advances for traditional military roles and missions.
Safe Harbor Statement
Certain statements made herein that use the words "estimate", "project", "intend", "expect", "believe", and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements within the meaning of the US Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties which could cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the company to be materially different from those which may be expressed or implied by such statements, including, among others, risks or uncertainties associated with the development of the company's technology, the ability to successfully market products in the clinical pipeline, the ability to advance promising therapeutics through clinical trials, the ability to establish our fully integrated technologies, the ability to enter into additional collaborations and strategic alliances and expand current collaborations and obtain milestone payments, the suitability of internally discovered genes for drug development, the ability of the company to meet its financial requirements, the ability of the company to protect its proprietary technology, potential limitations on the company's technology, the market for the company's products, government regulation in Australia and the United States, changes in tax and other laws, changes in competition and the loss of key personnel. These statements are based on our management's current expectations and are subject to a number of uncertainties that could change the results described in the forward-looking statements. Investors should be aware that there are no assurances that results will not differ from those projected.