CIM motor driver for "shooter" application

[whophil]

Hi all, new to electronics and robotics.

I'm looking to use a CIM motor in a direct drive (non-geared) "shooter" application with each motor driving a flywheel weight of 2 lbs. The load of the projectile is negligible. I am looking to achieve a flywheel rotation speed around 5000 rpm and will be controlling the speed with PWM.

I know the stall current on the CIM motor to exceed 130 A, but a motor driver for this current is prohibitively expensive.

Is there anybody who has run the CIM in direct drive for a shooter that can comment on the transient start-up current draw as the motor works to spin up the flywheels? If so, what motor driver were you using? Is it feasible to reduce the start-up current draw using a PWM ramp-up?

I will be handling the PWM through my microcontroller so I just need something simple with a high current capacity and fast ( > 10 kHz) switching.

Thanks,
Phil