Ammunition and all that, all calibres

[buglerbilly]

U.K. Joins Hunt For A Better Bullet

By ANDREW CHUTER

Published: 6 Jun 2010 08:39

LONDON - Britain has joined a search for a better-performing 5.56mm bullet, contracting with supplier BAE Systems, which intends to deliver 1 million rounds of a new ammunition to the Ministry of Defence for testing by year's end.

The high-performance ammunition offers better range and lethality, and has the bonus of being lead-free, making it environmentally friendly for use during training exercises.

The British are following in the footsteps of their U.S. ally, which is now starting to field deadlier ammunition amid concerns that the NATO-standard SS109 bullet - known as the M855 in U.S. military service - is not effective against adversaries such as the Taliban at anything but short range.

In March, Defense News' sister paper Army Times reported U.S. troops' complaints that the M855 was ineffective against "barriers such as car windshields and often travels right through unarmored insurgents with less than lethal effects."

British troops use the 5.56mm rounds in SA80A2 assault rifles and light machine guns.

Earlier this year, the Ministry of Defence purchased more than 400 7.62mm rifles from U.S. company Law Enforcement International as an urgent operational requirement to allow troops to fight Taliban insurgents at longer ranges than the standard 5.56mm weapon.

Yet both BAE and MoD spokesmen denied that their work on a new round is related to the current war.

A BAE spokesman said the development of its new round is not related to "operations in Afghanistan, although it does make progression of development at a good speed more desirable."

A company executive said the round will offer "improved lethality against unprotected targets and improved effectiveness against light vehicle targets."

One industry executive said the standard round would likely become increasingly ineffective if used against conventional troops wearing body armor.

An MoD spokesman said the BAE work was nothing to do with Afghanistan and was part of a continuous ongoing development program for small-arms ammunition.

"We work closely with industry to ensure there is a continuous process of improving and upgrading our equipment. Our troops in Afghanistan are provided with a range of weapons they can use when fighting the Taliban."

The MoD is having the new ammunition subjected to detailed independent analysis by defense research company QinetiQ.

BAE, which has a 15-year contract with the MoD to supply the bulk of its munitions requirements under a deal known as the Munitions Acquisition Supply Solution, is spending 83 million pounds ($121 million) to expand and modernize its Radway Green, England, small-arms ammunition plant. The refurbished plant will be able to produce more than 300 million rounds of small-arms ammunition a year.

Current annual production is around 200 million rounds split roughly 70-30 in favor of 5.56mm over 7.62mm. The company says it will switch all of its 5.56mm production over to the new round if the high-performance ammunition is adopted by the armed forcers here.

The new technology replaces the traditional steel tip and lead core with a single steel core, while retaining the gilding metal envelope.

Work is currently being undertaken by BAE to produce the new round. A low-rate production batch of 1 million rounds is scheduled for delivery to the MoD around the end of the year.

The spokesman said that if development of the new 5.56mm round is successful, the company would consider undertaking similar work for its 7.62mm ammunition.

In the meantime, the new development closes the performance gap between the two calibers while retaining the benefits of the smaller, lighter 5.56mm weapon, he said.

[buglerbilly]

Earlier article on US matters.............

Army won’t field deadlier Corps round

By Matthew Cox - Staff writer

Posted : Monday Apr 5, 2010 5:50:04 EDT


Staff Sgt. Gary A. Witte / Army Soldiers in Afghanistan will not be getting the SOST round that Marines are now using in Afghanistan, Army officials said. The Army is hoping the newest, lead-free version of its M855 round will be ready by June. Above, soldiers on patrol in Afghanistan.

Special Operations Command and now the Marine Corps are fielding a deadlier 5.56mm round, but the Army says soldiers can’t have it. Instead, the service is holding on to its dream of environmentally friendly ammunition.

Army ammunition officials are on their third attempt at redesigning the Cold War-era M855 5.56mm round by adding a better-performing, lead-free bullet. The service had to halt the M855A1 Lead-Free Slug program in July when the new bullet failed to perform under high temperatures. The setback delayed fielding by nearly a year.

The newest version of the green round is in the live-fire test phase, and Army officials said they are confident it will be ready for combat use by June.

The Marine Corps, however, doesn’t share this confidence. The Corps has dropped its plans to field the Army’s M855A1 and approved the new SOST round for Marines to use in Afghanistan. SOST, short for Special Operations Science and Technology, is SOCom’s enhanced 5.56mm round. It isn’t green, but it is deadlier than the current M855 round and it’s available now, Marine officials say.

The Corps’ decision to purchase about 2 million SOST rounds in September illustrates the growing frustration with the M855’s performance on the modern battlefield.

The M855 was developed in the 1970s and approved as an official NATO round in 1980. In recent years, troops have widely criticized it. They complain it is ineffective against barriers such as car windshields and often travels right through unarmored insurgents, with less than lethal effects.

Jason Gillis, a former Army staff sergeant, first witnessed the M855’s shortcomings in 2004 on the streets of Baghdad. He was a squad leader with 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, on patrol when a vehicle began speeding toward his unit.

After several warnings, “both of our M249s opened up instantly, forming a crisscross pattern of tracer that met at the vehicles engine compartment and windshield. Within seconds, riflemen and grenadiers were executing magazine changes while the vehicle kept rolling and finally stopped 10 meters from my lead troops,” Gillis recalled in an e-mail to Army Times. He is now a freelance writer who often focuses on military small-arms issues.

“Assuming the driver was most likely riddled beyond recognition, we were all astounded to see the driver emerge from the vehicle completely unscathed,” Gillis wrote. “Closer inspection revealed that the M855 ammunition had failed to effectively penetrate the vehicle’s windshield despite the fact over 400 rounds were expended at extremely close range and on target.”

Other soldiers say they like the M855 because it’s lightweight, but wish it had more punch.

“The idea of being able to carry 210 rounds is quickly overshadowed by the fact that it takes more than one and even more than two rounds to drop the enemy,” Staff Sgt. Charles Kouri, 82nd Airborne Division, told Army Times.

[B]Army going ‘green’

Army officials acknowledged that the M855 “has not been providing the ‘stopping power’ the user would like at engagement ranges less than 150 yards,” according to a June 17, 2005, Project Manager Maneuver Ammunition briefing.

Ballistics experts maintain, however, that no bullet is perfect and that it is highly unlikely any bullet will cause an enemy to drop every time after just one shot.

“There is not a bullet in this world that will do that,” said Dr. Martin Fackler, the former director of the Wound Ballistics Laboratory at the Letterman Army Institute of Research and a combat surgeon during Vietnam. “Even if you take the guy’s heart apart, he can still shoot back at you for 15 seconds because he’s still got enough oxygen in the blood in his brain to do it.”

Still, the Army pushed forward with two priorities: to find ammo that performs better and is also lead-free. As part of a larger effort to study bullet lethality, the Army began revamping its green bullet program, an effort that began in 1996.

The first attempt featured a tungsten-nylon blend that didn’t perform well and proved to be almost as harmful to the environment as lead.

Another attempt, with the M855A1 LFS, appeared to be the solution. The new round was made of a bismuth-tin alloy with a steel penetrator. Army officials said the M855A1 provided more “consistent performance” than the M855 round, and performed better against barriers such as windshields and car doors.

The Army has spent about $32 million on the LFS program since fiscal 2007.

The Army had planned to start issuing the first of 20 million M855A1 rounds last August, until an 11th-hour problem surfaced when some of the bullets did not follow their trajectory or intended flight path. The slug proved to be sensitive to heat.

The latest setback led the Army to search for a new lead-free slug material and prompted the Marine Corps, which was interested in the M855A1, to go with SOCom’s new 5.56mm round instead.

“We put our money toward SOST because of the lead-free failure,” said Chief Warrant Officer-5 Jeffrey Eby, the Corps’ senior gunner. “That lead-free bullet in the last six months just fell apart on them under extreme heat.”

More accurate round

SOST rounds have similar ballistics to the M855 round, meaning combat troops don’t have to adjust to using the new ammo, military officials say.

Using an open-tip match round design common with some sniper ammunition, SOST rounds are designed to stay on target better than existing M855 rounds after penetrating windshields, car doors and other objects.

Compared with the M855, SOST rounds also stay on target longer in open air and have increased stopping power, according to Navy Department documents obtained by Marine Corps Times.

At 62 grains, they weigh about the same as most NATO rounds, have a typical lead core with a solid copper shank and are considered a variation of Federal Cartridge Co.’s Federal Trophy Bonded Bear Claw round, which was developed for big-game hunting and is touted in a company news release for its ability to crush bone.

SOCom developed the new round, formally known as the MK318 MOD 0, for use with the Special Operations Forces Combat Assault Rifle, or SCAR, which needed a more accurate bullet because its short barrel, at 13.8 inches, is less than an inch shorter than the M4 carbine’s.

SOCom first fielded the SOST round in April, said Air Force Maj. Wesley Ticer, a spokesman for the command. It also fielded a cousin — MK319 MOD 0 enhanced 7.62mm SOST ammo — designed for use with the SCAR-Heavy, a powerful 7.62mm battle rifle.

SOCom uses both kinds of ammunition, Ticer said.

The Corps purchased a “couple million” SOST rounds as part of a joint $6 million, 10.4-million-round buy in September — enough to last the service several months in Afghanistan, Marine Corps officials said.

Despite the popularity of the SOST, the Army isn’t backing away from its goal to perfect its green M855A1 round.

“SOST is a good round, but SOST is not a lead-free slug,” said Lt. Col. Tom Henthorn, chief of the Small Arms Branch at the Soldier Requirements Division at Fort Benning, Ga.

The Army will continue to develop an environmentally friendly 5.56mm, as well as a lead-free 7.62mm bullet, Henthorn added, “because we care about the environment.”

Small arms training accounts for about 2,000 metric tons of lead going into the environment every year, Army officials say. The Army first began its quest for green ammunition in response to environmental groups that pressured some states to prohibit some National Guard units from using their training ranges.

Run-off from lead-contaminated soil can contaminate water sources that supply communities located near the ranges, environmental groups maintain.

“We do have real reasons why we are doing this,” said Chris Grassano, product manager for Maneuver Ammunition Systems. Grassano, however, did say that the Army does not have a “significant percentage” of training ranges that have been closed because of lead damage to the environment.

The latest M855A1 design features a solid copper slug instead of bismuth-tin. During production qualification testing, Army testers will shoot 400,000 rounds of the new version, making the M855A1 “the most tested round we have ever developed,” said Lt. Col. Jeff Woods, product manager for Small and Medium Caliber Ammunition.

The new round addresses the consistency problems of the M855, but Army ballistics officials said “we are not at liberty to compare it to SOST,” Grassano said.

While copper is more expensive than lead, Army officials said they could not provide a cost estimate for the M855A1 compared to the current M855.

If all goes well in testing, the M855A1 will be ready in June in “sufficient quantities to satisfy the needs of theater,” Grassano said. “We are pretty confident that once we get it into soldiers’ hands, they will be satisfied with” the new round.

———
Staff writer Dan Lamothe contributed to this report.

[buglerbilly]

Keep the 5.56mm Round! Go Back to 7.62mm Round!

by christian on June 15, 2010



An interesting and compelling debate is sparking back up as the Army is intensively looking at a replacement for the M4 and the other services eyeball what America’s biggest military branch is going to do.

A robust argument was made at the Small Arms Symposium last month from European experts who debated whether NATO and the US should make a clean break from the 5.56 or adopt a whole new caliber/stick with 7.62. According to briefing Per Arvidsson, chairman of the NATO Weapons and Sensors Working Group, the 5.56 is the best solution when balanced against weight, accuracy, stopping power and range of other calibers.

http://www.scribd.com/full/33069602?access_key=key-26l37azk60ueonrxk58d

Arvidsson argues (as the Army has) that true lethality is a function of marksmanship more than it is caliber. He explained that new weapon sights and training that emphasizes targeting from the head down the center-mass to the groin will kill every time…

Hit to the central nervous system: Immediate incapacitation regardless of caliber or type of projectile!

On the flip side,caliber consultant and co-editor of Jane’s Ammunition Handbook Anthony Williams argues that the 5.56 has inadiquate range and inconsistent ballistic yaw to open wound channels to kill targets.

More than 50% of engagements beyond effective rifle range (70% with short-barrelled guns)

•Inadequate suppressive effect (fire ignored)

•Unreliable terminal effectiveness (erratic yaw)

•Lack of barrier penetration (easily stopped or deflected)

While Williams recognizes the 7.62 has its shortcomings (weight, recoil, suppression problems) he argues that the range and lethality of the 7.62 round should prompt a considered look at new calibers, including the 6.8, 7mm and 6.5.

Basically, when you look at Williams’ brief, you can’t help but come to the conlusion that the 6.5 Grendel is the best option, but a whole new round might be warrented. Thing is, going in a whole new direction might be a tough sell.

Be sure to take a look at the two briefs and pay particular attention to the ballistics and terminal effects charts. Also, an added nugget comes in Arvidsson’s brief with his specs on a new NATO carbine.

So what do you think?

You want to vote go to the linked page below................

Read more: http://kitup.military.com/#ixzz0qvpqxdpU

[Riđđu]

This 5.56 vs.7.62 vs. something else debate has been going on in Finland since the 1960s. I find it somewhat tired.

[buglerbilly]

‘Green’ ammo shipped to Afghanistan

By Matthew Cox - Staff writer, Military Times

Posted : Wednesday Jun 23, 2010 16:33:43 EDT


Picatinny Arsenal
The new lead-free M855A1 Cartridge is being shipped to soldiers in Afghanistan

This summer soldiers will start fighting with a new, “green” bullet that Army ballistics officials are touting as “the best general purpose 5.56mm round ever.”

The Army has begun shipping the M855A1 Enhanced Performance Round to soldiers serving in Afghanistan, according to a June 23 press release from Picatinny Arsenal, N.J.

The announcement comes 11 months after the service had to halt the program when the M855A1 lead-free slug failed to perform under high temperatures.

The new M855A1 will replace the current Cold War-era M855 round, which was developed in the 1970s and approved as an official NATO round in 1980.

In recent years, troops have widely criticized it. They complain it is ineffective against barriers such as car windshields and often travels right through unarmored insurgents, with less than lethal effects.

The M855A1 has a “number of significant enhancements not found in the current round. These include improved hard-target capability, more dependable, consistent performance at all distances, improved accuracy, reduced muzzle flash and a higher velocity,” the press release stated.

“During testing, the M855A1 performed better than current 7.62mm ball ammunition against certain types of targets, blurring the performance differences that previously separated the two rounds.”

The Army has recently completed the Limited Rate Initial Production phase for the M855A1 and is beginning the follow-on full rate production phase in which they plan to procure more than 200 millions rounds over the next 12 to 15 months.

Unlike the current round, the M855A1 is designed for use in the M4 carbine, which has a 14.5-inch barrel compared to the M16’s 20-inch barrel.

The Enhanced Performance Round contains an environmentally friendly projectile that eliminates up to 2,000 tons of lead from the manufacturing process each year in direct support of Army commitment to environmental stewardship, the release states.

“Its fielding represents the most significant advancement in general purpose small caliber ammunition in decades,” Lt. Col. Jeffrey K. Woods, the program’s product manager, said in the release.

[Raven22]

Also interesting that Australia will be rolling out a US-compatible 5.56mm round with the EF88 in 2014. Called the F1A1 round, it will have the same propellent base as US ammunition allowing interoperability, although it will require modification to the gas system of the F88SA2 to allow it to be used by legacy weapons. One does ask the question why this wasn't done 20 years ago.

[Milne Bay]

Also interesting that Australia will be rolling out a US-compatible 5.56mm round with the EF88 in 2014. Called the F1A1 round, it will have the same propellent base as US ammunition allowing interoperability, although it will require modification to the gas system of the F88SA2 to allow it to be used by legacy weapons. One does ask the question why this wasn't done 20 years ago.
Probably because there were millions of rounds of cold war ammunition stocks to get through first.
MB

[Raven22]

If they modified the gas system to be able to use both the US-spec ammunition and Australian F1 ammunition from the start, there wouldn't be a need to modify the F88 now. Also, it would give SOCOMD one less reason to not use the F88.

[Gubler, A.]

One does ask the question why this wasn't done 20 years ago.

Defence of Australia! Because the ADF of 1990 was only going to be guarding the Tennant Creek Community Centre from the Outback Kong under the fictional strategic guidance adopted by the Government we needed SAA able to operate at very high ambient temperatures. So several million dollars later we had F1 ammunition with very low temperature coefficients able to shoot the bullet at peak velocity even in 51-80 degrees C. Of course the Australia soldier isn’t allowed outdoors to train when it gets so hot that more ‘volatile’ ammunition types would lose velocity…

[Deks]

I thought part of the interoperability problems was the physical size of the case being slightly different, which lead to cracked firing pins when firing SS109 through F88s?

In any case, this isn't going to get SOCOMD using F88's. US SOF are moving over to the SCAR, so if they're going to continue to push the interoperability angle to buy gucci gear I'd say they're more likely to end up in that direction.

Speaking of which though, saw some rumblings to do with a preference for SCAR-H over in Afghanistan generally. Be interesting to see how that pans out.

[Raven22]

From memory the difference between F1 and M855 ammunition is the type of propellent. F1 uses double base propellent and the M855 uses single base propellent, which leads to different chamber pressures etc. You can easily fire M855 in an F88 of course, it just has slightly reduced reliability.

I know that the change wasn't going to make SOCOMD use F88, it was just a tongue-in-cheek comment. SOCOMD must be different. As a commando said to me once, if the conventional army switched over to using M4s, SOCOMD would use F88s. Hell, SOCOMD got very upset just because they started issuing M4s to Tiger pilots and wanted to issue them to tankers, as apparently the M4 needs a much higher level of training to be able to be used effectively... the fact that every moronical 17 year old in the US Army finds a way to use them effectively somewhat escaped them.

[Doohan]

Raven is right about the propellant issue. As I understand it the old Defence Munitions plant at Mulwala (currently being upgraded) operated by ADI and now Thales, only produced Double Base propellant so when the F88 was introduced an indigenous “SS109” round was developed. This was seen as more cost effective than producing Single base and more “Strategic” than importing it.

The interesting by-product was that the round is thermally stable at both high and low temp. In the Middle East it holds a much more stable group that the M855 round, regardless of season.

You can definitely fire the M855 round through a F88 but reliability suffers and there is the chance of a “catastrophic” failure. We did a trial on it a few years ago and it was OK on Semi Auto but Full Auto was a big no-no. A mod to the gas piston was talked about so you could turn it round if you were using M855 Ammo but I forget where this got too.

[Gubler, A.]

Raven is right about the propellant issue. As I understand it the old Defence Munitions plant at Mulwala (currently being upgraded) operated by ADI and now Thales, only produced Double Base propellant so when the F88 was introduced an indigenous “SS109” round was developed. This was seen as more cost effective than producing Single base and more “Strategic” than importing it.

The interesting by-product was that the round is thermally stable at both high and low temp. In the Middle East it holds a much more stable group that the M855 round, regardless of season.

It’s the other way around. The F1 was designed for thermal stability at high temperature for operations in the north of Australia during high summer (Defence of Australia). The F1 was specified in the 1980s before ADI had even been formed and energetics production had not been rationalized at Mulwala. Back then Australia produced lots of single base propellant for older ammunition types. So this enabled the new Mulwala plant to focuse on double base which is why for some time there Australia did not produce non F1 SAA (7.62mm, 12.7mm). New rounds with the new propellant had to be developed.

But as Raven says there is no reason the F88 couldn’t have been modified with a F1/M855 variable gas piston plug. I’m sure it would have come up in a committee meeting sometime in the late 80s, early 90s and probably shoot down by the strategic guidance of home defence. Making sure the Army was unable to fight in any kind of international coalition was a core business of defence management during this time. Certainly no one quibbled at spending millions on petty customisation or other useless crap.

[Raven22]

Its actually pretty ironic that the new M855A1 round has now been designed for stability at higher temps for use in the Middle East, similar to the F1 round. Maybe we were just 20 years ahead of out time.

[buglerbilly]

Fire and Forget — The Lube, that is…

by christian on June 25, 2010



[EDITOR'S NOTE: I'm working on pretty big story right now that Kit Up! readers and Military.com members will freak about when they see it, so I've asked a guest blogger to pitch in while I'm burning up the phones.

Our guest "Sean" has a good eye for interesting gear, including accessories and kit and so I thought I'd throw his quick writeup of the Fail Zero bolt an carrier system which promises to radically reduce the need for constant lube and minimize fouling of gas systems like the M4 and M16.

Enjoy (and please be respectful to our guest)...]

There’s a product out there in the civilian marketplace that already is popular among Soldiers and has the ability to make a pretty good impact in the future.

Enter FailZero...........

http://www.failzero.com/index.php

FailZero is the brainchild of Florida-based UCT Coatings. They specialize in plating and advanced coatings for metals.

FailZero is their brand by which they market their EXO coating which the company says “eliminates the need for grease, oil or any other wet lubricants.”


Unlike films, conventional coatings and applied lubricants, it will never rub off, never flake off, never build up crud. EXO Technology eliminates wet-lubrication failures of critical components, giving you an “active weapon advantage” under all conditions.
Proven by DoD tests, SWAT teams, tactical experts.

The patented EXOTM Technology used in FAILZERO upgrades has been thoroughly tested and proven effective by UCT Defense – a division of UCT Coatings and developer of EXO Technology – and by the U.S. Department of Defense. Test results include:

* 50,000 lube-free rounds on AR-15s.
* 15,000 lube-free rounds on M9 pistols.
* 18,000 lube-free rounds on carbine rifles.
* 23,000 lube-free rounds on machine guns.

The company says its coating technology is already used in Army 81 and 60mm mortar systems, Black Hawk hoists and some Navy applications.

I have a FailZero BCG in my personal use AR-15 and I can tell you from Day 1, even just in the box, it is impressive. The coating is even and beautiful on every surface. It looks wet. You touch it and it feels slick, you expect your finger to come away with oil on it, but it’s completely dry.

I’ve shot 500-700 rounds lube free before chickening out and lubing it – works beautifully. It will just take a little time to adjust to the lack of lube. There are documented torture tests online and some of these guys in the field have run it in the thousands, problem free… with suppression…no lube.

There is no harm in running it with a little lube, doesn’t hurt, but I find its best to keep it very light lube, less sludge mess to clean up and still perfect function.

The EXO coating would be a valued upgrade to any firearm system. Some guys in the field have reported appreciating the lack of oil to trail on the water during wet insertions, and others in cold weather like the lack of liquid in the action, less chance of gumming up or freezing.

Read more: http://kitup.military.com/2010/06/fire-and-forget-the-lube-that-is.html#more-1158#ixzz0rv1SUyAc

[Deks]

Hell, SOCOMD got very upset just because they started issuing M4s to Tiger pilots and wanted to issue them to tankers, as apparently the M4 needs a much higher level of training to be able to be used effectively... the fact that every moronical 17 year old in the US Army finds a way to use them effectively somewhat escaped them.

Really? Doesn't surprise me in the slightest, is funny and sad at the same time though!

[Raven22]

There aren't may organisations out there that can beat the commandoes for acting like petulent children. Can kick in doors but.

[Gubler, A.]

There aren't may organisations out there that can beat the commandoes for acting like petulent children.

The best way to deal with adults acting as children is to up the ante...

For Ironside and Hawkeye personal defence:

[buglerbilly]

Corps takes a new look at green bullet

By Dan Lamothe and Matthew Cox - Staff writers, Marine Corp Times

Posted : Wednesday Jul 14, 2010 12:43:06 EDT


Lance Cpl. Santiago G. Colon Jr. / Marine Corps
A rifleman with Company K, Battalion Landing Team 3/8, 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, fires downrange with his M4A1 service rifle June 7 during a company live-fire exercise as part of Realistic Urban Training aboard Fort A.P. Hill, Va.

The Marine Corps intends to purchase 1.8 million rounds of the Army’s new green bullet in addition to the millions of U.S. Special Operations Command cartridges already downrange as the service looks to find the best replacement for its Cold War-era ammo.

The new environmentally friendly M855A1 Enhanced Performance Round is on the way to U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan, Army officials said, with about 1 million rounds arriving soon. The updated 5.56mm round is touted as more effective than old M855 ammunition and, in some cases, 7.62mm rounds currently in use.

The new M855A1 will be used by the Army to replace the Cold War-era M855 round, which was developed in the 1970s and approved as an official NATO round in 1980. In recent years, troops have widely criticized it, saying it is ineffective against barriers such as car windshields and often travels right through unarmored insurgents, with less-than-lethal effects.

The Army plans to buy about 200 million rounds of the new ammunition over the next 12 to 15 months, Army officials said late last month. The announcement came 11 months after the service had to halt the program when the M855A1 lead-free slug failed to perform under high temperatures.

The lead-free M855A1 is more dependable than the current M855 and delivers consistent performance at all distances, Army officials said. It performed better than the current-issue 7.62mm round against hardened steel targets in testing, penetrating æ-inch-thick steel at ranges approaching 400 meters, tripling the performance of the M855, Army officials said.

“For hardened steel, it is definitely better than the 7.62mm round,” said Chris Grassano, who runs the Army’s Project Manager Maneuver Ammunition Systems.

The Corps had planned to field the Army’s M855A1 until the program suffered a major setback in August 2009, when testing revealed that some of the bullets did not follow their trajectory or intended flight path. The bismuth-tin slug proved to be sensitive to heat, prompting Marine officials to choose the enhanced Special Operations Science and Technology round developed by U.S. Special Operations Command instead. Commonly known as SOST ammo, the bullet isn’t environmentally friendly, but it offered the Corps a better bullet after the Army’s M855A1 round failed. Marine infantrymen began using it in Afghanistan this spring.

The Army has replaced the bismuth-tin slug in its new round with a copper one, solving the bullet’s problems, Army officials said. More than 500,000 rounds have been fired in testing.

With the improvements to the lead-free round, the Corps is again considering it as a long-term replacement for the old M855 bullet, said Capt. Geraldine Carey, a spokeswoman for Marine Corps Systems Command, based at Quantico, Va. The Corps already has bought 4.5 million cartridges of SOST ammo as “interim enhanced capability,” but also will receive 1.8 million rounds of the new Army bullet in July, she said. A decision to field the new M855A1 bullet will be based on how well it does in additional testing. Either way, the Corps plans to continue replacing the older M855 round.

The SOST bullet weighs 62 grains and has a lead core with a solid copper shank. It is considered a variation of Federal Cartridge Co.’s Federal Trophy Bonded Bear Claw round, which was developed for big-game hunting and is touted in a company news release for its ability to crush bone. It uses an open-tip match round design common with sniper ammunition, provides Marines deadlier ammunition with more stopping power, and stays on target through windshields and car doors better than conventional M855 ammo.

The new Army round also weighs 62 grains and has a 19-grain steel penetrator tip, 9 grains heavier than the tip on old M855 ammo. Seated behind the penetrator is a solid copper slug.

Unlike the old M855 round, the M855A1 is designed for use in the M4 carbine, which has a 14.5-inch barrel, compared with the M16’s 20-inch barrel. The propellant has been tailored to reduce the muzzle flash of the M4, but it also works in the M16A4 and other rifles chambered for 5.56mm ammunition.

[buglerbilly]

Army Closer to Era of Lightweight Ammo

by christian on July 22, 2010



In an exclusive story to be posted on Military.com tomorrow morning, Kit Up! has learned that the Army is in the final stages of planning a major field test of a weapon designed to fire ammunition that weighs half of what current rounds do.

The so-called Lightweight Small Arms Technologies program run out of Picatinny Arsenal, N.J., has come a long way in the development of cased telescope ammunition that uses a plastic shroud to contain the propellant and 5.56 bullet instead of brass.

Readers will recognize this technology has been around since at least the late ’70s, but only now have real resources been brought to bear on the idea. The program, run out of the Joint Service Small Arms Program office, will field at least eight SAW-like machine guns to troops for an exercise in the summer of 2011 to see how the reduced weight and reliability helps the mission.

The experimental SAW with 600 rounds of cased telescope ammo weighs 23.8 lbs — the current one comes in at 38.3 lbs with ammo.

We’ll talk more about this tomorrow on Kit Up!, including a belt-fed battle rifle the engineers are thinking about putting together that weighs as much as an M4. But be sure to read tomorrow morning’s Military.com for the full story.

(thanks to the tipster who asked about the LSAT program a few weeks ago!)

Read more: http://kitup.military.com/#ixzz0uSUoL6Zb

[buglerbilly]

New Ammo Slashes Machine Gun Weight

July 23, 2010

Military.com|by Christian Lowe



Army Engineers at the Picatinny Arsenal, N.J.-based Joint Service Small Arms Program office have been working for the last six years on a radical approach to ammunition and weapons that has the potential to cut the weight Soldiers carry by nearly 50 percent.

Researchers are using so-called "cased telescoped" ammunition that does away with the propellant-holding brass shell and replaces it with a lightweight plastic case. So far the program, dubbed Lightweight Small Arms Technologies, has built three M-249 Squad Automatic Weapon-like machine guns and fired more than 10,000 of the lighter rounds with the same rate of fire and accuracy of a standard SAW.

"This delivers the same lethality as the systems you already have, but it's a lot more effective because it's much lighter," said Korene Phillips, lead engineer for the LSAT program, in an exclusive interview with Military.com.

Engineers have also built a prototype M-4 that fires the lighter rounds. The experimental M-4 weighs about the same as a standard M-4 but has a 40-round magazine that's slimmer than the current one and straight instead of curved. And since half the weight of a legacy bullet is due to the brass case, a Soldier's load of more than 200 rounds in combat will drop substantially, Phillips said.

Born of the Army's "Advanced Combat Rifle" search in the 1980s, cased telescoped ammo and the much more technically complicated "caseless" ammunition were relegated to the laboratory after the Army shifted its gaze toward greater lethality rather than weight reduction, Phillips said. But with the U.S. military involved in two combat zones and a renewed emphasis on shaving pounds off a trooper's load, the Army decided to take another look at the decades-old technology.

"What we were trying to do back then was decrease load and increase lethality," Phillips said. "And we liked to joke that that was breaking the laws of physics."

With millions of dollars in Army research investment, the JSSAP office says it will be ready to put weapons in warfighters' hands by next year. Phillips said eight new SAWs will be built by AAI Corporation. She also said that the office plans to run an exercise with an infantry squad equipped with the new lightweight machine gun and 100,000 rounds of cased telescoped ammo.

It's unclear what unit will get the experimental weapons for the test, which is slated for the summer of 2011, but the Army, Marine Corps and Special Operations Command are playing a key role in LSAT development, Phillips said.

"We're just trying to get a comparison of the squad as it is today with the M-249" and the experimental weapon, Phillips said. "Our plan is just to replace the M-249 in the squad with the [new] weapon and see where that gets you with improvements in your time to complete the mission and your ability to complete the mission."

The standard SAW gunner's load comes in at around 40 pounds, Army officials say, which includes the weapon itself and 600 rounds of ammo. The experimental machine gun with cased telescoped ammo load comes in at 24 pounds.

The new cased telescope-firing SAW looks almost the same on the outside as its M-249 counterpart but uses a rotating action and a novel feed system that fires a standard 5.56mm ball projectile and ejects the plastic case and link from its own port.

"One of the other things we've completely avoided in this system is the failure to feed and failure to eject," Phillips added. "In your SAW system, that's where you primarily have failures and malfunctions."

The M-4 variant of the cased telescope rifle has a so-called "rising chamber" action that's fed ammo from the rear -- what JSSAP engineers jokingly call a "fauxpup" after the so-called "bullpup" operating systems popular with European small arms. It looks similar to a standard M-4, but the operating system actually gives the experimental rifle an extra four inches of barrel length, Phillips said.

While the cased telescoped ammo is almost ready for prime time, the more exotic caseless rounds still need some work, Phillips explained. Testers are having problems keeping the rounds -- which are essentially hard, molded propellant with an embedded 5.56 mm bullet -- from degrading in high heat. They're also expensive, hard to make, and tough on the shooter.

"We haven't had any volunteers to shoulder fire it," Phillips joked, adding her office hasn't gotten the approval to take it to the range. Excessive smoke, inexact timing and other uncertainties have kept the weapon attached to a bench.

"Nobody's knocking on my door asking to shoot it," she added.

Despite the immaturity -- and danger -- of the caseless technology, the Marine Corps is spearheading the research into the ammo because of its advantages in weight and size.

"It's a significantly smaller round of ammunition," Phillips said. "So from a Marine perspective, that's a big deal because of the way they travel."

© Copyright 2010 Military.com. All rights reserved.

[Wolftrap]

Just one more prove of principle how far ahead of its time the G11 really was.

[Gubler, A.]

The three round salvo of the G11 was what was really ahead of the time. Apart from making the salvo fire possible caseless provided much better weight and voloumetric fors a similar projectile. But with the salvo a G11 with a non magnifing optic performed better in combat accuracy out to 300m in the US Army ACR trials than a M16 with an ACOG x4 sight.

[buglerbilly]

Army to use 'Dirty Harry' bullet against the Taliban

By Christopher Leake

Last updated at 11:58 PM on 14th August 2010

Sorry for the stupid Dirty Harry comment here but it comes from the UK Daily Mail who act like the worst of the trash newspapers at times................I'll see if I can dig up some more technical info on this..........

British troops are to be issued with a new 'super-bullet' to fight the Taliban as their current ammunition does not have the punch to kill the enemy at long range.

The high-performance round will be fired from standard-issue SA80 assault rifles. Nicknamed the 'Dirty Harry round' after the powerful bullets used by Clint Eastwood in the 1971 movie, it is expected to be on the front line in Afghanistan by 2011.

Its development by UK defence firms BAE Systems and QinetiQ follows Army concern in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, last year that the standard 5.56mm SA80 round was failing to hit its target at distances of more than 400 yards.


British troops are to be issued with a new 'super-bullet' to fight the Taliban as their current ammunition does not have the punch to kill the enemy at long range

The Taliban use more powerful rounds in Russian-designed AK-47 rifles to hit British forces at a range of 600 yards. Now the British troops' new round will even up the odds.

The AK that can consistently hit anything at 600 yards I'd have thought a rarity in any combat environment...........

The new bullet gives greater range and force against human targets and light vehicles. Because it is the same calibre as the standard bullet, the SA80 rifle will not need modification.

Military sources say initial trials have been successful. Pending formal approval, the MoD is expected to order up to one million rounds.
A senior Royal Marines officer just back from Afghanistan said the new bullet would be welcomed on the front line.

He said: 'It will give our infantry soldiers an edge which at present we are lacking.' An MoD spokeswoman said: 'We work closely with industry to ensure equipment is continuously improved.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1303207/Army-use-Dirty-Harry-bullet-Taliban.html#ixzz0wdTnhtQe

[buglerbilly]

The details are in post 1 of this thread............


The new technology replaces the traditional steel tip and lead core with a single steel core, while retaining the gilding metal envelope.

Work is currently being undertaken by BAE to produce the new round. A low-rate production batch of 1 million rounds is scheduled for delivery to the MoD around the end of the year.

The spokesman said that if development of the new 5.56mm round is successful, the company would consider undertaking similar work for its 7.62mm ammunition.

In the meantime, the new development closes the performance gap between the two calibers while retaining the benefits of the smaller, lighter 5.56mm weapon, he said.

[Raven22]

The AK that can consistently hit anything at 600 yards I'd have thought a rarity in any combat environment...........

That's doctrine for you.

Australian doctrine states that the AK-74 has an effective range of 800m and the Steyr/M16 an effective range of 300m, meaning Australian soldiers are horribly outgunned by the Musorians.

Everyone who has deployed to the MEAO and seen that this blatantly isn't true has a little chuckle over it, but it still gets taught and leads to a lot of misconceptions.

[Gubler, A.]

AK-74 fires a very different round to the AK-47/AKM. The 5.45x39mm vs the 7.62x39mm. In many ways the 5.45mm is what the 5.56mm should be but would not shoot a 500m advantage. The key difference between the 7.62x39 and the 5.56x45 is the former will rip a much bigger hole in you, especially at longer ranges when the 5.56mm won't fragment in the body.

I fail to see how an all steel bullet is going to be 'dirty harry' type effective over a steel core bullet. Unless it is a much heavier bullet like the US Mk 262.

[Gubler, A.]

The three round salvo of the G11 was what was really ahead of the time. Apart from making the salvo fire possible caseless provided much better weight and voloumetric fors a similar projectile. But with the salvo a G11 with a non magnifing optic performed better in combat accuracy out to 300m in the US Army ACR trials than a M16 with an ACOG x4 sight.

Here are some interesting documents on the G11 I've picked up from time to time.

[Doohan]

That's doctrine for you.

Australian doctrine states that the AK-74 has an effective range of 800m and the Steyr/M16 an effective range of 300m, meaning Australian soldiers are horribly outgunned by the Musorians.

Everyone who has deployed to the MEAO and seen that this blatantly isn't true has a little chuckle over it, but it still gets taught and leads to a lot of misconceptions.

If I remember my MAF Doctrine lesson we always quoted the "worst case". i.e. our Effective range and their max range.

[Raven22]

For what is worth my old battlebook states the max range of the AK-74 as 3150m. To every sane person that is obviously simply the maximum distance the round can possibly travel, but it didn't stop some DS quoting that when marking a TEWT.

[dan891]

Not to mention the foresight on an AK47 will pretty much obscure a Fig.11 target at 100m anyway...

[Raven22]

Who aims an AK-47?

[dan891]

Well I did try as I had one of the few with a stock on it, but then it was frightfully bad form ;-)

[Raven22]

I much prefer the gangsta-unsupported position.

[JimWH]

I did love the 'African Infantryman of the Year' competition...

[buglerbilly]

ATK Begins Full Rate Production of the U.S. Army’s New Enhanced Performance Round

EPR is Significant Breakthrough in 5.56mm Ammunition Performance

Minneapolis | ATK (NYSE: ATK) has received orders from the U.S. Army’s Program Manager for Maneuver Ammunition Systems (PM-MAS) for nearly 300 million rounds of the new M855A1 Enhanced Performance Round (EPR). The EPR is an enhanced version of the M855 5.56mm cartridge, used by U.S. troops since the early 1980s. ATK is producing the new cartridge at the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant in Independence, Mo. ATK produced the initial 20 million rounds of M855A1, which were delivered to the troops in Afghanistan earlier this year.

“This is a significant breakthrough in ammunition performance for America’s warfighters,” said Mark Hissong, ATK Small Caliber Systems Vice President and General Manager. “To ensure optimal performance, ATK and the Army put the EPR through the most rigorous and thorough test regime of any round we have ever produced. The result is the successful fielding of a high-performance round that is in theater today, and capable of providing superior firepower in any combat condition.”

ATK partnered with the Army to develop a flexible manufacturing plan to rapidly transition the EPR program into high-volume production. The new round offers a higher velocity for more energy on target, improved hard-target capability, and greater accuracy and consistency for effectiveness at long range. The round’s technological advancements, coupled with ATK’s innovative approach to ammunition engineering, have delivered what the Army calls “the most significant advancement in general purpose small caliber ammunition in decades.”

[buglerbilly]

More on this............

AUSA 10: Enhanced 5.56mm round in production for US Army

October 28, 2010

ATK has launched full rate production of the new 5.56mm M855A1 Enhanced Performance Round (EPR) following orders from the US Army's Program Manager for Maneuver Ammunition Systems (PM-MAS) for nearly 300 million rounds. The new round offers a higher velocity for more energy on target, improved hard-target capability, and greater accuracy and consistency for effectiveness at long range.

Lake City Army Ammunition Plant in Independence, Missouri, owned by the government and operated by ATK, produced an initial 20 million rounds which were delivered to troops in Afghanistan earlier this year.

The EPR is an improved version of the M855 cartridge which was adopted by the US Army in 1982 to replace the M193 round in an effort to achieve better performance at longer ranges with the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon. The barrel of the M16A2 assault rifle was developed to match the twist of the M249.

The army conducted a study of commercial and military bullets from 2003 to 2006 and concluded that none provided improved performance over the M855 against the target sets required of a general purpose round. However, some soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan reported that the round did not perform consistently. The army decided that developing a new round would also enable to address environmental concerns and replace the lead slug of the M855.

Like the M855 the EPR bullet consists of a jacket, a penetrator and a metal slug. The copper cup which forms the jacket is reverse-drawn unlike the M855. The EPR’s hardened steel penetrator is almost twice as heavy as the M855’s penetrator and is fully exposed instead of being sheathed in the cover jacket. The M855’s lead slug is replaced with a copper slug. Based on current M855 production the transition to a copper slug will reduce the amount of lead produced annually by about 2,000 metric tons.

According to Lt Col Jeffrey Woods, Product Manager for Small-Caliber Ammunition in the office of PM-MAS, the M855A1 excels in three main areas: soft target consistency, hard target penetration, and the extended range at which it maintains these performance improvements. Although not a purpose-designed armoured piercing round the M855A1 can penetrate 3/8 inch thick mild steel at a range of almost 400 m compared to the approximately 160 m at which the M855 can penetrate the same target. While the M855 cannot penetrate concrete masonry the EPR can penetrate this material at almost 80 m when fired from an M16 and 40 m when fired from a shorter barrelled M4 carbine.

According to Woods the ‘M855A1 represents the most significant performance leap in small arms ammunition in decades’.

By Ian Kemp, Washington, DC

[buglerbilly]

From the SHOT Show 2011 via the Firearm Blog.................

PCP polymer cased ammunition

PCP Ammunition will be selling a line of polymer cased ammunition in early 2011. They claim to have fixed the issues that have plagued polymer ammo in the past (case head separation, melting in the chamber). They are offering it in 5.56 NATO, 6.8 SPC, 7.62mm NATO, .338 Lapua Magnum and .50 BMG.


© Gregory Markle


© Gregory Markle

[buglerbilly]

Army Develops ‘Mood Ring’ to Spot Weary Ammo

by christian on March 9, 2011



Strange but true.

Picatinny Arsenal announced yesterday it had developed special “thermochromic” paints that could indicate the wear and tear on ammo so Soldiers would know if the rounds are safe for use.

Referred to as Thermal Indicating Paints, this formula uses thermochromic polymers to detect temperature ranges that ammunition was exposed to during transport or storage.

A common example of a thermochromic object is a mood ring, which changes color in response to the body temperature of the wearer. The thermochromic element changes the wavelength of light when it is exposed to different temperatures.

We all know that in both Iraq and Afghanistan, temperatures can run from bone-chilling frigidity to seering heat in a matter of hours. That throws ammo stores in Conex boxes or hooches into an unstable situation.

When propelling charges are exposed to high temperatures for extended periods, it can rapidly deplete the propellant stabilizer, which creates a potential for auto-ignition. Additionally, if the overheated propellant is fired, it can lead to dangerous, elevated gun pressures that cause weapon failure and put the Soldier at risk of injury.

Picatinny says there have been cases of rounds going off improperly because of the degraded chemistry.

The service is going to start with coating 30mm ammo, since “they aren’t expensive enough rounds to deem the use of a costly temperature gauge or monitor. The savings are bigger because it’s low value, high volume assets.” The coatings could show up on ammo within a year, Picatinny says.

Read more: http://kitup.military.com/#ixzz1GFCarpSt

[buglerbilly]

Palm38 Tri‐Plex Multi-Projectile .38 Special Cartridge

Constitution Arms, the firm behind the Palm Pistol, has developed an interesting multi-projectile .38 Special cartridge called the Palm38 Tri‐Plex.



Curious concept, ones that have been tried before have not been particularly successful.....................the max effective range is bloody short!

Three lead bullets, totaling 158 grain, are stacked on top of each other and backed by a copper gas check. The load has been designed to have ultra-low recoil and has a velocity of 658‐678 ft/sec depending on the model of revolver it has been fired from. The maximum range of the round is 10 feet.



The idea behind this round is to increase the frontal surface area of the wound channels, at the expense of penetration.

The concept is similar to the Winchester PDX1 Self Defense .410 Shotshell round that was designed for use in the Taurus Judge line of .410 revolvers. Winchester loads the PDX1 with three copper discs backed by shot pellets.


Winchester PDX1 Self Defense Shotshell ammo

If you are interested in the rounds specifications and testing results you should take a look at this PDF document from Constitution Arms.

The round will go on sale next month. If the Taurus Judge has taught us anything, it is that there is a market for interesting self-defense ammunition. I expect it to sell well.

[buglerbilly]

ATK Awarded $49 Million Special Operations Ammunition Contract

(Source: ATK Alliant Techsystems; issued March 23, 2011)

MINNEAPOLIS --- Alliant Techsystems announced today that it has received a $49 million contract from the U.S. Navy to produce a new special operations ammunition round with improved accuracy, stronger barrier penetration, and a lower muzzle-flash. ATK Security and Sporting developed the round in partnership with the Naval Surface Warfare Center - Crane Division under the Special Operations Science and Technology (SOST) ammunition program.

The SOST ammunition will be manufactured in 5.56x45mm and 7.62x51mm calibers, and is short-barrel optimized. It is designed for use with the MK16 and MK17 Special Operations Combat Assault Rifle Weapon System. Production will be performed at ATK's Federal Premium Ammunition plant in Anoka, MN. Deliveries are expected to be completed in 2015.

"ATK is the clear leader in developing new ammunition technologies for commercial use," said Ron Johnson, President of ATK's Security and Sporting group. "We are now applying our research and development capability to satisfy the needs of our special operation forces."

The new SOST 5.56mm and 7.62mm ammunition adds to ATK's portfolio of specialized ammunition, including long-range products for both law enforcement and military applications.

ATK is an aerospace, defense, and commercial products company with operations in 24 states, Puerto Rico, and internationally, and revenues of approximately $4.8 billion.

-ends-

[buglerbilly]

New Army Ammo Puts Mean in ‘Green’

May 05, 2011

Military.com|by Christian Lowe



ABERDEEN, Md. --- Tell a Soldier he's loading "environmentally friendly" ammo into his M4 mag and he might be skeptical about whether it's as effective as its lead counterpart.

But Army officials here say the new M855A1 Enhanced Performance Round -- with its steel core instead of a toxic lead slug -- is far more effective than the current round, doubling the effective range and for the first time giving M4-wielding Joes the ability to penetrate barriers once reserved for higher-caliber rounds.

Read more about the Army's new M855A1 ammo in Kit Up!

http://kitup.military.com/2011/05/data-dump-army-black-tip-ammo.html

"There's a stigma among Soldiers about something that's 'green,' " said Lt. Col. Jeff Woods, the Army's small caliber ammunition product manager. "This is a clear case where making something environmentally friendly works for us."

Leveraging the science of 120mm tank rounds, Army engineers at Picatinny Arsenal, N.J. designed a 5.56mm rifle cartridge that incorporates a jacketed copper slug pushing a sharpened steel "penetrator." Testers showed during a May 4 demonstration here that the round can punch through quarter-inch steel armor out to 300 yards with ease.

"You normally wouldn't even think of a guy with a 5.56 going against a target with this kind of armor," said the Army Research Lab's Jim Newill, who lead the team that developed the M855A1 round. "Now we've more than doubled the ability to perforate [armored] targets."

Originally the effort to field a lead-free small caliber round stemmed from Clinton-era edicts to clean up military firing ranges seeping toxic lead residue into area ground and water. After frustrating attempts to develop alternatives with expensive materials such as tungsten and bismuth, the Army found steel and copper did a better job at a lower price.

In 2007, responding to reports from the field that current rounds weren't deadly enough, the Army jump-started efforts to make a more lethal round that was also environmentally friendly. In less than two years, the steel-tipped M855A1 design was shown to be more effective against a wider range of targets than the decades-old M855 round -- or even than the Army's 7.62 round, officials here said.

Citing security concerns, engineers were cagey about describing how the new round works when it hits a human body. But Woods said it has "more consistent" effects on soft targets than the current round, or even the 7.62mm bullet.

"I can't say that it's more lethal than the M855. That depends on how the round hits a target," Woods said, emphasizing that accuracy is paramount. "But what I can say is that you'll see the same effects every time with this round. And we can confirm that it is superior to the [M80] 7.62 on soft targets."

About 30 million of the new EPR rounds have been fielded to Soldiers in Afghanistan. The service plans to replace all their lead-cored bullets with the new M855A1 "black tip" rounds by the end of this year, though older "green tip" rounds will likely remain in the inventory for a while, officials said.

The Army also plans to field a 7.62 version of the "black tip" ammo for M240 machineguns and M110 rifles by the end of 2012.

"There's nothing out there right now that can perform like this [M855A1] round on this wide a range of targets," Woods said.

© Copyright 2011 Military.com. All rights reserved.

[buglerbilly]

'Green bullet' as effective as M855 round -- consistently

07:33 GMT, May 10, 2011

ABERDEEN, Md. | Since June, the Army has fielded about 30 million of its new 5.56mm M855A1 "Enhanced Performance Rounds" in Afghanistan.

The cartridge, sometimes called the "green bullet" because it has an environmentally-friendly copper core instead of the traditional lead, has been getting mostly good reviews in the 11 months since it first deployed to Operation Enduring Freedom.

"The vast majority of everything we've got back from the field is positive," said Lt. Col. Jeffrey K. Woods, product manager, small caliber ammunition, during a "media day" at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md.

During the day-long event, reporters learned the benefits of the new cartridge, witnessed a demonstration of the round, compared to the round it is designed to replace, and had the opportunity to fire the round from both an M16 and M4 rifle.

Perhaps the biggest plus of the M855A1 "enhanced performance round" is the consistency it brings to the fight -- more so than the 5.56mm M822 round it is designed to replace.

Woods and other officials were reticent to talk specifically about the effects of the new bullet, or any bullet, on a "soft target" -- a euphemism for enemy personnel. But what they made clear was the M855A1 is at least equal to the M855 on a soft target -- but that it did damage with more consistency.

The M855 is a good round, Woods said, but it is "yaw dependant." Like all bullets, it wobbles when it travels along its trajectory. Its effectiveness depends on its yaw angle when it hits a target. Not so with the M855A1. The new Enhanced Performance Round, or EPR, is not yaw-dependant -- it delivers the same effectiveness in a soft target no matter its yaw angle.

"On M855's best day, with that great performance that you will see, you're going to see that type of performance out of the EPR -- but you will see it every time," Woods said.

The EPR cartridge is the same length as the M855 that it's designed to replace, though the bullet it contains is about 1/8 of an inch longer. The weight and shape of the EPR is also the same as the M855, so it fits anything an M855 fits -- including the M16 and the M4 it was designed for.

The bullet itself has been redesigned completely. It features a larger steel "penetrator" on its tip, that is both sharper than what is on the M855 and is also exposed. Both bullets feature a copper jacket, but the EPR's jacket is "reverse drawn" -- part of its manufacturing. Perhaps the most notable feature of the EPR is that its bullet features a copper core, verses the M855's lead core.

There's also a new propellant in the EPR, designed to enhance its performance in the M4 Carbine rifle -- what most Soldiers are carrying today in Afghanistan.

The M4 has a shorter barrel than the M16 rifle, and barrel length is directly related to a bullet's velocity.

"The M855 leaving an M16 had a higher muzzle velocity than when it left the M4," Woods said. "Because the M16 is the longer barrel, you get the full burn of the powder, pushing a bullet to its maximum velocity before it left the barrel."

On an M4, however, the M855 bullet might leave the barrel before its powder is completely burned -- that means the bullet isn't getting the full benefit of all the powder contained in its shell and an increased muzzle flash.

"A longer-burning propellant is still burning when the round is leaving the barrel and you are going to get a brighter flash, which is obviously not good for Soldiers," Woods said.

Both of those issues have been addressed with the M855A1.

The SMP-842 propellant in the EPR burns quicker, ensuring less muzzle flash in the M4, and also meaning improved muzzle velocity.

The performance of the EPR against soft targets is the same as that of the M855 -- but it is more consistent. The new round is also "superior to 7.62mm M80 against soft targets," Woods said. But at the same time the new "green round" is more Earth-friendly than both the M855 and the M80 -- it is also more effective than either of them against hard targets.

A test fire an Aberdeen Proving Ground range pitted the M855A1 round against the M855 and the M80 in multiple weapons -- the two 5.56mm rounds were fired in both the M4 and the M16, and the 7.62 M80 round was fired in an M14 Enhanced Battle Rifle. All three rounds are use today.

In all test firings against a sheet of 3/8-inch mild steel plate at 300 meters, the M855A1 came out on top.

Test center video also showed the EPR to be equally superior against concrete masonry units -- similar to cinder block. The M855A1 was able to penetrate such a block up to about 75 meters with the M16, and up to about 50 meters with the M4. The M855 was unable to penetrate the blocks at those ranges.

Wood said Soldiers have been told to turn in M855 cartridges and switch now to EPR. In February, he said, was the first time there's been more expenditure in theater with the EPR than with the M855.

The round is effective, Woods said, and testing at Aberdeen has shown that to be true -- against realistic testing targets. But the round can't be effective against enemy combatants unless Soldiers use it in their weapons -- and they need to trust that it works before they will want to use it.

Staff Sgt. Jason Hopkins, of the Maneuvers Center of Excellence, Fort Benning, Ga., has served four years in Afghanistan and two years in Iraq. He's seen combat, and confirms that while there he's used his weapon against "soft targets." He was one of the Soldiers at Aberdeen who test fired the new round -- and says he's convinced.

"We were a little skeptical -- like any change in the military, a little skeptical," Hopkins said of the EPR. "But coming up here and shooting it and seeing the performance of it -- I'm sold on it. The trajectory and the ballistics are just as good as the M855 and the penetration is far superior to the M855."

"It looks like just a more consistent round," he continued. "With the M855 you may not always get the same thing -- but everything we've seen with this EPR has been dead consistent every time."

As far as the new round's accuracy, Hopkins said, "It's on par if not better."

Woods said testing shows the EPR does produce a tighter shot group -- by about 2 inches at 600 meters.

As far as "stopping power" of the new round, Hopkins clarified what that term means to him -- and confirmed his faith that the round would do its job when he might be required to use it.

"Stopping power is incapacitation of a target so he cannot engage me or continue his mission," Hopkins said. "I haven't used the EPR in that situation yet, but I've used the M855. It's been effective. It's an effective round. But I truly believe the M855A1 will be more consistent."

Pvt. 1st Class Scott Lafferty, 1st Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division, has served once in Iraq. He was also a tester at Aberdeen. When he talks to other Soldiers about the effectiveness of the round, he said he's going to tell them what he learned during his test experience.

"I'm going to tell them how we've shot both different kinds of rounds and how the M855A1 is superior and they can test for themselves and find out," Lafferty said. He said that a weapon's effectiveness is largely dependent on a Soldier's training, but added, "I am confident the bullet will do what I've seen here today, and yesterday."

----
C. Todd Lopez, Army News Service

[buglerbilly]

Crane Using Lightweight .50 Cal Ammo

by Christian on September 13, 2011



Special guest “18D” sent us this post on polymer cased 50cal ammo being tested at Crane. Stay tuned for more from 18D in the coming months…

Naval Surface Warfare Center- Crane, has been quietly testing polymer cased ammo for the .50 BMG. The best part about this new ammo? It works in conventional weapons systems. This means that our troops can benefit from the lightweight of polymer cases right now, instead of 10 years from now.

It is almost identical to the standard M33 ball round, however with a significant weight reduction. It features a clear polymer case, with a standard brass head fused at the bottom. The polymer cased ammo comes from an aerospace company called Mac LLC., who started a special division specifically to deal with “lightweight polymer solutions for the lightening of components”.

The new ammunition is being tested primarily in heavy machine guns, and has been performing very well.

The most exciting thing about this new technology is that it has already been type classified as the MK 323 MOD 0. This tells me that the new ammo has already proven itself and is here to stay. However it is unclear when or if the MK323 will be fielded in large quantities to the warfighter overseas or used for training.

Either way, the MK 323 MOD 0 will give the troops on the ground a significant weight reduction as opposed to standard brass casings. This will allow the warfighter to carry up to 40% more ammunition.

– 18D

Read more: http://kitup.military.com/#ixzz1Xsw3AWm7
Kit Up!

[buglerbilly]

Via Soldier Systems blog............

PCP Polymer Cased Rifle Ammunition

Last week I blogged about the Extreme Polymer Research’s polymer handgun cartridges. A US company called PCP Ammunition is trying to make mostly polymer rifle cartridges. Unlike Extreme Polymer Research’s handgun cartridges, these have a steel or brass base.


PCP Polymer Cased .50 BMG Round

The company had some cartridges on display at SHOW Show earlier this year. According to their website they will be offering polymer cased 5.56mm NATO, 6.8mm SPC, 7.62mm NATO, .338 Lapua Magnum and .50 BMG. They will sell direct to the public but their online store still has a "coming soon" sign posted on it.

There has been many attempts at polymer cased rifle cartridges. The primary problem with them is heat dissipation. Brass or steel cartridges absorb heat from the chamber before being flung out of the gun, keeping the chamber cool. Plastic on the other hand is a poor conductor of heat and will melt at a much lower temperature than metal such as brass and steel. Past attempts at polymer cased rifle ammunition has had users complaining of melted polymer residue gumming up the chamber and causing extraction problems.

[ Many thanks to George for the photo & Julio for the info ]

[buglerbilly]

How about a lighter round for your .50 cal?

Posted by Gina Cavallaro | September 28th, 2011 | Uncategorized


MAC Ammunition's lighter .50 cal bullet prototype. (Gina Cavallaro/staff)

The round in a Marine’s .50 caliber machine gun weighs about 114 grams. MAC Ammunition out of Bay St. Louis, Miss., has produced a round that weighs about 92 grams.

It’s 25 percent lighter because instead of a full brass casing, and it’s made partly with a polymer caselet (which you can see in the photo just below the link on each round).

It’s designed to work just like the round Marines use now.

“There’s no new training,” said Clint Smith, a retired Marine officer and executive consultant for MAC. “When the Marine picks up a can of ammo, it’s lighter and the operation of the machine gun is the same.”

The commandant has said he wants to lighten the Marine’s load. This round is being tested now at Marine Corps Systems Command.

Stay tuned…

[buglerbilly]

Via the Firearm blog...............

6.5mm Grendel now SAAMI cartridge. AK rifles chambered in 6.5mm coming soon.

I was very pleased to hear the news that the 6.5mm Grendel has been accepted by SAAMI and that Alexander Arms has agreed to released their trademark on the name "6.5mm Grendel". Hornady submitted the cartridge to SAAMI last year but the application was rejected because Alexander Arms refused to relinquish the trademark. Now anyone can manufacture 6.5mm Grendel guns and ammunition without paying royalties to Alexander Arms.



The 6.5mm Grendel was developed Arne Brennan but the name was later trademarked by Bill Alexander of Alexander Arms. The trademark was controversial and has led a few companies to produce almost-the-same-but-not-quite cartridges such as the .264 LBC-AR. The royalties demanded by Alexander Arms put many companies off from producing guns chambered in it. Now that it is free, I expect the Grendel will now make great gains in popularity.

Also announced is that Wolf will be producing steel cased 6.5mm Grendel ammunition and is in talk with Izhmash and Molot to produce 6.5mm Grendel chambered Vepr and Saiga rifles. The 6.5mm Grendel uses the same case head dimensions as its ancestor the 7.62x39mm, so it should be easy to chamber an Ak-47-derivative in it.

[ Many thanks to Matt for emailing in the tip. ]

[buglerbilly]

Via the Firearm blog..............

New Hornady 300 Whisper / .300 BLK AAC



In 2012 Hornady will be selling a line of .300 Whisper (compatible with .300 BLK AAC) ammunition. The subsonic load is a 208 gr A-MAX bullet that will achieve 1020 fps (480 ft/lbs, about the equivalent of a 9mm Luger+P load) at the muzzle of a 16" barreled carbine. The supersonic load is a 110 gr V-MAX that achieves 2375 fps (1377 ft/lbs, about the same as a 5.56mm 62 gr SS109 load) at the muzzle. The ballistic gel comparison (below) of the two loads is interesting ...



Both loads have a MSRP of $33 / 20 round box.

[buglerbilly]

Via the Firearm blog..................

Bullet + Compensator = CompBullet

The CompBullet is an interesting bullet made by an Italian company. The bullets, made from a solid copper alloy, have vents machined into them. According to the company, these vents reduce friction by allowing gas to lubricate the bullet as it passes through the barrel and then act as a muzzle brake as the bullet exits the barrel. They apparently also reduce smoke, increase velocity (a rocket effect as they leave the barrel) and reduce muzzle flash. In other words, they are miracle bullets.



The use of gas to lubricate firearms is not new. Many automatic firearms have fluted chambers to vent gas through the chamber and around the brass case to lubricate it during extraction. This could work for bullets as well, but would it help enough to make significant improvement in ballistics in a pistol length firearm?

As for the muzzle brake and "rocket" effect claim, the physics is beyond me. I cannot work out how gas venting out of the bullet for a brief moment in time would have any effect on recoil. Surely because the bullet is not fixed to the gun any muzzle brake effect would slow down the bullet not the recoil of the gun?

As for the claim that it reduces muzzle flash and smoke, again I don't understand how it would make any difference. The company has photos on their website purporting to show decreased flash and smoke using the CompBullet compared to regular FMJ bullets. A single photo is meaningless, an ultra-highspeed video would be needed to make an accurate comparison.

That said, I would still like to try using one of these bullets. The company makes them in a variety of calibers and weights for pistols and .30 125gr rifle bullets.

[buglerbilly]

PNW ARMS 300BLK Match 155gr HPBT

By: Stickman

23-12-2011

Product Announcement


Honey Badger .300 BLK PDW.



I’m a big believer that the 300BLK round is here to stay. While I don’t think of it as replacing 5.56, I do think it offers a lot and is a good option, especially for guys (and teams) who are already invested in the M4/ AR15 platform. The ability to use all components off an M4/ AR15 except the barrel is huge in my eyes. With that being said, the biggest complaint I hear over and over again is regarding ammunition. No one wants to be the person who is sitting around with a weapon they can’t find ammo for. In that same mindset, no one wants to worry about gun show reject ammo that is going to blow their weapon either. Reliable ammunition at a decent price will make this round a long term performer.



PNW Arms has a four different 300BLK loads available, including 147 Grain FMJBT (range round), 155 Grain BTHP (match), 220 Grain HPBT (subsonic), and 125 Grain Ballistic Tip (hunting). What Gear Scout is getting ready to test is 2000 rounds of the 155 grain BTHP match ammo. Testing will be semi, full auto, with and without a can, and we’ll see what it does for accuracy as well. First and foremost, we’ll see how reliable the ammo feeds in a variety of weapons. Interested? I know I am. We’ll let you know how the PNW Arms 300BLK 155grain HPBT does once we are done, and we’ll give an overview on the weapons we used as well. This is one of those reviews I’m looking forward to.