Army chooses composite case ammo for testing

[DamonL]

Will composite cased ammo be the wave of the future?

https://www.truevelocityinc.com

http://soldiersystems.net/2019/09/06/us-army-selects-true-velocity-composite-cased-ammunition-next-generation-squad-weapon/

[BBMW]

It would be better if they could get caseless to work. Eliminate the whole extraction / ejection process.

[Hambo]

The website has a link for interested investors, which makes me say hmmm about how much of it they can produce.

I'm sure they can make this ammo shoot well. My question is how well it holds up when there is a malfunction and clearance.

[DamonL]

I think caseless was one of the other ammo selected for testing.

[DocGKR]

Nope. Just advertising hype. This is one of THREE different ammo types selected for further testing for the flawed NGSW program...

[olstyn]

It would be better if they could get caseless to work. Eliminate the whole extraction / ejection process.

My understanding is that dissipating heat has always been the major issue there. As long as we're using combustible propellant, that's likely to remain a difficult problem to solve, since the chamber needs to be sealed in order for the gas to push the bullet out. Nowhere for the heat to go but into the surrounding metal, whereas with a case, a significant portion of the heat stays with the brass and is physically ejected when the weapon cycles.

[TiroFijo]

It would be better if they could get caseless to work. Eliminate the whole extraction / ejection process.

Everyone and his cousin tried to make it work... it didn't. Dead end technology.

[TiroFijo]

The composite cases have been around for a long time now... still with no success. The allure of having your cake and eat it (larger, more powerful round than the 5.56 with the same weight) is strong, but the cases can be subjected to a lot of abuse in .mil use.

Also, the logic behind adopting a powerful round for general use escapes me. Physics dictate that launching a heavier bullet at higher velocity (with a heavier powder charge) will increase recoil impulse, and there is only so much you can do about it.

I wonder if this program will end up where all the previous did... nowhere.

[DamonL]

I think caseless was one of the other ammo selected for testing.

My mistake. Telescoping ammo is one of the other types of ammo selected for testing.

[Caballoflaco]

Nope. Just advertising hype. This is one of THREE different ammo types selected for further testing for the flawed NGSW program...

But, .280 Ross was so much overmatch in WWI that the Germans just surrendered. And the battle rifle overmatch of the 1950’s-70’s basically won the Cold War. It should be self evident what we need now is a rifle in a .270 wsm equivalent, equipped with 20rd magazines for the 21st century.

[Jeep]

Nope. Just advertising hype. This is one of THREE different ammo types selected for further testing for the flawed NGSW program...

Doc, you're talking as if we have a $1 trillion per year deficit going and need to impose realistic, and cost-sensitive, goals when selecting new weapons. Big Army doesn't play that way. Big Army believes in magic and thus thinks that by spending a bit more money and waiving a magic wand, the laws of physics can be effortlessly repealed.

[Shumba]

Doc, you're talking as if we have a $1 trillion per year deficit going and need to impose realistic, and cost-sensitive, goals when selecting new weapons. Big Army doesn't play that way. Big Army believes in magic and thus thinks that by spending a bit more money and waiving a magic wand, the laws of physics can be effortlessly repealed.

Yep, but it looks GREAT on a PowerPoint presentation 😬 “sarcasm”
Shumba

[Jeep]

Yep, but it looks GREAT on a PowerPoint presentation 😬 “sarcasm”
Shumba

Well that is a good point: "Embracing the 21st Century: Increasing warfighter lethality by leveraging new cutting-edge technological innovations and discoveries that allow the 2025 Advanced Weapons System to no longer be bound by the archaic limits of Newtonian Physics," would be a totally awesome title for a 200 slide Power Point presentation on the subject.

The old Robert McNamara Pentagon would have loved Power Point because it would have expressed so well who they were. They did Advanced Weapons Systems too. Like the M-551 Sheridan Airborne Assault/Armored Reconnaissance Vehicle. It wasn't going to be confined by mere physics either. It was going to be air-droppable by advanced parachute systems even though it weighed around 15 tons.

The good news for the McNamara-ites was that it indeed proved to be air-droppable.

The bad news is that you could only do it once and then had to pick up the pieces.

So they moved on to figuring out how best to micro-manage a war by computerized data, and lucky enough for them Vietnam came along!

And anyway somewhat later someone figured out how to allow the M-551 to deploy on what was called a LAPES (Low Altitude Parachute Extraction System--you have to love the acronyms) drop. Which sometimes even worked!

After all who needs the laws of physics when you have Power Point!

[Shumba]

I never understood why anyone would throw people or vehicles out of functioning aircraft.
At least in a CH46 we had chance of arriving undamaged.
Shumba