Posted: 6/9/2005 9:40:43 AM EDT
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The company I work for has a program called LGMA (Lightweight Machine Gun and Ammunition). The goal is to field a weapon similar to the M249 SAW, but reduce the weight of the weapon by 35% and the weight of the ammo by 40%. The ammo uses the 5.56mm bullet, but the projectile is completely encased in the cartridge. The cartridge is a straight cylinder, rather than being tapered like a brass-cased round. This simplifies the feeding system. Two types of ammo are being tested, one with a plastic case, and the other caseless. Firing rate will be between 600 and 1,000 rounds per minute. Prototypes are being developed with a demonstration of the system in late 2007. A Google search shows that we are competing against General Dynamics in this program. www.aaicorp.com www.defense-aerospace.com/cgi-bin/client/modele.pl?prod=39970&session=dae.14459219.1118338663.Qqh@Z8Oa9dUAAGWlJc0&modele=jdc_1 Unfortunately, there is not the proverbial snowball’s chance that I will be asked to help test this. 
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VERY Interesting. Do you know what this cases outside dimensions are? And does the projectile feed directly into the bore or does it use a sabot. |
