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From: gwh%earthquake.Berkeley.EDU@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (George William Herbert)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Caseless ammo
Message-ID: <10312@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 18 Oct 89 02:48:48 GMT
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From: gwh%earthquake.Berkeley.EDU@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (George William Herbert)
In article <10262@cbnews.ATT.COM> wdstarr@athena.mit.edu (William December Starr) writes:
>I've heard various hints and indications that there exists something
>referred to as "caseless" ammo or rounds.  Does anyone know anything
>about the general specifications of the stuff? (Assuming, of course,
>that the rumours that I've been hearing, which sprouted out of a
>discussion of the movie "Aliens," have any substance.)

	Yup.  It's quite real.
	The propellant is a solid based on RDX high-explosive.  There
have been development projects going on since mid-1960's in this.
	Ther German Army (West) is about to (any year now...) deploy
as its standard weapon the G-11 rifle, using a caseles 4.9mm round.  It
has been delayed by propellant stability problems.
	The material is RDX with lots of stabilizers.  Formed (in G-11
ammo) into 9mm square by ~50mm long blocks with the bullet surrounded
by propellant in the round's front.


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George William Herbert  UCB Naval Architecture Dpt. (my god, even on schedule!)
maniac@garnet.berkeley.edu  gwh@ocf.berkeley.edu
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