Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!att!cbnews!military From: bowersr@urubu.cs.orst.edu (Robert Mark Bowers) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: Re: depleted uranium ammunition Message-ID: <15377@cbnews.ATT.COM> Date: 10 Apr 90 02:01:00 GMT Sender: military@cbnews.ATT.COM Organization: Oregon State Univ. - CS - Corvallis, OR Lines: 29 Approved: military@att.att.com From: bowersr@urubu.cs.orst.edu (Robert Mark Bowers) In the discussion of the DU rounds, the Navy's Close-In Weapon System has somehow escaped mention. The CIWS uses the M61A1 gun, a six-barreled 20mm Gatling gun. Of course, its targets are typically less heavily armored than the targets previously alluded to in the discussion, but the streamlined shape of missiles and aircraft makes penetration pesky, hence the use of DU. Besides increasing bullet mass, the hardness of DU recommends it as bullet material. The earlier reference to "kinetic energy" is not quite sound. The kinetic energy of any projectile shot from a gun is determined more by the amount of powder used (and its burning characteristics) than by the mass of the bullet: Given identical powder charges, identical guns, and two projectiles of identical shape and size, the kinetic energy imparted will be identical. Note that the mass of the projectile doesn't affect the kinetic energy; if one of the projectiles was heavier than the other, it would have a lower muzzle velocity, in keeping with the one-half mv squared formula from elementary physics. I've already referred to DU's hardness, but I'm surprised nobody's mentioned it before: What good is a soft penetrator? That DU rounds can pass all thess way through a tank is due as much to DU's hardness as to its density. =============================================================================== Bob Bowers | "Time is Nature's way of keeping everything from bowersr@urubu.CS.ORST.EDU | happening at once." --Unknown -------------------------------------------------------------------------------