Cased Telescoped Ammunition A Technical and Historical Overview |
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| Author:
| Jenzen-Jones, N. R.
Fitch, Nathaniel |
| Editor:
| Jenzen-Jones, N. R. |
| ISBN: | 978-0-6485267-1-1 |
| Publication Date: | Dec 2019 |
| Publisher: | Armament Research Services Pty. Limited
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| Book Format: | Ebook |
| List Price: | Contact Supplier contact
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Book Description:
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The age of the all-metal-cased small arms cartridge is coming to a close. Refinements in materials technology and ammunition design have opened the way for new ammunition construction techniques utilising lightweight and inexpensive polymers in place of traditional brass or steel. Conventionally configured cartridges are far from optimal in terms of overall length, weight, and volume. Cased telescoped (CT) ammunition offers the potential for significant reduction in all of these areas...
More DescriptionThe age of the all-metal-cased small arms cartridge is coming to a close. Refinements in materials technology and ammunition design have opened the way for new ammunition construction techniques utilising lightweight and inexpensive polymers in place of traditional brass or steel. Conventionally configured cartridges are far from optimal in terms of overall length, weight, and volume. Cased telescoped (CT) ammunition offers the potential for significant reduction in all of these areas and has the potential to significantly benefit the front-line soldier and rear-line logistician alike.There are substantial logistic, programmatic, and economic implications to the military adoption of any new widely-issued calibre. These would be magnified substantially by the adoption of a cartridge in a CT or other novel configuration. Such a step would require overcoming institutional inertia within the military acquisitions, logistics, and operational apparatuses. ? The costs of adopting new ammunition standards are invariably high, both in terms of dollars and risk. This is perhaps truest when such developments would necessitate a new, non-interchangeable cartridge and/or weapon to be introduced. For these reasons, new military service rifle calibres are very rarely adopted-in most western nations, this only happens once every 50 years or so. However, the introduction of cased telescoped ammunition would necessitate a new ammunition standard regardless of ballistic characteristics, creating a once-in-a-half-century opportunity to optimise those characteristics for the best possible result.