Interview: SAL FANELLI,supervising engineer for Infantry Weapons Systems at MCSC
“About this time the issue about environmentally friendly green ammo came up and we had to take a look to see if it was possible to replace the lead and still meet the specification. We found that we could replace the lead with copper, stretching the jacket around ever so slightly so it allowed us to crimp the nose even more. With that, the ballistic coefficient went up allowing the round to fly more efficiently through air with a better trajectory. Now it’s a ballistic match to the stock off-the-shelf reticle patterns that the Marine Corps uses, like the Trijicon ACOG sights. We named the improved round the Mk318 Mod1.”
“Since we were worried about confusion with the Mk262, we had to take another look at the color of the tip. Every color was taken except for solid silver so we decided to nickel plate the entire projectile. As we now jokingly say, “All Marines will have silver bullets.” That round hasn’t been fielded yet, and a potential production contract is in the future. I can just see the Marines out there polishing bullets.”
It’s not a direct COTS projectile, but there are very similar offerings and it’s basically a slight modification of a COTS offering into a fieldable design that meets multiple requirements. The fact that it’s a scalable construction (at least technologically speaking) means that lessons learned from making a better .224 projectile along side lessons learned from making the Mk319 7.62mm projectile can be used to improve any intermediate caliber offering from the get-go.
I too would be just fine with painting a stupid random color tip on it (make it silver, idgaf)… but the proof is going to be gel tests in direct comparison at various ranges from M4/M16/SCAR/M27/Mk18/HK416 platforms side by side with M855A1. Considering everything I’m seeing second-hand with M855A1, and current cost estimates through both NSWC Crane and directly from ATK/Federal on pricing for Mk318Mod1 that this would only have to perform on par with 855A1 (which shouldn’t be hard) in order to be a completely better solution. I suspect even with the copper core it’ll outperform the Army answer, while being cheaper, without requiring insane chamber pressures, and not having any lingering contract/intellectual property theft disputes attached.
If it is what I think it is…In the Army we called it the magic bullet…I only heard it referred as a bullet once IIRC usually a fun stick or something like that.
Probably won’t be; MSC is trying to keep this alive but the Marine Corps consumes a small amount of DoD’s ammo pot; we will more than likely adopted an improved 855A1
Yeah, the realistic optimist in me says that at least this will set the bar fairly high and at least an improved version of M855A1 (or A2) will be what gets fielded… but if this becomes a validated COTS round than the Army funded version sucks, and critically if these are still cheaper for the quantity required, who knows?
The big push in procurement DoD wide is the so called “low price technically acceptable” strategy, ie the lowest priced option that meets the minimum requirements is the winner, so being cheaper can be BIG factor even with slightly lower technical specifications…
My thinking exactly. Lets make something green for war,one of the most destructive things there is. Thats kinda the point of war,if it wasnt it would be called negotiations.
Has anyone ever been in a fire fight and thought… What can i do to make this more environmentally friendly?
Unless we are running outa lead, I just dont get it. Hippies, tree huggin hippies…LOL
