June 29, 2010
Eco-Friendly Terrorist Killing
Environmentally-conscious jihadists will be thrilled to discover that the U.S. Army will now be now be shooting at them with "green" ammunition:
The Army announced today it has begun shipping its new 5.56mm cartridge, the M855A1 Enhanced Performance Round, to support warfighters in Afghanistan.The new M855A1 round is sometimes referred to as "green ammo."
The new round replaces the current M855 5.56mm cartridge that has been used by U.S. troops since the early 1980s.
The M855A1 resulted in a number of significant enhancements not found in the current round, officials said. They explained these include improved hard-target capability, more dependable, consistent performance at all distances, improved accuracy, reduced muzzle flash and a higher velocity.
During testing, the M855A1 performed better than current 7.62mm ball ammunition against certain types of targets, blurring the performance differences that previously separated the two rounds.
The projectile incorporates these improvements without adding weight or requiring additional training.
According to Lt. Col. Jeffrey K. Woods, the program's product manager, the projectile is "the best general purpose 5.56mm round ever produced."
"The best general purpose 5.56mm round ever produced."
I can't decide... is that an oxymoron?
Best of an overall bad cartridge. Let's go to something better in the 6mm family.
Posted by: Federale at June 29, 2010 09:45 AMOxymoron? Possibly, however, the cartridge, though it has its detractors, does embody many positive attributes. It will remain to be seen whether this new round lives up to its billing. If so, that will be a good thing indeed.
Posted by: mikemcdaniel at June 29, 2010 09:51 AMToo light. Does it attain the same momentum as the larger round, i.e. does the lighter ball have a higher velocity to attain the equivalent momentum of the larger ball? If not you have too many survivors.
Posted by: Odins Acolyte at June 29, 2010 10:02 AM"During testing, the M855A1 performed better than current 7.62mm ball ammunition against certain types of targets"
It would be nice if they told us *which* types of targets. Can it penetrate a car door? A wood fence? If not, it's absurd to claim it performs "better" than 7.62 NATO. Or are they referring to 7.62x39 Soviet?
For God's sake, give our guys a new standard cartridge in the 7mm class. I don't care which one it is, even .280 Enfield, but please, PLEASE replace that damn .22 varmint round our troops have had to use for forty years.
Posted by: Bohemond at June 30, 2010 04:28 PMAccording to the military times article, the round falls apart in extreme heat. The Marines are going with the SOCOM round instead.
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=510226
My mistake, that was the last "new" round...the new "new" round uses more copper.
Posted by: Larry at June 30, 2010 09:10 PMNo oxymoron. Stating it's the best 5.56mm cartridge ever doesn't mean it's any good (I'll leave determining whether it is good or not to the experts).
It just means they state it's better than other 5.56mm catridges, which it may well be (or not, I'll leave that to the experts too, though anything "green" is by me approached with great apprehension as usually quality is sacrificed to "greenness").
