THE WEAPONS OF THE FUTURE TODAY
Carlton Meyer
21st Century Weapons
E-mail: [email protected] May 1998
ANTI-PERSONNEL ROUNDS FOR HEAVY MACHINE GUNS
One lesson learned in Vietnam was that .50 caliber machine guns were not ideal for close infantry combat. In various operations over the past decade, .50 caliber machine guns were still fired at personnel 90% of the time. The large round is deadly, but overkill.
"Splinter" bullets have been developed for experimental assault rifles, which break into two separate bullets as it travels down range. This concept should be used for .50 cal ammunition, which could split into four projectiles as it travels down range. Ideally, a round would splinter out to cover one square meter at 500 meters down range. One .50 cal firing splinter ammunition would prove as effective against infantry as four .50 cals firing ball ammo. Exploding 40mm and .50 cal rounds are less effective than splinter ammunition since they do not explode until impact, which may occur a hundred meters behind the intended target.
Developing .50 caliber anti-personnel rounds could be done jointly and would cost little. The Pentagon should also consider 20mm splinter rounds for aircraft, 25mm splinter rounds for LAV-25s, and 30mm splinter rounds for Bradleys and A-10s. A 20-30mm cannon spewing out rounds which splinter into 10 sub-projectiles would terrorize infantrymen. "Splinter" rounds have already been developed for smaller caliber ammunition, but they will prove even more effective in larger guns.
Employing diverse ammunition may prove complicated since it becomes difficult to change ammunition during combat. Therefore, "standard mix" belts of ammunition could alternate between high-explosive rounds, SLAP rounds for penetration, "splinter" rounds, and ball/tracer rounds.
Most people only see the value of tracer ammo to mark targets, however, these rounds also terrorize the enemy, ignite fuel and ammunition, and start fires. One drawback to tracer ammo is that it allows the enemy to see the exact location of the machine gun. Perhaps scientists could develop a round which would not ignite until it was 100 meters down range. This would hide the location of the machine gun, and direct enemy fire 100 meters forward where he perceives the machine gun to be located.
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