NGSW Program: US Army Offers New 6,8mm Cartridge with Polymer Sleeve

In the United States introduced a new cartridge of 6,8 mm caliber with a polymer sleeve. The munition was created by True Velocity, an American company in collaboration with General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems under the program "Weapon Next Generation Squad - Next Generation Squad Weapon (NGSW).

As previously reported, the U.S. Army plans to replace the FN M249 SAW machine gun and the M4 / M4A1 carbine with new weapons and, accordingly, a new 6,8 mm caliber ammunition. This NGSW program provides a significant increase in mortality and likelihood of being hit at the department level. The new ammunition is reportedly significantly superior to modern 5,56x45 mm and 7,62x51 mm cartridges.

Under the NGSW program, a group of companies - SIG Sauer, General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems - are creating an automatic rifle, tentatively called RM277 NGSW-R. A cartridge with a polymer sleeve has been created for this machine. Preliminary tests of weapons and ammunition began this spring, and the next are scheduled for January 2021. Textron Systems creates a machine gun, a prototype with telescopic ammunition is developed.

The company said that the new cartridge weighs 30% less, has better accuracy and reduced heat transfer to weapon components.

Through the method of manufacturing metal sleeves, their internal dimensions are dictated by the external dimensions. While our manufacturing process removes this limitation, we can change the geometry of the inside of the sleeve. We can constantly maintain very tight tolerances, thereby creating identical cartridges. As a result, we get the same initial bullet speed during each shot. And when these bullets leave the barrel at the same speed, then they get to the same place

- said the representative of the company Patrick Hogan.

At the SHOT Show 2020, the company showed a number of cartridges with polymer sleeves up to .50 caliber.

Comments

[silverwolf88]

weapons are always being developed under the cartridge ... polymer sleeves are not an innovation ... for decades, the minds of designers and money have been invested in this ... until something is not very everything ... but the change in caliber is a very controversial branch ... not I know that they will be given some intermediate between 7, xx and 5, xx caliber ... so far this innovation does not look attractive ... and an increase in the range of ammunition is generally a direct harm ...

[Lopatov]

Quote: silberwolf88

I don’t know what a certain intermediate between 7, xx and 5, xx caliber will give them ... until this innovation looks attractive ... and an increase in the range of ammunition and in general direct harm ...

Where is their 7.62?
At the company level and in technology?
Main caliber 5.56. and it is he who are going to be replaced by 6.8 to increase the effective range of fire and for "increased lethality" on targets in protective equipment

[Insurgent]

The company said that the new cartridge weighs 30% less

But at the same time, as you can see from the photo, he looks like "somewhat larger"traditional ammunition with a metal sleeve. And therefore requires large volumes during storage, transportation and use (boxes for tapes, magazines and the like).

Personally, I would not be attracted by the prospect of having a smaller BC, because of the limitation, not by weight, but by volume ...

[113262a]

And how will IT work after shooting half a box? When is the chamber hot? Or will there be a special machine gun that works from an open bolt? In my lifetime, it often happens even in our PKT! Both Soviet and Luhansk cartridges. And on plastic ones, even more so, or they will start to melt!

[Insurgent]

Quote: 113262

And how will IT work after shooting half a box? When is the chamber hot? Or will there be a special machine gun that works from an open bolt? In my lifetime, it often happens even in our PKT! Both Soviet and Luhansk cartridges. And on plastic ones, even more so, or they will start to melt!

I had to deal with the separation of the bottom of the sleeve on the PC (M), which is a huge problem at the "wrong moment" in the absence of a replaceable barrel (as a rule, always) ...

And how will the "polymer" (plastic) behave?

[Shurik70]

And I did not understand the moment where it is stated that "their cartridges are all the same", and all the others are different. Which side are they different from? More than a hundred years of evolution in chuck-making machine tools has created reliable, cheap and strictly standard chucks, identical to a fraction of a micron.

[Jack O'Neill]

Machine gunners and Marksman use barrels under 7.62x51.

[Lopatov]

"Machine gunners" is a very flexible concept.

[Jack O'Neill]

Guys with M240.

[Lopatov]

Quote: Jack O'Neill

Guys with M240.

And what level is it?
That's right, company and battalion.
What I originally wrote about

[Jack O'Neill]

Marxman - platoon, for example. And yes, in the platoon there can be not only a machine gunner with M249, but even with M240.

[Lopatov]

Quote: Jack O'Neill

but even with the M240.

If he takes it off the car.

[Jack O'Neill]

Well here it is. In general, Americans are not willing to run with this bandura, prefer to deploy in strong points and on equipment, but:



But the vast majority go with a saw, yes.

[Civil]

How will polymers behave in frost?

[Fibrizio]

I’m sure that they’ve already thought about all this. As soon as they are adopted, the problem is solved. But it seems to me that this is a cheaper production. Brass is very expensive. Who reloads in the know how much good brass cases (I will tell you a secret, at the price of not the cheapest BPC to collect).

[Insurgent]

Quote: Fibrizio

Brass is very expensive.

But the sleeves for "mass cartridges" are not made of brass ...

[Fibrizio]

IN USA? Made of brass. Anyway, for the shooter. Rather, let's call it "brass alloy" for more honesty. But definitely not steel or aluminum.

[Insurgent]

Quote: Fibrizio

IN THE USA? Made of brass.

I care about the USA and their eccentricities - to the bulb More interested in which way Russia will go

[Fibrizio]

And what does this article and my comment have to do with the Russian army riflemen? Sweet potatoes do not grow here either, and they are not eaten.

[Insurgent]

Quote: Fibrizio

And what does this article and my comment have to do with the Russian army riflemen?

Your comment, as most likely you yourself, have no relationship to Russia, of course, but they will take into account trends, developments and experience (successful / not successful), other countries - in promising developments in Russia.

[And Makarov]

the NGSW program provides for a significant increase in mortality

If we are talking about the mortality that we all thought about, then it can be determined only by the results of a certain period of hostilities and the subsequent study of the results. I think so.

[Mountain shooter]

Cool thing! This is how much money can be "made" on the COMPLETE rearmament of the army. The company does not know how to build airplanes and missiles, but I want money ... You can get a LOT of money only in a GREAT project. Millions of small arms, billions of ammunition ... And orders for decades. Lobbying will be merciless!

[Berber]

And this is the main reason. Americans have everything geared towards money. And marketing (take, for example, as the commercial project F 35) is everywhere at the head.

[Zaurbek]

This is the future

[voyaka uh]

The future belongs to telescopic cartridges. Fully combustible liner

[Elephant]

It’s hard to predict the future, perhaps without any shells at all. Ours experimented with the combustion chamber 30 years ago, then the bullet quietly accelerated 1200 m / s.

[Jurkovs]

I wonder what the yield strength of this polymer is. And then it will smear it throughout the bore with a thin layer.

[Cyril G ...]

Quote: silberwolf88

while this innovation does not look attractive ... and an increase in the range of ammunition is generally a direct harm ...

Well this is how much dough can be cut! Profit It is necessary to completely rearm the army, the National Guard and create a mobile reserve. And then demand that NATO allies also rearm! It's worth it!!!

[Crimean partisan 1974]

how much dough .... but not how much. so futuristic direction. according to the plan, the ammunition is like in tanks with a combustible sleeve. but the tank from the main caliber does not scribble like a machine gun but cleaning the barrel is very common. ... shorter than r on the shovel. in my opinion, kekhler and kokha G11 aren’t really buying out like pancakes and hot dogs, but this design is already 40 years old for lunch .... the stripes decided to step on the same OG- mines (garden rake) ... good luck with that failed business

[dml9]

The United States and all NATO will be forced to switch to a new caliber. Naturally America will also run into this

[K-50]

As a result, we get the same initial bullet velocity during each shot. And when these bullets leave the bore at the same speed, they hit the same place. As a result, we get the same initial bullet velocity during each shot. And when these bullets leave the bore at the same speed, then they hit the same place.

Another budget pie cut. If reducing the weight of the ammunition is a blessing, then the statement that all cartridges in the queue have the same initial velocity is generally nonsense. Such a phenomenon as heating the barrel and thereby reducing the initial velocity of the bullet is not considered at all. If you shoot alone, then in modern combat conditions this is apparently so rare that it is used, apparently, only to save ammunition, when the battle is over, no one knows when, and the stock is much less than we would like.

[garri-lin]

It’s not strange, but at the end of the 20th century I was taught to shoot single to kill at a visible target. And in short bursts when the target is not visible. Most of my friends who have gone through the conflicts of the time of the collapse of the USSR shoot just like that.

[KSVK]

has better accuracy and reduced heat transfer to weapon components.

Firstly, not accuracy, but accuracy.
Secondly, what was compared with what? 5,56 and 6,8? Rave.
Thirdly, the author, the net is full of videos of shooting a firearm with a thermal imager. See where the heating is going. Heat transfer through the sleeve is somewhere around sixteen in terms of effect on overall heating.
And fourthly, a polymer sleeve and a telescopic cartridge are ammunition for DIFFERENT samples. And which one will be chosen in the end is not yet clear.

[KSVK]

Quote: Jurkovs

I wonder what the yield strength of this polymer is. And then it will smear it throughout the bore with a thin layer.

Why? The sleeve rests in the chamber and does not get into the barrel in any way. Even when destroyed.

[KSVK]

Quote: 113262

And on plastic ones, even more so, or they will start to melt!

Plastic is different from plastic. Heat-resistant plastics have existed for a long time.

[KSVK]

Quote: voyaka uh

The future belongs to telescopic cartridges. Fully combustible liner

Such ammunition has been around for a long time. And the capsule there is not mechanical, but electrical. The advantages alone don't outweigh the disadvantages. Perhaps for now.

[KSVK]

Quote: silberwolf88

... while this innovation does not look attractive ... and the increase in the range of ammunition and in general direct harm ...

So that's the point. They are trying to get away from 5,56 and 7,62 by introducing a SINGLE cartridge 6,8. Of course it costs money. And we still have THREE ammunition in service. Where is the gimor.

[KSVK]

Quote: K-50

Such a phenomenon as heating the barrel and thereby reducing the initial velocity of the bullet is not considered at all.

And such a phenomenon as an increase in the temperature of the ammunition due to heating the chamber / barrel? Gunpowder is temperature dependent. The higher the temperature, the higher the speed. But seriously, when firing in bursts, changes in the initial speed from heating / contamination of the barrel / chamber / gas engine can only be noticed with the help of a chronograph.

[Kuroneko]

And when these bullets leave the bore at the same speed, then they hit the same place.

Do we not take into account recoil and crosshairs? Well, OK.