Interesting article.. and analysis:

http://cdrsalamander.blogspot.com/2013/07/so-anyone-consult-infantryman-on-this.html

 

The Army’s Picatinny Arsenal is working on a “green” version of the M80A1 7.62 mm bullet, which troops are supposed to start being issued in 2014, according to an Army press release.

The Army has been looking to “green” small caliber ammo for some time now. In 2010, the Army switched to the greener 5.56 mm M855A1 Enhanced Performance Round.

 

Oh no, no, no. We already know that the 5.56mm is iffy as an infantry round. It is already limited in what it can do, especially in the ranges we have been fighting as of late. There is a reason the M-14 was brought back. There is a reason - until the burocrats killed it - last decade a move was under foot to more to something between 6.5-6.8mm.

 

 

Basically sounds like a bureaucrat is picking fluffy "environment" over cost and performance (and the safety of our troops)... uhg.

Look for the upcoming announcement of the electric HumVee ("HumVolt"?)    Goes nearly 18 miles on a charge, topping out at 21 mph.  Recharges in just 16 hours, when hooked up to it's 3 acre solar panel array.

There is a reason for this.

 

Some units, especially National Guard units, have training posts and armories that date back to the Civil War.  Urban development has crept up on these posts.  Sea Girt, NJ is a good example.  This National Guard post has a gun range that is also used to train state troopers and National Guard.  In fact, I remember qualifying with my rifle there on 25 meter paper targets back in 2008.

 

There are homes that are 500 feet from that rifle range.  How much lead has leached into the ground water over the past 100 years that the post has been around?  These cartridges aren't going to be used in combat.  They will just be for training iterations on posts 

 

On a side note, the people who love the M-14 all seem to be people who never had to carry one on a 21 day field problem.

The green rounds outperform the old ones in many aspects.

 

They are not range use only, they are GP rounds. M855A1 has been in theater for a long time.

 

Also I expect the M14 to disappear once there is enough SASS and C-SASS to go 'round

agree it's political however, the new rounds are actually better according to testing

agree it's political however, the new rounds are actually better according to testing

 

You know, for a moment, I thought you said "better tasting."  No wonder we have so many of those Suicide briefs...

agree it's political however, the new rounds are actually better according to testing

Are they truly better performing?  The article I quoted above said the opposite.  It did mention the same penetration at better range with the  caveat that copper would shatter at higher fps and may not actually penetrate as well as lead.

 

The problem with using the 'green' rounds for training and other rounds for combat is that you'd need two zeros since the trajectory of the two types are different.

That article has a lot of hysteria generated from whats currently only rumors outside the R&D community.

 

But the fact remains that it has been decreed by the politicians (who will never see the battlefield that they create) that "thou shall eliminate heavy metals" so something has to be done.

 

The statement from his "source" about copper shattering and affecting performance is retarded...copper is quite ductile and the harder it hits something the stronger and stiffer it gets (look up Johnson Cook plasticity). Either the author is misquoting the guy or the guy has no idea what he's talking about.

Thanks for giving me the other view of things.. doesn't sound like it is as bad as the original link implied.

Now if they were camo instead of green,  I would be all for it  !

Interesting article.. and analysis:

http://cdrsalamander.blogspot.com/2013/07/so-anyone-consult-infantryman-on-this.html

 

 

Basically sounds like a bureaucrat is picking fluffy "environment" over cost and performance (and the safety of our troops)... uhg.

 

 

It's more a matter of saving money on environmental compliance for training areas and keeping training areas open. Most of the green ammo costs significantly more, but so does regular remediation of training areas.