Many militaries around the world typically become increasingly sensitive to the environmental impact of military training. Unexploded ordnance and associated clean up liabilities, are a significant consideration for procurement officials purchasing ammunition. In the field of spin stabilized, gun fired ordnance the US Army Research Development and Engineering Center (ARDEC) located at Picatinny Arsenal, developed the inexpensive M781 “chalk” round, that provided a visual signature for draft era conscripted soldiers. The frangible ogive of the M781 projectile was fabricated from plastic material, the plastic ogive further containing a marking powder. Normally, a training cartridge would have to survive a standard five-foot drop test; however, in the interest of reducing costs the Army waived the drop requirement supporting fielding of the M781, as the M781 dropped on a hard surface had a propensity to break open and spill the marking chalk from the ogive. Appearing in the early 1990s, 40 mm AGL's like the MK19, MK47, Santa Barbara 40 mm, H&K 40 mm provided users with exceptional firepower, firing a 40 mm projectile to a distance of two kilometers. The initial training cartridges offered with the US M918 cartridge which included fuzed pyrotechnics that were inherently expensive to produce and further produced a significant volume of problematic unexploded ordnance (UXO). Seeing a market opportunity, Nico Pyrotechnik GmbH & Co Kg developed a high velocity 40 mm cartridge with a nose mounted marker. This Nico design depicted in WO 2005/098345A8 was able to survive a typical rough handling test, as the cartridge included a useful internal container to insure marking powder did break and spill encapsulated marking powder into the weapon during feeding. This cartridge entered service with the US Marine Corps and USSOCOM with the nomenclature MK281 MOD 0. Nico, having been purchased by Rheinmetall, then incorporating useful chemiluminescent markers using technology taught in U.S. Pat. No. 6,619,211, RE40482 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,990,905 and WO 2007/0054077A1, the new technology providing a day and night signature, at impact. The updated US Marine Corp cartridge adopted these technologies and receiving the updated designation MK281 MOD 1.
We should also note that General Dynamics (Canada) has been awarded U.S. Pat. No. 9,157,715 B1 Polymer Marking Projectile with Integrated metallic Sealing Ring (GD Canada). This General Dynamics Canada design has a polymer ogive and body that, upon impact, compresses, to deform the polymer nose, the resulting deformation expelling a marking compound. We should note that the resulting deformation of the polymer body creates vents with an orientation parallel to the projectiles axis of rotation. In this impact configuration, the marking material is ejected from the vents, and the ejected marking powder attaches itself to the target.
The cartridge incorporating a marking projectile, that affords gunners with a visual impact cue to identify the location of a projectile's impact. The cartridge survives typical drop testing and can function in a machine gun or cannon. At impact in the vicinity of a target, impact forces act on the projectile body inducing a wall failure that expels marking powder into the atmosphere. The projectile's break up on impact, reduce the risk of ricochet.
Use and Function Fire: Advantageously, the new product provides for a marker that will function in most terminal conditions, without producing UXO. The design incorporates a base with a substantial mass that, at the moment of impact, harvests the forward inertia of the mass in the base, the mass compressing a mid-body component that encapsulates a marking powder. Also, the walls will normally have adequate strength allowing the cartridge to survive typical drop tests. These drop tests reflect user requirements that a cartridge remain intact when being transported and handled in a military environment. The design includes a robust metal nose, providing a feature that allows for a projectile to pass a typical 5 foot drop test. As training cartridges generally have a ballistic match requirement to operational projectiles, the design must establish a center of gravity in the projectile affording a good match to operational cartridges. Where a designer desires to move the center of gravity forward, the preferred design may include a steel nose. Where the designer needs to move the center of gravity to the rear of the projectile, the designer can utilize an aluminum nose. In addition to surviving drop tests, a cartridge may have to function in sever compression. By way of example, a MK19 MOD 3 40 mm AGL will induce significant tension and compression on the cartridge when the weapon delinks the projectile from the ammunition belt and the cartridge undergoes compression when the bolt and extractors force the cartridge forward in the MK19s base feeder. Thus, a 40 mm AGL projectile utilizing a mid-body marker design must insure the mid-body wall provides requisite strength for feeding, and break on impact.
Impact Marking Function. At impact, the combination of forces act to induce failure in the projectile's mid body wall, releasing and then expelling the encapsulated powder from the disintegrating body. While the mid-body wall fails in impact conditions, the walls have adequate strength to undergo compression, as many cartridges undergo considerable compression in weapon feeding. The wall failure, at impact, depends on material selection. Generally, a designer can use a typically polymer that will shatter and separate from the projectile at impact, where the nose undergoes an abrupt de-acceleration, and the inertia in the base squeezes the mid-body marker wall, causing failure and allowing forces to eject the marking powder, and allowing the heavier metal base to continue forward movement after wall failure, compressing and causing ejection of the powder, post wall failure. Marker and Marker Ejection: Advantageously at impact, shear forces, rotational forces and collapsing mid boy walls, all act on the powder to eject the marker into the atmosphere. Typically, the marking powder is a low density material that includes pigmentation or dyes that provide a strong contrast with the colors in the ambient environment. Typically, the marking powder is ejected in a pattern from the mid-body, such that the ejected material is buoyed in the atmosphere proximate to the impact and and perpendicular to the projectiles axis of rotation.
Reduced Ricochet: At impact the body, disintegrates producing aero-ballistically inefficient fragments, with reduced mass, the terminal impact in combination reduce the risk of fragment ricochet. Ranges with exposed rocky outcrops frequently produce ricochets. Ricochet fragments frequently require militaries to set aside significant amounts of land as surface danger zones.
The preferred embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to
Projectile Impact, Break Up and Marking Signature:
Impact Geometry and Signature:
FIGS. 10B1 and 10B2 depicts a 30 mm projectile's travel vector (62) when impact on the surface (58) milliseconds after the moment of impact, where the forward momentum (124) creates areas of compression (66) and tension (68) in the projectile's mid body.
Impact, Frangible Body Break Up and Release of a marking Signature: With continued reference to
Weapon Feeding and Cartridge Modes of Use:
There has thus been shown and described a novel, marking cartridge which fulfills all of the object and advantage sought therefore. Many changes, modifications, variations and other use and applications of the subject invention, will become apparent to those skilled in the art after considering this specification and the accompany drawings which disclose the preferred embodiments thereof. All such changes, modifications, variation and other uses and applications which do not depart from the spirit and scope of the invention are deeded to been covered by the invention which is to be limited only by the claims which follow.
This present application claims benefit of priority from U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 62/549,596 filed 24 Aug. 2017, entitled “Mid-Body Marking Projectile.”
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