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>For these reasons the Army has expressed an interest in developing a non-toxic rifle bullet that’s cheap enough for their usages. Swaged copper bullets exist,
by desdiv 8y ago
>For these reasons the Army has expressed an interest in developing a non-toxic rifle bullet that’s cheap enough for their usages. Swaged copper bullets exist, but at ~$1 a pop they’re appropriate for hunters and not for an army that goes through billions of bullets.
US Army switched over to the lead-free M855A1 cartridge back in 2010. The new round has better performance overall and costs only 5 cents more per round than the old leaded M855.
Disappointingly enough, the Marines only just adopted the M855A1 in 2018, and the USAF has no intention to do so.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5.56%C3%9745mm_NATO#M855A1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5.56%C3%9745mm_NATO#M855A1
- village-idiot 8y agoIt seems I’m only half behind on my knowledge then.
- magduf 8y ago>Disappointingly enough, the Marines only just adopted the M855A1 in 2018, and the USAF has no intention to do so. To be fair, the USAF doesn't do any ground combat with small arms that I'm aware of. Most likely, the only thing they do with that cartridge in deployment is to give it to their security forces, who are basically just guards and almost never use their weapons in combat these days. I'd be a lot more worried about what the USAF uses in much larger rounds, which they fire from aircraft.
- stirfrykitty 8y agoUSAF Combat Controllers, Pararescue (PJs), and others are elite troops. In fact, the requirements for Combat Controller are extremely mentally and physically demanding. They are not only Air traffic Controllers, which is tough enough, but they are also effectively equivalent to Army Rangers.
- LgWoodenBadger 8y agoUSAF has a "Special Tactics" force, similar to the USN's SEALs.