Ship point defense vs. missiles

[far-trader]

Caseless ammo? Seems very old news now.

If it is ever going to replace good old brass, it needs to be as safe (to store etc) and cheaper. Then perhaps the gun designers will plan a new generation of small arms.

There seems little prospect of caseless rounds offering much improvement in performance (size for size).

Egil

I think the largest benefit would be in the weight...

A big one anyway. Not just for the infantryman but the rest of the supply chain as well. Don't kid yourself though, it won't mean a lighter load for you Either you'll be carrying more rounds or some other gear.

Another benefit is faster cyclic rate by eliminating the ejection cycle. So you can fire faster and short burst fire results in tighter grouping as the rounds leave the barrel before the first round's recoil has moved the barrel.

 

[DFW]

Another idea...

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/07/27/boeing-bae-to-build-laser-machine-gun/?test=faces

 

[billclo]

Caseless ammo? Seems very old news now.

If it is ever going to replace good old brass, it needs to be as safe (to store etc) and cheaper. Then perhaps the gun designers will plan a new generation of small arms.

There seems little prospect of caseless rounds offering much improvement in performance (size for size).

Egil

I think the largest benefit would be in the weight...

A big one anyway. Not just for the infantryman but the rest of the supply chain as well. Don't kid yourself though, it won't mean a lighter load for you Either you'll be carrying more rounds or some other gear.

You're probably right in that some commanders would just have the troops carry more stuff to use up that weight savings. But anecdotal evidence from a forum I frequent suggests that many of the front-line commanders try very hard to have troops not carry so much weight. It's just that the current issue equipment in many cases is heavier than it should be. Many of the troops try to go bare-bones as possible. It reduces the chance of injury, increases their endurance, and lets them go faster.

 

[Rick]

Caseless ammo? Seems very old news now.

If it is ever going to replace good old brass, it needs to be as safe (to store etc) and cheaper. Then perhaps the gun designers will plan a new generation of small arms.

There seems little prospect of caseless rounds offering much improvement in performance (size for size).

Egil

I think the largest benefit would be in the weight...

A big one anyway. Not just for the infantryman but the rest of the supply chain as well. Don't kid yourself though, it won't mean a lighter load for you Either you'll be carrying more rounds or some other gear.

Another benefit is faster cyclic rate by eliminating the ejection cycle. So you can fire faster and short burst fire results in tighter grouping as the rounds leave the barrel before the first round's recoil has moved the barrel.

Magazine's are pre-packed (I think), so it would be tricky to reload in the field - but an advantage to using caseless is that you get more propellant in the same space as a cased round - so either magazines can be smaller or muzzle velocity higher.