M16 Rifle Green Tip Bullet Ammunition

[Jeff White]

Hardball,
There is only one green tipped 5.56mm ammo in the U.S> inventory...M855 ball. On AR15.com there is an online copy of the Technical Bulletin on small arms ammunition in the book session. It requires adobe acrobat to read. The date on it is the early '90s but it's been updated. In there you will find all of the 5.56 ammo that's been type classified, to include M995 AP (black tip) which wasn't type classified until '96.

What makes you think there are two types in general use?
Jeff

 

[Hard Ball]

Jeff:
The book "Black Hawk Down" refers to the rangersin Somalia firing "green tip" ammunition whose bullets contain a tungsten penetrator. This does not sound like M855 ball. I am trying to find out whay it might have been.
I have heard it refered to as "M993 type ammunition" and as "SLAPS" projectiles.

Hard Ball

[This message has been edited by Hard Ball (edited February 11, 2000).]

 

[Troy]

There are no 5.56mm SLAP rounds, and M995 (the new full tungsten-core 5.56 AP round) was still in development at FN during the hostilities in Somalia.

The Rangers and Delta operators were carrying 10" and 11" XM-177s (CAR-15s), with was their standard rifle until very recently (they now carry M4s). The barrels of these rifles aren't long enough to impart enough velocity to cause either M193 or M855 to fragment. They also are 1:12 twist, which won't stabilize the long SS-109 bullet found in M855 ammuntion at ranges beyond 90m or so.

You might be surprised at how few operators have any understanding of the importance of velocity with regards to their rifles. Too many are still teaching the "tumbling bullet, stabilization is bad" theory of 5.56 ballistics. Those short-barreled XM-177s were sexy, and so the "elite" units carried them, to their peril in some cases.

And now, the OCIW will have a 10" barrel? Yak!

-Troy

 

[Jeff White]

Troy,
You're right about M995, but it wasn't even type classified until 1996 I have to correct the date in my earlier post. and is only available linked for use in the M249 SAW. M995 has a black tip to ID it. There is a lot of confusion in the military about what the core of M855 consists of. I think Mark Bowden just heard someone say tungsten and jumped on that for the book. I think the confusion is brought about more by a technical inaccuracy in the book then by actual prototype ammo being used.

I wouldn't worry about the OCIW. A prototype blew up a couple of months ago, severely injuring two civilan testers. At $10000 + a copy I don't think we have to worry about turning in our M16s and M4s for them anytime soon. The "big" defense budget increase for 2001 still keeps defense spending 1.6% behind inflation so it's a net loss. The OCIW is nothing more then a rehash of the SPIW program of the '60s. I think until big breakthrough is made in technology we've reached the zenith of military small arms development.
Jeff

 

[Sea Bass]

Jeff, I read an really good article on the M855 in an older issue of International Defense Review. They did a cutaway of one and examined. It was composed in the middle, a small 10 grain tungsten core.

 

[Hard Ball]

Penetration of hard targrts is effected by projectile velocity and the density and thickness of the target material and the density of the penetrator.
Steel has a density of approximately 9 grams per cc. The tungsten alloy used in high velocity penetrators has a density of approximately 14-15 grams per cc (pure tungsten is denser but it is too brittle). A bullet containing a tungsten alloy penetrator will penetrate more steel than a bullet with a steel core at the same impact velocity.
Depleted uranium (DU) pentrators would work better, but it is hard to imagine a more politjcally incorrect small arms bullet!

[This message has been edited by Hard Ball (edited February 14, 2000).]