Innovative Lightweight Small-Arm Polymer Cased Ammunition

The lessons learned in Iraq show that the weight burden has hindered the mobility and subsequently survivability of the soldiers, thus lighten soldier's weight without scarifying the lethality is a critical challenge to the Army. The objectives of this Phase II project is to identify and develop an optimal cost-effective polymer based material system, an efficient lightweight polymer small arms cartridge case design and an economical fabrication process that will result in more than 30% weight saving over the existing brass cased cartridge. During the Phase I effort, Frontier has successfully demonstrated the proposed technology feasibility, designed several plastic cartridge cases, conducted FEA simulations, and addressed material properties of polymers in its designs of the 5.56mm cartridge case. In this Phase II effort, Frontier will fabricate polymer-cased 5.56mm cartridge made of the proposed polymer/polymer based materials system to demonstrate safety, reliability, and performance in the intended weapons for use; conduct field tests to demonstrate the prototype polymer-cased cartridge can reliably meet the ballistic performance from extremely low temperature of -65F to the cook-off temperature of 320-350F; and conduct lifecycle, environmental, and safety testing to ensure the polymer cartridge can survive the storage, transportation, and operational environments encountered by ammunition.