U.S. Army sets ammo production goals

ARLINGTON, Va., May 20 (UPI) -- The U.S. Army has set very sensible goals for the ammunition-manufacturing sector of the U.S. defense industrial base.

The Army's first goal is to ensure an adequate stockpile of ammunition of all calibers used by the U.S. armed forces.

The second goal is to modernize and, to an extent, diversify the U.S. industrial base that manufactures the ammunition.

The third goal is to advance the basic science of small-caliber ammunition.

Finally, the U.S. Army's fourth goal is to protect core capabilities from the inevitable downturn in funding caused by the current U.S. economic crisis.

To these goals another should be added. This is to prepare the ammunition industrial base of the Untied States to produce the next generation of products such as advanced energetic materials, IM, and even "green" ammunition.

Energetic materials are the critical constituents that provide the power behind propellants and explosives. Advanced energetics has more power per unit than current products. An IM will not detonate under any conditions other than those associated with its intended mission. It will not detonate if subjected to extremely high temperatures, hit by a bullet or shell fragment or impacted by explosive forces.

Advanced energetics that are also insensitive to external shocks are becoming commonplace in the commercial explosives industry. "Green" ammunition would have reduced toxic content such as "reduced lead" bullets, "reduced smoke" grenades and rockets or bombs with fewer toxins.

Looking to the future, the U.S. Army needs to do more than merely assure the survival of the Radford Army Ammunition Plant in Virginia. The plant needs additional modernization. Tolerating rising costs for ammunition in a time of budgetary retrenchment is the wrong way to do business.

Also, the nature of the ammunition business is changing with new processes, products, environmental and security requirements emerging. The Army needs to equip the entire ammunition industrial base, and Radford in particular, to deal with these changes.

Radford is a one-of-a-kind facility that must be kept functional. Therefore, it is vital that work proceed on facility modernization. The first steps in this direction have already been started with the modernization of the power plant and the construction of a new acid concentrator.

The next critical project is modernization of the nitrocellulose plant. In addition to that, Radford must take steps to meet new environmental standards that are likely to affect complex chemical processes such as those associated with the production of energetics most dramatically.

Also, in order to lower costs and prepare for the future, new work must be brought into the Radford Army Ammunition Plant.

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Part 13: Why the U.S. government needs to begin now to invest in the production of advanced energetics and IM explosive ingredients

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