Research on Ammunition Packaging in the United States

When a soldier is fighting, the ammunition that is required to shoot can only kill the enemy without harming himself. However, if the ammunition is not well packaged, there are several factors that can affect the performance of the ammunition. For example, the ammunition may have been put on hold for many years in the depot; it is exposed to various climatic conditions during transportation and storage on the battlefield; it may suffer during transit. Vibrated, dropped and sometimes trampled; Soldiers also demand that the required ammunition be quickly available in any climate and can be easily transported on the battlefield; the American people and their allies demand that ammunition be transported by road, rail and sea. There is a certain degree of safety when accidental. The key to meeting these requirements is the use of rigorously researched and tested packaging. When studying ammunition packaging, there should be a reasonable relationship between protection and cost. As the U.S. Army modernizes its weapon system, ammunition needs to be studied and advanced new packaging should be used to make good new weapons work on the battlefield.

Development status of ammunition packaging

Prior to the Second World War, packaging focused on cost and ease of handling, with almost no consideration of the environment that ammunition could withstand. As a result, the percentage of ammunition destroyed during transportation and handling is high. To overcome these shortcomings, the U.S. Army established a packaging design agency at the Piketinni Arsenal. The design of the packaging began using rigorous inspection tests in order to obtain the safest protection. The commonly used metal containers, fiber containers and wooden containers have been developed to meet the stringent requirements of the force distribution system.
After World War II and during the Cold War, packaging was further improved, which helped it to have better protection against climate change. For example, in the high-humidity climatic conditions in Vietnam, a "jungle package" is used, ie, a package of wax coating is dipped around the fiber container. The soldier must remove the coating by hand to remove the ammunition. During this period, the logistics system was basically designed and packaged at the lowest cost. The focus of the packaging was not really on supporting the soldiers to complete their tactical mission.

After the establishment of the ammunition logistics project management office in 1984, the focus of packaging has changed. Its purpose is to centralize the management of packaging and logistics, introduce new technologies to the army's packaging field, and solve the problems that users are most concerned about. The Ammunition Logistics Project Management Office, together with the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command ammunition systems management department and the U.S. Army Tank Vehicles and Weapons Agency Weapons Research and Development and Engineering Center, developed an action plan for the packaging and replenishment of ammunition, which includes 23 subprojects. The purpose of the plan is to enhance the combat capabilities of the U.S. Army through improved packaging. The main objectives are: to reduce packaging weight by 40% and volume by 30%; to reduce battlefield waste and signal characteristics; to safely store explosives and propellants; to facilitate nuclear, biological and chemical purification; Ammunition to supplement ammunition for weapon systems; to improve moisture and corrosion resistance.

In the next six years, the Army's packaging will be transformed from a system that mainly consists of a large number of wooden boxes and wooden pallets into a system that fixes steel cylinders and rectangular containers on steel pallets, and is welcomed by users. These new containers provide the best protection during the launch of packaged ammunition from the factory to the guns through a confined environment. The confined environment should also allow soldiers to easily remove the packaged ammunition, so that the packaging will be well connected with field-moving equipment and equipment, tactical ammunition vehicles, and weapon systems. These advantages will effectively improve the combat capabilities of the Army.

New packaging system for 120 mm and 25 mm ammunition

The new packaging for the 120 mm M1A1 tank ammunition series and the new packaging for the 25 mm ammunition series for the Bradley Infantry Tank System are the two best packages that are popular with users. The new packaging for 120 mm tank ammunition is a system that fixes the steel cylinder packaging container on a steel pallet. The advantage of this system is that it is possible to remove the ammunition in the next step without destroying the tray packaging tape, and additionally add 10 rounds of ammunition to each pallet; this pallet structure allows two rows of trays facing outwards to be fixed on the high mobility On tactical trucks, the weight of each vehicle was increased from the original 160 pounds to 240 pounds. Both tanks were able to replenish ammunition at the same time; the supply time was reduced, and an old wooden box package was used for an M1 tank. It takes 33 minutes to fully replenish the supply, and it takes only 14 minutes to use the new pallet package for two tanks. Thanks to improvements in packaging, a total life-cycle cost of over $17 million was saved.

The new packaging for the 25mm ammunition series is a steel rectangular container. It replaced the original plastic container used by the Bradley infantry fighting system. The problem with old-fashioned plastic packaging containers was that they could not be kept in a sealed state and therefore could not make the packaged ammunition waterproof, especially when the packaged ammunition was stored on the floor. The new packaging container solves this problem and at the same time reduces costs, reduces the amount of flammable materials contained in the vehicle, and allows quicker removal of ammunition for the purpose of replenishing ammunition for weapons and equipment with turrets. Both types of packaging improve ammunition protection and increase the combat capabilities of the Army's major weapon systems.

Research on Commercial Packaging of Small Arms Ammunition
One of the key reforms in the procurement reforms that began in the 1990s was the use of commercial standards for ammunition and detailed military specifications. A comparative study of the commercial packaging and the strict requirements of the United States Army ammunition revealed that commercial packaging is lacking in many aspects. Some of the important requirements of ammunition for troops are as follows:
• The packaging must prevent ammunition from being handled at extreme temperatures between 165 and -600F;

• Packed ammunition must be able to fire safely after it has been dropped twice from 7 feet in extreme temperatures and subjected to loose loading shocks;

• The pack must maintain a pressure differential of 3 pounds per square foot after undergoing six 3-foot drops;

· Packaging must enable ammunition to be stored in the warehouse for more than 20 years and exposed to the outside environment for 2 years;

The package can be easily removed while having the above-mentioned protective properties.

Commercial packaging is not suitable for the above extreme temperatures and its design is not very reliable either. When transporting commercial products, the main objective of packaging design is to withstand moderate rough handling only at ambient temperature and within a short period of time, resulting in low packaging costs. Some damage is expected and covered by insurance premiums or the shipper's policy. This approach is cheaper than paying expensive packaging fees for each product. Even if commercial dangerous equipment is transported, the purpose of packaging is mainly to satisfy the prescribed minimum standards, rather than to perform the best protection under the worst conditions. For these reasons, the focus of ammunition product packaging is still to obtain maximum protection capabilities through unique military materials and designs.

At present, the packaging department of the US Army Tank Vehicles and Weapons Agency’s Weapons Research and Development and Engineering Center, together with the Industrial Authority at Rock Island Arsenal, is studying the rational use of commercial ammunition for packaging to reduce costs. Small-caliber ammunition may use commercial packaging. At present, all small-calibre ammunition use complete military packaging regardless of the ultimate purpose.

The U.S. Army conducted a research project on the use of commercial packaging for light weapons ammunition, using transparent packaging for ammunition at the shooting range, and using commercial fiberboard boxes for transportation. The Marines took this measure and the Army will also take this measure. In the next three years, about 5 million US dollars will be saved. The packaging reform of small-caliber ammunition will not affect the soldiers' training according to the operational requirements.

Future ammunition packaging

Ammunition packaging has an increasingly important impact on the forces of the 21st century and the ammunition logistics of the Army after 2010. The US Army Training and Doctrine Command has pointed out that by 2025, all Army equipment and supplies must reduce weight and volume by 75%. Future forces will increase demand for lightweight, better-protected packaging that will interface with automated equipment handling equipment and “smart” logistics systems while mitigating the proliferation of unwanted stimulus sources. As ammunition becomes more "smart" with complex electronics, thereby reducing the Army's need for large quantities of ammunition, packaging is used to protect these expensive, limited products and in fact adds to the importance.

In order to meet these needs, the National Defense Ammunition Logistics Center and the Packaging Division of the US Army Tank Vehicle Motor Vehicles and Weapons Arms Research and Development and Engineering Center have developed new plans to develop future packaging technologies. The programs being studied and planned include: new composite materials with steel properties, and their weight is a fraction of the weight of steel; internal barrier materials that help meet standards for insensitive ammunition; embedded sensors that are easy to visually observe And tagged containers; modular designs that can quickly supply "insert" weapons.