Quote:
Originally Posted by ColBosch
As for firearms, I am going to climb the hill and challenge anyone to knock me off it: the idea that caseless or plastic-cased ammunition was the Next Big Advance was wrong. I'll forgive the authors for this one, as even a decade ago we didn't quite realize it, but it has become very clear that small arms have absolutely plateaued. Ever since the introduction of the plastic-framed, large-caliber pistol - i.e., the Glock - there has not been a major advance in any firearms technology. For a little bit optics seemed to be improving rapidly, but they too seem have to hit a hard wall. Caseless ammunition has proven to be a huge hassle for nearly no benefit.
|
Telescoped plastic cased rounds are entering service. Caseless rounds work perfectly well, but never came into service for political and economic reasons.
We can do better than what we've got, but nobody is willing to put in the cash when it's cheaper and easier to just tinker with barrel lengths and then make a 'new' brass cartridge that's very like any number of off-the-shelf hunting cases except that it's been made especially for the military at great expense (and profit), but not so great an expense as switching to careless and having to build whole new ammunition factories.