Re: [HoE] Caseless ammo and modern weapons

["Eric Young" <ecyoung@mediaone.net>]

>One thing about modern technology and its viability and affordability.  I
recently
>saw the new infantry weapon written up in (I think) Popular Mechanics
magazine.  I
>once was talking to someone in Boston who was shocked by a similar
write-up of the
>Stealth fighter.  When he next saw his uncle, who worked in the Skunk
Works, he
>asked him why the US government allowed people to publish such specific
>information about our most advanced weapon systems.  His reply:  "Oh,
that?  I
>remember seeing plans for those back in the 1970s."

Quite true, unless we're fighting a war by the time we hear about new
weapons systems they're probably outdated or close to it.

>
>We don't see most weapon systems until they are viable and producable at a
>"reasonable" price (although I could probably live the cost of the wing of
the
>F-111 for a year quite comfortably).  I am more inclined to go along with
the idea
>that, with an apocalypse, more common weapons would be more likely to be
found.


In 100 years you probably won't be able to find cased ammo weapons at all,
since caseless ammo is cheaper and more efficient. It will be like trying
to find black powder weapons these days. Sure you can do it, but they're
not nearly as common.

>
>Oh, I think I can also supply the answer of why flechette rounds did not
find
>there way into common military usage.  They were deployed in small numbers
in
>Vietnam and were determined to be against the Geneva Convention based on
their
>tendancy to bend and fragment after entering the body and not exiting.
This
>resulted in massive internal trauma with a very small entrance wound and
no exit
>wound.  Medical personel could not accurately diagnose how serious the
wounds
>were.


Which is exactly why flechette weapons would be so much more effective and
therefore more common. There's also the fact that in spite of the Geneva
Convention the US Army is still continuing with their XM70 project (a
flechette firing assault rifle).
But then the Geneva convention said the same thing about machineguns,
chemical weapons, white phosporus, shotguns, hollow point bullets, etc...
These weapons are all around, and in use. Of course some have
"restrictions" on they're use (ie firing 12.7mm machineguns at equipment
only. "I was aimming for his web gear, that's equipment..."), but these are
often ignored in combat.


Eric Young