Its about time!


Army begins shipping improved 5.56mm cartridge


PICATINNY ARSENAL, N.J. - The Army announced today it has begun shipping its new 5.56mm cartridge, the M855A1 Enhanced Performance Round, to support the warfighter in Afghanistan.

The new round replaces the current M855 5.56mm cartridge that has been used by U.S. troops since the early 1980s.

The M855A1 resulted in a number of significant enhancements not found in the current round. These include improved hard target capability, more dependable, consistent performance at all distances, improved accuracy, reduced muzzle flash and a higher velocity.

During testing the M855A1 performed better than current 7.62mm ball ammunition against certain types of targets, blurring the performance differences that previously separated the two rounds.

The projectile incorporates these improvements without adding weight or requiring additional training.

According to Lt. Col. Jeffrey K. Woods, the program's product manager here, the projectile is "the best general purpose 5.56mm round ever produced."

Woods said its fielding represents the most significant advancement in general purpose small caliber ammunition in decades.

The Enhanced Performance Round contains an environmentally friendly projectile that eliminates up to 2,000 tons of lead from the manufacturing process each year in direct support of Army commitment to environmental stewardship.

Woods said the effort is a clear example of how "greening" a previously hazardous material can also provide extremely beneficial performance improvements.

Picatinny Arsenal's Project Manager for Maneuver Ammunition Systems manages the M855A1 program.

Project Manager Chris Grassano called the fielding the culmination of an Army enterprise effort by a number of organizations, particularly the Army Research Laboratory, Armament Research Development and Engineering Center, Program Executive Office for Ammunition and the Joint Munitions Command.

"The Army utilized advanced science, modeling and analysis to produce the best 5.56mm round possible for the warfighter," he said.

The M855A1 is tailored for use in the M4 Weapon System but also vastly improves the performance of the M16 and M249 families of weapons.

A true general purpose round, the M855A1 exceeds the performance of the current M855 against the many different types of targets likely to be encountered in combat.

Prior to initial production, the EPR underwent vigorous testing. Official qualification of the round consisted of a series of side-by-side tests with the current M855.

Overall, the Army fired more than 1 million rounds to ensure the new cartridge met or exceeded all expectations. The M855A1 is without question the most thoroughly tested small caliber round ever fielded, Woods said.

The Army has recently completed the Limited Rate Initial Production (LRIP) phase for the M855A1 and is beginning the follow-on full rate production phase where they plan to procure more than 200 millions rounds over the next 12-15 months.

The M855A1 Enhanced Performance Round is the first environmentally friendly bullet resulting from a larger "greening" effort across the Army's Small Caliber Ammunition programs. Other greening efforts include 5.56mm tracer, 7.62mm ball and green primers.

Soldiers in Afghanistan will begin using the new, improved round in the summer of 2010. The M855A1 clearly demonstrates that the Army is providing America's warfighters the best possible ammunition.

Ive been looking, and cant seem to find any info about this round. Any one know a good resource or can find a review on this, please post.

New U.S. Army 5.56 Rounds Head to Afghanistan
By Scott R. Gourley in Land Forces under Defense Technology, Featured, News with 2 comments

On June 23, 2010, U.S. Army representatives announced that they had started shipping that service’s new 5.56mm cartridge, designated the M855A1 Enhanced Performance Round, to support warfighters in Afghanistan.

The new M855A1 round, which will replace the current M855 5.56mm cartridge that has been used by U.S. troops since the early 1980s, is sometimes referred to as “green ammo” since it contains an environmentally friendly projectile that reportedly eliminates up to 2,000 tons of lead from the manufacturing process each year.

The Army launched the M855A1 program in September 2005 as a Congressionally mandated initiative to replace the lead core M855 cartridge. In addition, the program focused efforts on developing a new round that would address what service planners dubbed “perceived shortcomings” with the current M855 used in short barreled weapons like the M4.

According to program participants, the program team, comprised of Project Manager, Maneuver Ammunition Systems (PM-MAS), Army Research Laboratory (ARL), U.S. Army Armaments Research Development and Engineering Center (ARDEC), and ATK team members, evaluated more than 20 potential projectile designs before moving forward with a three-piece, reverse-jacket bullet design incorporating a hardened steel penetrator and lead-free slug.

While Army representatives highlight ballistic test results for the new M855A1 cartridge that showed “improved performance over M855 at both long and short ranges, and across an array of target sets,” the round raised eyebrows following recent reports that the Marine Corps dropped plans to field the M855A1 in favor of fielding the special operations’ MK 318 Mod 0 for Marines in Afghanistan.


The M855A1 uses a reverse-jacketed copper projectile with a hardened steel tip and contains no lead. Courtesy photo via U.S. Army.
In announcing the late June 2010 shipment of the M855A1 round to Army warfighters, service representatives highlighted “a number of significant enhancements not found in the current round. These include improved hard target capability, more dependable, consistent performance at all distances, improved accuracy, reduced muzzle flash and a higher velocity.”

“During testing the M855A1 performed better than current 7.62mm ball ammunition against certain types of targets, blurring the performance differences that previously separated the two rounds,” the announcement read, and continued, “The projectile incorporates these improvements without adding weight or requiring additional training.”

Describing the projectile as “the best general purpose 5.56mm round ever produced,” Lt. Col. Jeffrey K. Woods, M855A1 product manager, characterized the fielding as ”the most significant advancement in general purpose small caliber ammunition in decades.”

U.S. Army Project Manager, Maneuver Ammunition Systems Chris Grassano called the fielding “the culmination of an Army enterprise effort by a number of organizations, particularly the Army Research Laboratory, Armament Research Development and Engineering Center, Program Executive Office for Ammunition and the Joint Munitions Command.

“The Army utilized advanced science, modeling and analysis to produce the best 5.56mm round possible for the warfighter,” he said.

The M855A1 is tailored for use in the M4 weapon system, but is also credited with “vastly” improving the performance of the M16 and M249 families of weapons.

Pointing to “more than one million” M855A1 rounds fired during testing to date, program representatives noted that the new cartridge recently completed the limited rate initial production (LRIP) phase and is beginning the follow-on full rate production phase where they plan to procure more than 200 million rounds over the next 12-15 months.

Soldiers in Afghanistan will begin using the M855A1 in the summer of 2010

I've been unable to locate any defined test results for about 3 weeks now. No joy on getting any actual ballistics results. Guess we'll have to wait and see what the battlefield assessment is.

If all follows suit they will replace something that works well with something that is a POS. Government policy 101. On the good side maybe I can stock up on green tips for a decent price

Due to some ammo issues right now, my group has a full combat load with 1/3 red tip, 1/3 green tip, 1/3 orange tip LOL!

V/R

Wouldn't it be nice if the new ammo availability would cause the price of SS109 to come down?

JFH506,
i have noticed one or two of your latest posts and thought I would give you a small "Heads up". You may want to check the dates of some of these threads before you tack on a post of your own. Necroposting can be frowned upon unless you have something substantial to add or otherwise update to the topic.