Army signals security & "Clansmen" series radios

[Owen Lewis]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ian G Batten" <I.G.Batten@ftel.co.uk>
Newsgroups: mail.ukcrypto
To: <ukcrypto@maillist.ox.ac.uk>
Sent: 11 September 2000 16:57
Subject: Re: Army signals security & "Clansmen" series radios


> I've read in several places that the ``NATO Standard'' 5.56mm isn't
> really a standard, in that M16A3, SA80, HK33, FAMAS and so on will not
> happily interchange ammunition.  I don't know if that's ``won't
> chamber'', or ``won't feed reliably'' or just ``isn't as accurate'', but
> it does call into question the merit of not staying with the original
> 4.85mm.

It's a complex subject (and totally off topic) so I'll keep this as short as
I can.

Fact 1. Bigger bullets kill better unless you drive little bullets very fast
and then do something to them to make them produce big wounds.

Fact 2. Some idiot dreamed up the theory that it is more effecient in war to
wound people nastily that it is to kill them. In NATO, this is defined as
the '30 sec knockdown principle'. In other words, you aim to produce a would
nasty enough to make a man fall over or sit down within 30 secs of being
hit. You make no attempt to ensure his quick death.

Fact 3. Big relatively shallow wounds produce great shock to the nervous
system without penetating to the vital organs whose rupture will caise a
quick death.

These little gems come together in the adoption of the 5.56 mm (.22 in)
calibre for military use. Since the bullet is titchy, one needs to do
something to it to make it cause a big wound and (preferably) not have much
penetration. The simple technique is to give it a hollow nose and a thin
jacket, so it effectively fragments like a mini grenade on or very shortly
after contact. But this is illegal in warfare since 1899 or thereabouts.
Therefore the same effect can be created by making the bullet only
marginally stable in flight, with the result that it will tumble end over
end as soon as it meets solid resistance.

In this way, we get to use on humanity a cartridge that it is considered
inhumane (unlawful even) to use on beasts heavier than about 25 kg because
of its lack of instant killing power. Even on beasts that size most prefer
to use a rather heavier bullet.

To do all this, the velocity of the bullet, the shape of the bullet and the
twist of the rifling and the barrel length have to be fairly critically
matched. Alter one and the wound effect and/or accuracy are drastically
effected. The best results are achieved by specifying the key
characteristics of the weapon and its ammunition together.

Interestingly, bullets fired from an SA80 tend to be very stable and not to
tumble. This makes them accurate on the range but makes it hard to ensure
than a man will go down as quickly as one might like. This in turn produces
extra expenditure of ammunition that significantly negates the logistic
benefits of using a smaller lighter cartridge. The infantryman's standard
load has not changed appreciably since the days of Wellington and Napoleon.


Owen