Textron Systems NGSW Rifle and LMG

[LRRPF52]

Ammunition is normally stored in sealed containers, so no matter what the material is, it will be isolated and insulated from UV, moisture, and temperature (unless you leave the crates out in extremes in violation of ammo handler/HAZMAT regs).

LSAT with Textron was using medical-grade polymer, which is a different ballgame than what some of the early hybrid ammo manufacturers were doing and failing with.

The cartridges that have metallic heads and polymer bodies are more of a conventional overall form factor, whereas CT ammo is basically a cylinder that doesn’t need a claw extractor.

The major obstacle is industrial-based, where you have to scale and build a mass-production infrastructure for cranking out high quality polymer components. It’s a major growing pain from a machinability standpoint, but once the code is cracked, you’ll be able to crank out more volume with far less processes compared to brass. Brass cases require multiple forming and sizing operations that are tedious even from a machining standpoint.

CT is able to maintain far better concentricity with projectile alignment using the front cap even compared to the highest quality brass cases and precision ammunition manufacturing processes.

I think you’d see brass case oxidization before you’d see any deterioration of the CT cases and the front caps over time. Where we see the most problems with ammunition storage is the actual uncased, issued ammo stored in magazines.

Given the direction that 3D printing is headed, I these types of cases are already accessible to the 3D DIY crowd.

You could develop a 3D printed file right now if you wanted with some of the resins and compounds that are currently available.

A batch of cases and plugs could be printed in large batches per print run, depending on the printer size.

There are extremely tough UV-based printers that grow the parts out of a liquid solution that sits in a transparent tray.

Each microscopic layer is UV-fused and added to from the bottom.




You can print metal as well, including stainless, Titanium, Inconel, aluminum, whatever will sinter in the emerging and maturing market of 3D metal printers. You could print your own projectiles even in a time of scarcity.

We live in an era where massive changes are happening in how things can be designed, tested, instrumented, and refined for production.