Posted on 01/18/2011 5:14:39 PM PST by heiss
(Dagbladet): One and a half years after the newspaper Dagbladet revealed major problems with the Armed Forces' new environmental ammunition, considering the military to stop the use of lead-free ammunition and reintroduce traditional lead balls.
Defence Management admits that they now have a significant challenge in dealing with problems with the new ammunition, and that the extent of physical health problems among soldiers who use it only on the increase.
Doctors in the Armed Forces are more and more reports of soldiers who are sick for days after the shooting with lead-free ammunition
(Excerpt) Read more at translate.google.com ...
Norway started to use eco-friendly (lead-free) ammo and went ahead even when presented the dangers. Now they have admitted the disaster and are hopefully going back to the old-fashion ammo.
Memo to army: Don't listen to eco-leftists.
From what I’ve gathered from the article, the ammo is causing something called “metal fever” in the troops. I found this on Wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metal_fume_fever
Does anyone know what they used as a replacement?
LOL. Hope the ill soldiers fully recover.
Sure would be nice to know.
Usually tungsten, copper or various copper alloys.
Looks like the trouble comes from zinc, magnesium, and cadmium oxide fumes.
Mercury was my guess. Shooting at werewolves and vampires should be banned.
?????????? Are they going back to muzzle loaders? Oh -- I get it...just another dumbass, know-nothing reporting trying to sound like he knows something about firearms.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
I imagine that's going to be effective but really, really expensive. I know that commercial solid copper hunting bullets, such as the Barnes X-Bullet, are more than twice as expensive as traditional copper-clad lead bullets.
The reporter said: "reintroduce traditional lead balls"
I believe it would have been coreect to say:
reintroduce traditional lead ball cartridges (or ammo).
But saying "lead balls" does harken back to muzzle loaders.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
It reminds me a lot of our mandated switch to light bulbs that contain mercury.
It's utterly absurd; something commonly used has a largely theoretical environmental hazard potential and so we willy-nilly, without carefully thinking through all the possible consequences, switch to something much more probably hazardous.
An ordinary light bulb is generally only hazardous if you break it; you might cut yourself on the glass. These new ones contain mercury. I work in health care, and you can't find a mercury thermometer nor sphygmomanometer these days for love nor money, because the mercury is hazardous. We're putting it in everyone's house, though, in their light bulbs!
We've used lead ammunition for generations without poisoning ourselves, for the most part, but the lead is "harzardous" so an army switches to steel ammo and now they may be giving their people lung problems!
I am really, really sick and tired of environmentalists.
Ahh. Sorry. Guess I skimmed over it too fast.
Who was the Georgia Governor who told the world that John Kerry wanted the military to use “SPIT BALLS”?
I read an article on this. They use the frontal lobes of liberals. As the densest matter known to man, it was thought to be a good substitute for lead.
However, upon rapid acceleration it becomes a blackhole.. er maybe ashhole.. I do not remember.
Any rate it causes a regression to pre-cognative thought in any who are exposed to it.
My head is spinning.
The revised bullet construction was difficult to manufacture. When U.S. troops were heavily involved in ground combat in Iraq, Lake City Army Ammunition Depot could not supply enough “green” 5.56 NATO ammunition. The only manufacturer that could was Israeli Military Industries, Ltd. Due to PC concerns by the Bush State Department, IMI-produced ammo was shipped to the U.S. and only issued to U.S. troops. Lake City produced ammo went to Iraq for combat use. The reason: use of IMI ammo might “offend” Muslim allies!
Meanwhile, there were concerns that the “green” bullets posed heavy metal pollution problems for ground water. Red flags started to go up as early as 2003. By 2006, The Army at Camp Edwards, MA discovered the tungsten powder from the bullets was leaching into the sandy soil of the military reservation. A groundwater sample taken that year beneath one of the small arms ranges showed concentrations as high as 560 parts per billion.
Such was the Army's concern that it went back to using the earlier production M855 ammunition with lead and mild steel core. Production of the tungsten-nylon projectiles was suspended and Lake City went back to the older mild steel-lead core version.
Starting in 2009, the Army began issue of its new, second generation “green” 5.56 NATO cartridge, the M855 LFS (lead free slug). The new Lake City projectile uses a bismuth-tin core and uses an improved propellant, has reduced flash, increased velocity, and better aerodynamics. The new M855 LFS projectile does not use conventional FMJ construction. Unlike current M855, the dark gray steel penetrator of the new M855 LFS extends through the jacket nose. The M855 LFS was redesignated the M855A1 in 2010.
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