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US 11,959,711 B1Granted
Recoilless gun and ammunition
AssigneeThe United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Army
InventorsFrank Dindl, Kenneth Jones
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A recoilless gun system, comprising a gun assembly and associated ammunition for use with the gun assembly employs an integral barrel and a rear inserted ammunition round. The recoilless gun system may combine a laser initiator and a polymer cased ammunition to enable a lightweight system. In such embodiments, the cartridge case is made from a polymer that resists high pressure before extruding into small gaps.
Claims16
A recoilless gun system comprising:
- a gun assembly further comprising:
- an integral barrel having a forward muzzle and a rear muzzle, and
- an initiator mounted on said integral barrel for providing an initiation stimulus to a primer charge contained within the integral barrel;
- an ammunition round further comprising a frangible cartridge case comprising a front cavity housing a propellant and a payload and a rear cavity housing a ballast mass, said cartridge case having an exterior surface defining a plurality of scored regions along a forward portion of the exterior surface, each of the scored regions extending longitudinally from a front of the cartridge surface and a plurality of scored regions along a rear portion of the exterior surface, each of the scored regions extending longitudinally from a back of the cartridge case;
- the primer charge situated between said front cavity and rear cavity and ignited by the initiation device to initiate the payload propellant;
- and wherein to operate, the ammunition round is inserted in the rear muzzle of the integral barrel said primer charge is ignited by the initiator and the ballast mass is propelled out of the rear muzzle to counteract the force of the ejecting payload out of the forward muzzle and wherein the cartridge case is configured to break up and be propelled out of the forward muzzle and rear muzzle of the integral barrel with the ballast mass and the payload.
3 more elements
A recoilless gun system comprising:
- a gun assembly further comprising an integral barrel having a forward muzzle and a rear muzzle, and
- a laser initiator mounted on said integral barrel proximate a hole extending through the barrel such that the output of the laser initiator is communicable to a cartridge case located within the interior of the barrel;
- an ammunition round further comprising
- said cartridge case is a frangible polymer cartridge case comprising a front cavity housing a propellant and a payload and a rear cavity housing a ballast mass, said cartridge case having an exterior surface defining a plurality of scored regions along a forward portion of the exterior surface, each of the scored regions extending longitudinally from a front of the cartridge surface and a plurality of scored regions along a rear portion of the exterior surface, each of the scored regions extending longitudinally from a back of the cartridge case,
- a primer charge situated between said front cavity and rear cavity and ignited by the initiation device to initiate the propellant;
- and wherein the ammunition round is inserted in the rear muzzle of the integral barrel and said primer charge is ignited by the laser initiator and the ballast mass is propelled out of the rear muzzle to counteract the force of the ejecting payload out of the forward muzzle and wherein the cartridge case is configured to break up and be propelled out of the forward muzzle and rear muzzle of the integral barrel with the ballast mass and the payload.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.