Russia Develops Plastic Based 30mm Cartridges for Light Artillery

Russian small-caliber ammunition manufacturer SPA Pribor has developed a new generation of small caliber (30 mm etc.) cartridges with plastic master device (PMD) that enhancing the combat efficiency and gun barrel service life.

These cartridges are being offered by Russia to India for the 30 mm guns on its BMP-2 APCs and other combat platforms, Russian sources said.

Moscow-based SPA Pribor (Scientific Production Company Pribor, part of Rostec’s Tecmash concern) is the only Russian developer of small-caliber ammunition for automatic guns for the Air Force, Land Force and Navy, as well as shots for automatic, rifle and hand grenade launchers.

Pribor is also the developer of automatic anti-personnel complexes. It has created shells for such famous systems as ZU-23 23 mm anti-aircraft gun and ZSU-23-4 Shilka self-propelled anti-aircraft gun which are still in service with dozens of countries.

The result of years of research in the field of small-caliber ammunition development by Pribor was the creation of new generation of 30 mm cartridges with projectiles with plastic master device (PMD), maximally unified for all the military services. It provides the substantial increase of combat and operational capabilities in comparison with basic cartridges with copper lead band (CLB). PMD is thermally stable composite polymer material, which has unique combination of physico-chemical and physico-mechanical features. Cartridges with PMD in comparison with CLB ones provide:

• Increase of survivability of barrel more than 2 times
• Increase of fire performance up to 3 times due to the possibility of using intensive shooting modes
• Reduce of the temperature effect of propellant charge on ballistic characteristics due to the use of low-gradient powder
• Increase of exploitation safety of projectiles due to the use of heat resistant elements in the compound of fuses.

PMD ammunition has already successfully completed the state trials in Russia and is being offered abroad. “We have managed to reduce the influence of the leading belt on the bore to prevent the loss of the ballistic characteristics of the shot. The plastic master device, as compared with copper lead band, provides an increase in barrel survivability, fire performance, and reduces the effect of fire temperature”, - says Yury Nabokov, CEO of Pribor, quoted by Russian media.

Pribor earlier disclosed to RIA Novosti news agency that new generation PMD ammunition was to be fitted into the Russian Su-57 fifth generation fighter jet automatic gun along with other aircraft and helicopters.