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M1128 - 155mm Artillery Projectile

Picatinny Arsenal engineers are improving artillery by extending its range, power and versatility by using an electrically-responsive method to control energetic materials such as propellants. "Electrically responsive" means that the materials are controlled by electricity. "Energetic materials" are items such as explosives, propellants and pyrotechnics. The Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center, or ARDEC, at Picatinny Arsenal, is part of the US Army Research, Development and Engineering Command at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland.

The Army uses artillery rounds that have two different types of motors for their extended range propellants. One is a base bleed motor, which gets some extended range over a normal round and burns right out of gun. The other is a rocket assist motor, which doesn't burn until it gets the top of its flight, before it boosts and increases the velocity of the projectile. Electric voltage could use one motor that does both. A low-voltage, right out of the gun, could get that base-bleed effect, and then hit it with a high voltage and get the rocket-assist effect, ultimately increasing the range over that which either motor can provide on its own.

Currently, one item that uses a base-bleed motor is the XM1128, an artillery round that can achieve a maximum range of 30 kilometers. Another device that uses a rocket-assist motor is the XM1113, an artillery round that can achieve a maximum range of 40 kilometers. To compare, that means that both the XM1128 and XM1113 can travel the length of more than 250 football fields, and that artillery rounds, using electric energetics, would potentially be able to travel farther. The XM1128 and XM1113 are both managed by the Project Manager Combat Ammunition Systems, or PM-CAS, which is part of the Program Executive Office for Ammunition at Picatinny. Increasing the propellant's extended range is simply one benefit of this project.

In 2009 Digital Solid State Propulsion, Inc., or DSSP, a contracting company in Las Vegas, demonstrated an energetic that could be controlled with electricity by using a compound known as hydroxylammonium nitrate, or HAN, an inorganic salt. DSSP's HAN-based formulation is a plastisol, a material that flows like a liquid but can be converted into a solid when heated.

The initial tests demonstrated that the contractor's material produced too much gas and remained unstable. The tests also showed that the material had compatibility issues with the weapon's metals. The Army finished working with DSSP in 2013. They simply couldn't continue working with their material.