Environmentally friendly bullets

Imposter

Pentagon in bid to make green-friendly bullets

http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=10&si=1041233&issue_id=9755

Nice to see the pentagon is so thoughtful. Favourite line in the article:

"They'll still kill you, the thinking seems to be, but at least the environment will not suffer so much."

Beruthiel

could you post the full article Imposter
as I have to log in otherwise

gandalf

Heres the article for all you non unison registered people.

This is the stuff classic black comedies are made of. I actually find reading that quite surreal.

Gandalf.

Pentagon in bid to make green-friendly bullets



THE Pentagon is spending millions of dollars to develop "environmentally friendly" lead-free bullets for all of the US armed forces.

They'll still kill you, the thinking seems to be, but at least the environment will not suffer so much.

"(With lead bullets) there is a cost in terms of health, human safety and cleanup. . . . This is not a fire-and-forget kind of thing," said Bob DiMichele, a spokesman for the US Army's environmental centre. "Eventually we have to pay somebody to go out there and clean up that lead."

The Pentagon is paying Minnesota-based Alliant, the world's largest ammunition maker, $5m to develop lead-free combat bullets for the army.

Earlier this year, the company received a $25m contract from the US airforce for copper polymer bullets that will not ricochet if fired in an urban area.

The army had been testing unleaded bullets for use on target ranges. The new bullets would also be for use in combat situations. "We want (Alliant) to develop one lead-free bullet that will work all the time," said Mr DiMichele. "One that can kill you or that you can shoot a target with and that's not an environmental hazard. We are talking about green ammunition for pistols, rifles and machine guns."

Alliant's vice-president, Mark de Young, said the task of finding a lead-free alternative was not straightforward. "It's just harder to make good bullets without lead," he said. "We are trying to replicate the good performance of lead, but what we have is not as good. If lead were not toxic, we would not be having this conversation. It's the best." (© Independent News Service)

Andrew Buncombe
in Washington

Rolo Tomasi

They hope to phase out lead bullets because they are concerned about the health risks and clean up costs but yet there is no mention of plans to phase out the use of depleted uranium tipped bullets. There's even a refusal to investigate the after effect of such weapons on allied soldiers, not to mention people injured by these weapons.

Wook

maybe they can invent 'organic' clusterbombs as well ?

Victor

Part of the problem, more so with shot than bullets is birds mistake them for pebbles and swallow them (birds have a gullet full of pebbles to break down food, as they have no teeth). Consequently the birds get lead poisoning and this works it's way up the food chain.

SkepticOne

Now they will have to shout "eat copper polymer" rather than the more traditional "eat lead."

Wook

Originally posted by SkepticOne
Now they will have to shout "eat copper polymer" rather than the more traditional "eat lead."

bonkey

Eventually we have to pay somebody to go out there and clean up that lead.

Maybe we should be asking who they pay to go and clean up the DU as well???

jc

Sparks

Oddly enough for a firearms issue, this isn't new, and it isn't being lead by a DoD somewhere, though they've got the largest budget. Target shooters have been pushed by know-nothing environmental groups about this for decades:

"Lead shot hurts the birdies, why don't you use steel instead?"
"Well, because if we did, the lower compressibility of steel would lead to overpressure in the barrel of the gun, which would then explode in our faces in the worst case, and destroy the gun in the best case."
"But....but...but....you use a mix of lead, arsenic and antimony! Won't that poison everything?"
"Yes, it will. That's why we have target ranges instead of just shooting in any open field. And why indoor ranges are built with good ventilation and why we collect the lead and sell it off to scrap merchants that have the facilities to repurify it and use it again later."

Turns out, though, that lead shot isn't as big an environmental problem in open fields from hunting as you'd think. Because the shot is so large compared to natural lead grains, there's far less surface area to shed lead traces into the water table. Hence, natural lead sources tend to have a larger effect than lead shot, except around target ranges, which are specifically built with that problem in mind.

Mind you, at least our rounds aren't designed to be fired at other humans...

dathi1

Now they will have to shout "eat copper polymer" rather than the more traditional "eat lead."

u kill me!

Scruff

ratatatatataa! nnnnneeeew - Ka BOOOM!
<supply corp newbie>"WHAT CAN I GET YE SOLDIER"

<Grunt 1>"I need 40 unleaded!"

<supply corp newbie>"WHAT???"

<Grunt 1>"I SAID I NEED 40" KABOOM "-ED RIGHT NOW!"

more gunfire noise

<supply corp newbie>"HERE YE GO, HAPPY SHOOTING"
runs off to next dude

<Grunt 2> "HEADS UP THEY'RE RIGHT ON TOP OF US!!"

Grunt 1 reloads and aims
<Grunt 1>"DIE YOU MOTHER****ING {insert slang for enemy of U.S. here} !! YEAHHH!!!"

His gun roars back into action ratata-click-click

<GRUNT 1>"what the??? It aint working!!!"

<Grunt 2>"**** dude, he must have given u the old leaded bullets for the older model!!"

<Grunt 1>"God damn green ass delivery boy....I thought the first thing you learned these days was not to put leaded into an unleaded machine!!"

turns to face the oncoming horde

<Grunt1>"oh ****......"

{insert enemies language for "Die american infadel\imperialist\captatalist\Microsoft peadler"}

andrew163

MY GAWD!!!!!!!! environmentally-friendly bullets is the stupidest thing ive ever heard...........

the aim of environmentally friendly bullets would be to save the environment, which means saving lives........in the VERY long term, but the whole point of a bullet is to KILL!!!! :rolleyes:


and LOL @ Scruff and ScepticOne