40 mm Cased Telescoped Weapon System

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The 40 mm Cased Telescoped Weapon System (CTWS) , sometimes referred to as the 40 mm Cased Telescoped Armament System (CTAS) , is developed by CTA International, a partnership between BAE Systems and Nexter . For the first time, telescopic cartridges are to be used in a machine gun in order to reduce dimensions and weight.

Development history

In 1994, the French armaments group Giat and the British Royal Ordnance founded Cased Telescoped Ammunition International (CTA International, CTAI) to jointly develop a machine gun for firing telescopic cartridges . The first studies concerned a system with a caliber of 45 mm. In 1997 the caliber was finally set at 40 mm and work on the cannon, ammunition and ammunition feed began. As of 1999, the United States Department of Defense was also involved to investigate integration into the tower of the FSCS / TRACER and the M2 / M3 Bradley . A weapon system was also mounted on a Bradley and firing tests were carried out. In 2002 a contract was signed with the UK and French Defense Ministries to conduct studies and reduce development risk. Another contract followed in 2004 to investigate the integration of the weapon into the manned British MTIP tower and into the unmanned French TOUTATIS tower. The expansion of the joint venture took place in 2005 when it was decided to develop weapons, ammunition, ammunition extraction, actuators and fire control. Ultimately, the system was selected by the UK Department of Defense in 2008 from the FRES Scout's main weapon and the Warrior upgrade . Since then, test shots have been carried out with the weapon system and the ammunition in order to achieve series production readiness for the FRES Scout and Warrior.

technology

Weapon system

British armored personnel carrier "Warrior" with MTIP2 turret and 40 mm CTWS

With telescopic cartridges, the metal case completely encloses the projectile surrounded by the propellant charge. When fired, the projectile emerges telescopically from the propellant charge. From the outside, the cartridge resembles a beverage can . Due to the very compact design, 30% less space is required for the same firepower, or 30% more destruction is possible with the same space requirement. The dimensions of the 40-CT weapon system are comparable to those of the Bushmaster II . Overall, this should significantly reduce the logistics effort.

The externally powered automatic cannon works as follows: The magazine contains the cartridges, which are stored there beltless like stacked logs. Depending on the application, there can still be a considerable distance between the magazine and the cartridge chamber of the weapon, which is bridged by a conveyor system . The shooter can choose between two types of ammunition, whereby the change should take less than three seconds. The chamber is mounted rotating at the level of the trunnion . The lock rotates through 90 °, then the cartridge is inserted along the trunnion. The breech now rotates back 90 ° so that the projectile is aligned with the barrel of the weapon system. When firing, the barrel and breech run back; the barrel is equipped with a muzzle brake to dampen the recoil. During the advance, the chamber rotates again by 90 °. Once at the starting position, the empty case is pushed out by pushing in a new bullet on the opposite side (“push-through” concept). The cycle now starts all over again. Here, a cadence be achieved of 200 rounds per minute.

With a gun barrel caliber length of 70, the spread is <0.35 lines for APFSDS projectiles and <1 line for the multi-purpose projectile at a distance of 1500 m. The service life of the weapon system is at least 10,000 rounds, up to 30,000 cycles have been tested in experiments. The entire weapon system weighs 320 kg, with the moving masses accounting for around 230 kg.

ammunition

Various telescopic cartridges for the CT cannon

All types of ammunition have been developed as insensitive ammunition according to STANAG 4439 in order to minimize secondary effects in the event of enemy hits. The dimensions of the cylindrical cartridges are 255 × 65 mm. Two main types of ammunition were developed for the 40-CT cannon, an APFSDS projectile and a multi-purpose grenade:

  • General Purpose Round (GPR): The multi-purpose projectile is comparable to the 3P shell for the 40 mm Bofors gun , but has a round instead of a pointed head. The bullet mass is 1000 grams, the steel mass is 750 g. The explosives contained weigh about 120 grams. The grenade can detonate with impact or air ignition. The detonation point of the air ignition is inductively programmed into the bullet in the cartridge chamber. The air detonation covers an area of ​​12 m × 40 m (length × width) with splinters, whereby an area of ​​6 m × 16 m against opponents lying down with CRISAT protective vests has a destruction probability of> 50%. With impact ignition, up to 210 mm of reinforced concrete can be penetrated. The muzzle velocity is around 1035 m / s. At about 700 m the speed has already fallen below 700 m / s.
  • Armor Piercing Fin-Stabilized Discarding Sabot Tracer (APFSDS-T): Sub-caliber bullet made of a tungsten alloy, which is guided through the barrel with an aluminum sabot . The guide band is made of nylon . The four-part tail unit at the rear of the monoblock penetrator is made of steel and contains the tracer set. The monoblock penetrator has a mass of 250 grams, a length of 165 mm and a diameter of 10.3 mm. The BTU7 bulk propellant is used as the propellant. The muzzle velocity is around 1600 m / s. The penetration power is 175 mm RHA at close range, and drops almost linearly to 125 mm RHA in 3000 meters. This should be able to fight targets up to the T-55 .
  • Case Telescoped Guided Projectile (CTGP): Guided sub-caliber projectile with a warhead made of a tungsten alloy with a self-destructing charge . The muzzle velocity is around Mach 3. In principle, a laser-guided Starstreak HVM dart should be fired from the 40-CT cannon. The bullet tip consists of a rotating steel section with canards and gyro, which is connected to a tungsten body via a roller bearing. This contains the batteries and the dismantling charge. At the stern is a steel component that contains the optical receiver for the laser and the four tail units. Since the electronics must withstand acceleration forces of 50,000 g and be compact, the new gyro was designed as a microsystem . The first test shots took place in June 2004. The projectile is intended to increase the effective range of the 40-CT cannon against maneuvering targets to 4.5 km, with the ammunition being priced between a VSHORADS (e.g. Stinger ) and the GPR.
  • Training Practice Tracer (TP-T): Training bullet with tracer set and a muzzle velocity of around 1040 m / s and a mass of 980 grams to simulate the General Purpose Round (GPR). Does not contain a warhead.
  • Target Practice Reduced Range Tracer (TP-RR-T): Training bullet with tracer set and reduced range. The trajectory corresponds to the GPR up to a distance of 1500 m. The bullet uses a plastic sleeve.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c ARL: Initial Evaluation of the CTA International 40-mm Cased Telescoped Weapon System
  2. ↑ a b c d CTA International: CTAS Maturity Briefing ( Memento from June 5, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 866 kB)
  3. ↑ a b c d e f CTA International: 40mm CTWS Supporting UK and France ( Memento from November 11, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 3.9 MB)
  4. ↑ a b c d CTA International: Guns and Ammo Symposium 2003 ( Memento from May 11, 2012 in the Internet Archive )