Rheinmetall Gmbh

Rheinmetall Industrie Aktiengesellschaft

Siegfried Kessler

Bernhard Bisping

Ulrich Theis

Heinz-Josef Kruse

Achim Sippel

Jurgen Meyer

Michael Vagedes

Horst Kantner

Cornelis Taal

Michaed Vagedes

A sub-caliber, spin stabilized multi-purpose projectile (FAPDS) made of a liquid phase sintered heavy metal sintered material composed essentially of metallic tungsten powder with additives of cobalt and nickel. To attain the highest final ballistic performance in lightly armored air and ground targets (e.g. aircraft, helicopters, armored personnel carriers) the present invention provides that the tungsten percentage of the projectile body lies between 90 and 99.5 weight percent, the density of the sintered material lies between 17.5 and 19.2 g/cm.sup.3 and the ratio of cobalt to nickel in the binder phase lies between 1:0.5 and 1:2.3, preferably 1:1.5. The projectile body according to the preferred embodiment of the invention is made of one piece and includes in its front portion a cylindrical pin for fastening of a projectile tip made of heat treatable steel. While ensuring stability during loading and firing, the projectile exhibits a highly sensitive, brittle matrix which develops in the sintered material only after the appropriate thermal treatment so that the projectile body, upon impact on the target, completely disintegrates upon encountering the slightest resistance and develops an optimum fragmentation effect.

Subcaliber, spin stabilized multi-purpose projectile

A subcaliber projectile including a segmented discardable propelling cage sabot which encloses at least a portion of the projectile body and has a common form-locking zone for the transfer of acceleration forces from the propelling cage to the projectile body. The form-locking zone has mating annular grooves and counter grooves on the exterior surface of the projectile body and on the interior surface of the propelling cage, and is subdivided into several form-locking zone regions in which the annular grooves have a different groove spacing that is adapted to the locally occurring shear stresses. These measures enhance simplification of the manufacturing process and result in an improvement of the release of the propelling cage sabot from the projectile body and in an increase in the target impact velocity of the projectile body.

Subcaliber projectile with sabot

A subcaliber, spin stabilized, discarding sabot projectile of the type including a projectile body, with a conically tapered tip, and a discardable sabot which completely encloses said projectile body and includes a base portion and a plastic hood portion connected to the base portion, and with the hood portion having an inner conical surface which contacts at least a portion of the conically tapered tip of the projectile body and being provided, on its circumferential surface, with a plurality of symmetrically disposed grooves which extend in the longitudinal direction of said projectile and form desired break locations along which the hood portion tears open into a plurality of segments after firing from a weapon and after the projectile has left the weapon muzzle. The plastic material of the hood portion of the sabot in the bottom of each of the longitudinal grooves, at least in the region of the conically tapered projectile tip, has such a small wall thickness that a given crack formation is already initiated when the discarding sabot projectile is introduced, in rapid succession, into a cartridge chamber of a weapon to cause the material to be slightly separated at the desired break locations.

Subcaliber discarding sabot projectile

Growing community of inventors

Dusseldorf, Germany

Siegfried Kessler