From 2 to 5 April 2019, a major exhibition LAAD-2019 was held in Brazil. This international exhibition, which is held in close cooperation with the Brazilian Ministry of Defense, has already been held 12 times. The main purpose of this exhibition is to present various models of aviation and defense systems. Russian enterprises also took part in the exhibition. In particular, the Tekhmash holding, which is organizationally part of the state corporation Rostec, presented new models of ammunition in Latin America.
At the exhibition in Rio de Janeiro, the Techmash holding presented almost three times more ammunition than it was at the previous LAAD-2017 exhibition. Vladimir Lepin, who holds the post of General Director of Techmash, noted that such an increase in the Russian exposition can be explained both by the company's plans to increase the volume of cooperation with Latin American states, and by the manifestation of interest from the countries of the region in Russian-made products.
Among other exhibits at the exhibition were also new 30-mm ammunition for aircraft guns: with an armor-piercing tracer projectile and a high-explosive incendiary projectile. A distinctive feature of the new Russian cartridges was the presence of plastic leading devices, for this reason, many media outlets called these cartridges plastic, which is incorrect.
30-mm shells with a plastic lead device for aircraft cannons have been developed in Russia over the past several years, the research and production association Pribor, which is part of the Mechanical Engineering Technologies holding, is working in this direction, the company's headquarters is located in Moscow. The cartridges presented at the exhibition are suitable for the line of domestic 30-mm aircraft guns GSh-30, GSh-30K, GSh-30-1 and GSh-6-30, which can be found on Russian combat aircraft Su-25, Su-27, MiG- 29, on combat helicopters Mi-24P and other air carriers of this weapon. The main competitive advantage of such ammunition is the increase in the operational characteristics of aviation artillery systems, which is achieved through the effective use of cartridges and an increase in the service life of the barrels.
Modern 30-mm ammunition, photo: rostec.ru
It is worth noting that this is far from the debut of such ammunition. The Russian media reported about the adoption of 30-mm ammunition with a plastic master device (PVU) back in 2016, and in 2017, similar shells were demonstrated within the framework of the Army-2017 international military-technical forum. At about the same time, representatives of Rostec reported that the aircraft cannon installed on the Russian fifth generation Su-57 fighter would be equipped with 30-mm ammunition with PVU, which significantly increases the very effectiveness of such artillery systems, especially when firing long queues.
Currently, it is known that NPO Pribor produces at least three variants of such ammunition with PVU: 30-mm cartridge 9-A-1609 with high-explosive incendiary projectile; 9-A1610 with an armor-piercing tracer projectile (penetration of up to 20 mm armor located at an angle of 60 degrees from 1000 meters); 9-A-1611 with a multi-element projectile (28 submunitions weighing 3.5 grams each). Apparently, the production of these ammunition is carried out today in the Noginsk branch of NPO Pribor, where a new fully automated production line was built. The TASS agency reported on the start of the production of new ammunition on August 13, 2016.
It is worth noting that the new 30-mm ammunition, of course, is not plastic, the main elements in their production are still metals. Only the leading belts are made of plastic. Such a design solution makes it possible to significantly increase the combat effectiveness of domestic small-caliber automatic artillery systems. As Sergey Rusakov, who served as General Director of the Tekhmash holding, said in 2016, 30-mm ammunition produced using the new technology should contribute to solving one of the most pressing problems of all small-caliber automatic weapons - mechanical wear of the barrel bore. should immediately increase the survivability of such artillery installations two or three times. "Cartridges with PVU as part of sea-based automatic cannons increase the survivability of barrels up to three times at once (in the normal mode of firing), and the survivability of aircraft cannons can increase six times at once," Sergei Rusakov told Russian journalists in 2016. Also, according to the former General Director of Tekhmash, the new 30-mm ammunition with plastic guides has a 7-8 percent increase in initial flight speed, as well as improved ballistic parameters, which all together leads to an increase in the combat effectiveness of Russian small-caliber artillery systems.
In itself, the creation of ammunition with plastic master devices is not something unique in the weapons world. Back in the 1970s, similar 30-mm projectiles were developed in the United States specifically for the GAU-8 Avenger aircraft cannon, which was developed for the A-10 Tunderbolt II attack aircraft. To this day, this seven-barreled aircraft gun with a rotating block of barrels, built according to the Gatling scheme, is one of the most powerful examples of aircraft artillery weapons. The rate of fire of the new gun was so high that American engineers had to create a new ammunition with a wide plastic guide belt, this was done to extend the service life (survivability) of the barrel. In addition, the casings for the cartridges of this artillery gun began to be produced from aluminum instead of the traditional brass or steel, this solution allowed the designers to increase the ammunition load of the entire installation by a third with a fixed mass, which was simply huge - the total mass of the system is 1830 kg, and the dimensions of this aircraft gun are practically any passenger car.
30mm GAU-8 cartridge (practical) - wide plastic lead belt. Nearby rifle cartridge 7, 62 × 63 mm
It should be noted that in practice, the leading belts are usually found in ammunition of 12, 7-mm and higher caliber. Leading belts, as you might guess from the name, are designed to guide ammunition along the bore and obturate the powder gases (sealing the bore at the time of the shot). Today, the bulk of the shells are produced with leading belts, which are made of copper-nickel alloys, copper or iron-ceramics. The use of plastic elements can significantly reduce heating and friction during the movement of the projectile in the bore of the artillery system. Plastic leading belts, protruding beyond the dimensions of the projectile, directly interact with the internal grooves of the barrel, which are necessary to impart rotation to the projectile. As noted above, they are most often made from soft metals to facilitate resistance. However, at a high rate of fire from the gun, the rifling of the barrel is quickly erased, which ultimately leads to its replacement. At the same time, the use of plastic elements in the design of ammunition makes it possible to postpone this moment.
In this regard, the appearance of leading belts made of plastic is a step forward for domestic artillery systems. The American edition of The National Interest highlighted the fact that Russian aviation artillery systems are famous for their very short barrel life. Referring to data published on Russian websites, journalist Charlie Gao noted that for the widely used GSh-30-1 aircraft gun, barrel survivability is estimated at 2,000 rounds. As a reverse example, he cited the American M39 20-mm aircraft cannon, the barrel survivability of which is estimated at 10,000 rounds. In this aspect, the effect of the use of new ammunition with PVU will be noticeable, since it increases the barrel service life several times, which automatically leads to an improvement in the situation with the repair of aviation artillery systems and their maintenance.
Su-25 attack aircraft fire from automatic cannons
For the Russian armed forces, the appearance of such ammunition is also important for the reason that 30-mm automatic cannons are almost the main artillery weapons of a huge number of armored combat vehicles and combat helicopters. The 30-mm 2A42 and 2A72 automatic cannons are standard weapons for numerous infantry and airborne combat vehicles, armored personnel carriers, the Terminator BMPT, as well as Mi-28 and Ka-52 attack helicopters. At the same time, for such artillery systems as the 2A42, a very high rate of fire was characteristic, which could reach 800 rounds per minute if the gun was used for firing in anti-aircraft mode. At the same time, for most western small-caliber automatic cannons installed on military equipment, the rate of fire is characteristic - up to 300 rounds per minute. The very high rate of fire of the 2A42 also has an obvious drawback - rapid barrel wear. In the event that 30-mm ammunition with plastic guides is used with this gun, the barrel life can be extended by quietly switching to anti-aircraft firing mode.
The same 30-mm ammunition is used with even faster-firing artillery systems: the 2A38 automatic cannons, which can be found on the Tunguska self-propelled anti-aircraft guns and the Pantsir-C1 self-propelled anti-aircraft missile and cannon system. The rate of fire of the 2A38 guns is up to 2000-2500 rounds per minute. When using standard 30-mm ammunition, the survivability of the barrels of this gun is estimated at 8 thousand rounds. In the event that this figure can be increased, it will be a very good step forward in all logistics operations, repair and replacement of barrels. And here the new Russian 30-mm ammunition with a plastic master device will come in handy.
"Tunguska" is firing from 2A38 cannons
