Martin Greer's carbine looks like this so far!
But … will this solve the food problem, as well as the proposed disposal of pig manure in underground tanks created by a nuclear explosion (!) Under the salt layers? There are even more extravagant proposals, but they all contain a lot of "would", which means they are quite far from reality.
Much more realistic is the assumption that people will continue to fight, but their weapons will increasingly depend on the prevailing production technology. Until quite recently, the dominant technology was the production of machine parts (and weapons!) On metal-cutting machines. Then it turned out that it was unprofitable to distill 5 kg of steel into shavings in order to obtain a product weighing 900 grams and that cutting technology was replaced by stamping and spot welding. Further - more: there were samples of the same small arms, in which more and more parts are made of plastic. Moreover, we are already talking about how to make pistols and machine guns entirely in 3D printing technology. Why are there pistols … grenade launchers and grenades for them, and even rockets and mines for mortars, they are already trying to make on 3D machines, and it turns out, although so far such a "pleasure" is not cheap.
Well, what other trends exist today in the development of small arms, besides such a potential direction of its production as 3D printing? After all, old samples are being printed so far, containing no constructive novelties!
There are also new items and there are many of them, and not all of them belong to the military field, but can be used in it. But let's start with purely military developments. It is reported that it is here in Russia that the development of hypersonic ammunition for hand-held small arms is about to be completed and this will be a revolution in the arms business. How they want to achieve this in the corresponding press releases does not say. At one time, the magazine "Tekhnika-molodezh" wrote that this is possible with the help of the so-called "gas shot", in which the bullet is ejected not by the gas pressure, but by a shock wave in the gas. That is, the principle itself seems to be simple and clear. There is a container, it contains explosives and compressed inert gas, and the hole from the "container" closes the bottom of the bullet. The charge is detonated, a shock wave arises in the gas, traveling with great speed, and now it just pushes the bullet out of the barrel. Such a principle will be implemented in this design or not - it is still unknown. But the benefits are obvious: first of all, it is a long range of a direct shot and an increased penetrating power of a bullet. You won't have time to blink, so to speak, as you are already killed! Moreover, at a distance greater than is possible with the existing speed indicators of modern weapons.
Well - everything was going towards this and sooner or later it had to end with this. Indeed, already in the middle of the 19th century, the speed of the bullet began to reach 400-500 m / s, but at the end of the rifle and machine guns, using smokeless powder, they were able to ensure the speed of bullets at the level of 700 - 800 m / s. Our "three-line" had a speed of 865 - 870 m / s, the British Li-Enfield rifle - 744 m / s, the Japanese "Arisaka" - 770 m / s. And this was considered quite a sufficient indicator, both for firing at enemy infantry and for hitting armored targets, however, only when they were covered with thin armor. Lebel's rifle did have an initial speed of 610-700 m / s, but despite this it could hit group targets (as shown by the fighting in Madagascar) even at a distance of 1800 m! Our domestic SV-98 sniper rifle has a bullet speed equal to that of a "three-line" bullet, and it is believed that in order to cope with "its duties", this is quite enough for it. The OSV-96 rifle has a caliber of 12.7 mm and the bullet speed is correspondingly higher - 900 m / s, but the aiming range is exactly the same as that of the Lebel rifle, however, it fires at individual targets! That is, such a worldwide trend as an increase in bullet speed is evident today!
Another trend, however, while not directly related to weapons, is … electronic devices recharged from the movement of the object on which (or in which) they are located. It was reported that the DARPA agency in the United States, known for its promising inventions, has developed a device that generates electricity while in a soldier's pocket. The soldier walks, the pendulum in the device vibrates and … as a result, an electric current is generated, which goes to recharge the toki-woki batteries and other devices he has. However, this is no longer today, but yesterday. Today we have created small devices without batteries at all, but which, nevertheless, are able to receive and reflect TV signals. Scientists from the University of Washington have achieved unprecedented breakthroughs in the use of signals scattered in space, Science News reported. The new communication system differs from all existing ones in that it does not need any external power wires or rechargeable batteries to power it. This technology has already received the name "ambient backscatter", which can be roughly translated as "using scattered signals." That is, in principle, this technology allows you to create a cartridge cartridge, which will not have a battery, but will have a microchip connected to a primer-igniter. Having received a signal from the outside, transmitted by microwave radiation, this microchip will ignite the capsule, and, therefore, the ammunition itself. This, in turn, avoids a rigid mechanical connection between the cartridge, the bolt and the striker striking the primer. Ideally, this allows you to return … to muzzle-loaded guns of the 17th - 18th centuries, but … with a microchip in a burning sleeve. I inserted it into the barrel, aim and press the trigger, and the electronics do all the work for you!
And even today, multilateralism is becoming more and more popular. Recently in the foreign media there were several reports at once that, they say, very soon the Russians will no longer have to fear the M16 rifle, but weapons based on the innovative development of the American home-made Martin Greer, who designed an automatic carbine with four to five barrels, and such a perfect system ammunition that he is destined to make a revolution in small arms of the XXI century.
The fact that he made him in the garage, and works at the Bed and Breakfast Hotel in Colorado Springs, does not scare anyone in the United States. There, any work is considered honorable, if only you succeed. The prototype of this carbine was first shown at the SHOT 2018 arms exhibition in Las Vegas, and it was there that experts from the Pentagon showed an unexpected interest in this carbine. We saw in him, so to speak, a "fresh stream" in military invention. Indeed, there are many differences from traditional designs. After all, this is a caseless smooth-bore weapon with an electromagnetic drive, which made it possible to achieve a rate of fire of 250 rounds per second. Which, by the way, is also becoming a trend today, since it allows you to release several bullets even before the shooter himself feels the recoil from the shots. In this case, the Greer carbine allows you to achieve a bullet speed of the order of Mach 3.5, that is, it will fly at the target three times faster than the speed of sound!
He received a patent for his development back in 2016, and he spent 500 thousand dollars on the manufacture of a working sample - a decent amount in all respects. By the way, after the Pentagon became interested in the development, a rather delicate situation arose. Not only Greer himself, but many others expect that he will be able to return this money at a profit, otherwise no one else in the garage will create carbines. And the Pentagon runs the risk of losing potential self-taught voters who happen to find diamonds in the mud. But paying a lot of money for something supermodern is also reluctant. And how this spicy situation will be resolved is still unknown.
Today, many developments are known in which both gunpowder and bullets are placed separately, or the bullet and gunpowder are combined in one ammunition, but … he does not have a cartridge case. However, Martin Greer's design is distinguished from them by the complete automation of all reloading and firing processes, which are carried out on the basis of electromechanical devices. The traditional "mechanics", acting through the force of the shot, are not used.
The carbine has a special dispenser, which feeds the powder into the chamber, where bullets are inserted at the same time. The charges are ignited by an electric discharge; in all these operations, a microprocessor built into the carbine controls.
The bores of the barrels are combined in one block, in the same way as in some samples of multi-barreled weapons of the 18th century. At the same time, Greer's mass-dimensional model weighs less than the M16 rifle. That's just the presence of a battery or a rechargeable battery raises many questions. As well as, incidentally, the protection of the microprocessor itself from the electromagnetic pulse of a nuclear explosion.
However, attention should be paid to something else, namely, indirectly recognition by this very fact that the limit of perfection in weapons with a mechanical drive has been reached, and something fundamentally new is needed to transfer it to a new round of spiral development.
