Future Firearms technology trends?
- Thread starter Hugo
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future of firearms
i think caseless ammo will be the way in the future. no extraction, no extraction ports, no extractors, a closed system. primers and propellant will be a solid chemical, ignited by a small spark, primers will burn up with the propellant. magazines will be disposable, part of the packaging. no touching the ammo by your fingers, no magazine loading. no more ammo boxes with the styrofoam or plastic trays. the trigger will be hooked up to a micro switch. full auto will be sped up or slowed down with a rheostat. optics will be built into the polymer frames. maybe using mini tv cameras and mini lcd's or plasma screens, instead of scopes. open sights will have diode dots instead of tritium. conduit or wires will be cast into the polymer frames, for sights, scopes, lights, lasers, etc. rifles and handguns will have adjustable egronomics and switchable for right or left handed shooters. barrel systems will be modular so you can easily change from caliber to caliber to fit the need of the mission.
i think caseless ammo will be the way in the future. no extraction, no extraction ports, no extractors, a closed system. primers and propellant will be a solid chemical, ignited by a small spark, primers will burn up with the propellant. magazines will be disposable, part of the packaging. no touching the ammo by your fingers, no magazine loading. no more ammo boxes with the styrofoam or plastic trays. the trigger will be hooked up to a micro switch. full auto will be sped up or slowed down with a rheostat. optics will be built into the polymer frames. maybe using mini tv cameras and mini lcd's or plasma screens, instead of scopes. open sights will have diode dots instead of tritium. conduit or wires will be cast into the polymer frames, for sights, scopes, lights, lasers, etc. rifles and handguns will have adjustable egronomics and switchable for right or left handed shooters. barrel systems will be modular so you can easily change from caliber to caliber to fit the need of the mission.
DougCxx
Member
-I bet your car has license plates on it, don't it?
There once was a time when people protested that, too.
Funny thing about Orwelian visions; they tend not to actually come true. The more data that can be collected, the more trouble it is to find the data that is really worth having.
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As far as caseless ammo goes, that depends on when it's sold as a small-caliber & low-priced product. The only portion of the recreational shooting community that expects to avoid reloading hassles is the rimfire market, and they want low-priced guns and ammunition. As far as I have read, the only company making it right now has never promoted it as a potentially low-priced product.
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Caseless ammo has been played with for a long time. I remember a Popular Mechanics article on it when I was a kid.
Problem is, there are a lot of virtues to that stupid brass case.
Have you seen how much gunk--err, by-products of combustion--gets kept inside the case? It would otherwise go into the chamber and action, making chamber/action foul a whole lot sooner.
Also, when that brass is ejected, it carries a lot of heat from combustion with it. Keeps the chamber/action cooler.
The case also protects the propellant from contamination. WIth caseless ammo, you'd have to have some special kind case to transport it, I think, and to protect it from anything from water to oxidation. Couldn't just throw a few shells in your pocket and be on your way...
Granted, those are solvable issues, but the benefit from eliminating the case seems small in comparison to keeping the action cleaner and cooler.
Problem is, there are a lot of virtues to that stupid brass case.
Have you seen how much gunk--err, by-products of combustion--gets kept inside the case? It would otherwise go into the chamber and action, making chamber/action foul a whole lot sooner.
Also, when that brass is ejected, it carries a lot of heat from combustion with it. Keeps the chamber/action cooler.
The case also protects the propellant from contamination. WIth caseless ammo, you'd have to have some special kind case to transport it, I think, and to protect it from anything from water to oxidation. Couldn't just throw a few shells in your pocket and be on your way...
Granted, those are solvable issues, but the benefit from eliminating the case seems small in comparison to keeping the action cleaner and cooler.
ShaiVong
Member
Anyone here familiar with the Warhammer 40K universe?
I would love to see Bolt rifles, Melta guns, las rifles, needlers and the Executioner rounds of the Adeptas Arbites.
Bolter shells are bullets that eject from the weapon, and then propel themselves with little rocket engines. They are armor piercing and mass reactive. Thus the burrow then detonate. Awesome.
Melta guns are basically plasma flamethrowers. Trash anything.
Lasrifles are pretty much what they sound like: Laser rifles. Needlers are guns that fire little HV darts which are also usually toxic. Executioner rounds are homing shotgun slugs. Fire those suckers around corners
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That and you can't beat the power armor of the Adeptas Astartes. The Space Marines
They are my bulwark against the terror
They are the defenders of humanity
They are my Space Marines
And they shall know no fear
I would love to see Bolt rifles, Melta guns, las rifles, needlers and the Executioner rounds of the Adeptas Arbites.
Bolter shells are bullets that eject from the weapon, and then propel themselves with little rocket engines. They are armor piercing and mass reactive. Thus the burrow then detonate. Awesome.
Melta guns are basically plasma flamethrowers. Trash anything.
Lasrifles are pretty much what they sound like: Laser rifles. Needlers are guns that fire little HV darts which are also usually toxic. Executioner rounds are homing shotgun slugs. Fire those suckers around corners
.That and you can't beat the power armor of the Adeptas Astartes. The Space Marines
They are my bulwark against the terror
They are the defenders of humanity
They are my Space Marines
And they shall know no fear
Cosmoline
Member
The last big improvements in firearms came in the 1890's and early 1900's. Most everything since then has been improving around the edges. The big burst in the 1890's was the result of one thing--smokeless powder. It allowed firearms to be much smaller, operate with higher pressure, and made fully automatic actions much easier.
Judging from this, we won't see any similar spike in development until someone creates a new means of propelling the bullet. Perhaps bullets will propel themselves, allowing firearms to be freed up from the job of absorbing recoil.
Judging from this, we won't see any similar spike in development until someone creates a new means of propelling the bullet. Perhaps bullets will propel themselves, allowing firearms to be freed up from the job of absorbing recoil.
ShaiVong
Member
Whatcha need is two gravity accelerators! Say a couple of singularies to propel a bullet! That way you could just carry bullets, and not cases 
Nightcrawler
Member
Get two electromagnetic accelerators and you could do the same thing without all of the quantum physics and/or possibilities of opening a new black hole a foot in front of you.
ShaiVong
Member
Bah! Magnet Smagnet. You would still need tons of coils and stuff. With a singularity all you need is a quantum phase shifting inverter to valence the fuzzy logic of both singularitys in a Brier inference to allow a probability time rod to extend to the bullet and pluck it out of the matter buffer transducer. That and some aluminum foil on your head to keep the empyrium astropathica psyker radiaton from turning you into a canidate for demon posession! Otherwise you could get off with just a few pounds and a trip to your local craft store!
Snowdog
Member
- Joined
- Dec 24, 2002
- Messages
- 4,608
ShaiVong,
Although I do have most of those components sitting idle in my basement left over from my time machine, I don't know if an aluminum foil helmet is sufficient protection where singularities are concerned. Don't forget the movie Event Horizon... that really happened, I was there.
Although I do have most of those components sitting idle in my basement left over from my time machine, I don't know if an aluminum foil helmet is sufficient protection where singularities are concerned. Don't forget the movie Event Horizon... that really happened, I was there.
ShaiVong
Member
Hahah! I had forgotten about that stinker!
Awesome premise (almost like the Hellraiser movies, another good premise) poorly executed .
Anytime something involves "Gateway to Hell", you've got my attention
What can I say, I just want to get home! :banghead:
Awesome premise (almost like the Hellraiser movies, another good premise) poorly executed
.Anytime something involves "Gateway to Hell", you've got my attention
What can I say, I just want to get home! :banghead:
maybe sooner than you think...
I thought you folks might find the following articles interesting. The first one is about the next generation of weapons being developed for the U.S. Navy.....including some of the things mentioned here: high energy lasers, rail guns, microwaves, and particle beam accelerators. The second is about the U.S.A.F. testing "Star Wars" style lasers on fighter planes.
Jane's Defence article
Air Force 'Star Wars'
Enjoy!
JR
I thought you folks might find the following articles interesting. The first one is about the next generation of weapons being developed for the U.S. Navy.....including some of the things mentioned here: high energy lasers, rail guns, microwaves, and particle beam accelerators. The second is about the U.S.A.F. testing "Star Wars" style lasers on fighter planes.
Jane's Defence article
Air Force 'Star Wars'
Enjoy!
JR
DougCxx
Member
I guess as far as our current firearm rifles are concerned, I'd bet you'll see smaller, faster calibers--5000, 6000 FPS+. What these will be good for outside of beaning prarie dogs I don't know, but we can already shoot very large, very slow "bullets" out of shotguns. The only way to go is smaller and/or higher-speed.
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One thing for sure: we could assume that copper-jacketed lead wouldn't work for this; maybe solid-steel bullets in aluminum sabots? ....I have read that trying to get accurate ammo while using plastic sabots is rather a waste of time. I have not seen mentioned any small arms using sub-caliber bullets with harder sabot materials.
?
I have seen these pistols chambered for bottleneck cartridges (357 sig comes to mind first) and I am wondering why you simply can't just use aluminum or some harder plastic sabots to allow shooting smaller faster bullets out of a conventional caliber such as 9mm or 45. Would cost of ammo be the preventing factor with this? You might be able to get away with just a metal base disk, and plastic to keep the little bullet centered.
~
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One thing for sure: we could assume that copper-jacketed lead wouldn't work for this; maybe solid-steel bullets in aluminum sabots? ....I have read that trying to get accurate ammo while using plastic sabots is rather a waste of time. I have not seen mentioned any small arms using sub-caliber bullets with harder sabot materials.
?
I have seen these pistols chambered for bottleneck cartridges (357 sig comes to mind first) and I am wondering why you simply can't just use aluminum or some harder plastic sabots to allow shooting smaller faster bullets out of a conventional caliber such as 9mm or 45. Would cost of ammo be the preventing factor with this? You might be able to get away with just a metal base disk, and plastic to keep the little bullet centered.
~
That 30 Tokarev or whatever it is, they have been making saboted rounds with that thing... available 30cal plastic sabots with a .224 varmint bullet moving it to pretty silly speeds. Accuracy I can't report on but the velocities are right on the heals of that shown for the .224Boz that is a necked down 10mm Auto.
DougCxx
Member
This is wandering way off topic, but I found it rather surprising.
Not that the FBI would want to do such a thing, but that the feature was present.
The linked story concerns the FBI activating a suspect's OnStar vehicle emergency system for the purposes of surveillance.
The GPS-feature I knew about (for finding stolen vehicles), the in-car-microphone-hooked-to-a-cell-phone feature I did not:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/34100.html
.....
The argument here seems to be that what the FBI was doing was improper only because it disabled the actual emergency features of the car's OnStar system.
~
Not that the FBI would want to do such a thing, but that the feature was present.
The linked story concerns the FBI activating a suspect's OnStar vehicle emergency system for the purposes of surveillance.
The GPS-feature I knew about (for finding stolen vehicles), the in-car-microphone-hooked-to-a-cell-phone feature I did not:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/34100.html
.....
The argument here seems to be that what the FBI was doing was improper only because it disabled the actual emergency features of the car's OnStar system.
~
BevrFevr
Member
ULTRA MEGA HYPER VELOCITY AMMO
that does not heat up a barrel or get it dirty and cartridges are light as a feather. Also is small small small. Maybe even would work in a plastic barrel or carbon fiber maybe.
In the near future I would like to see invisible tracer ammo. Only visible with night vision etc.
The real changes aren't going to be the guns it's gonna be the terminator airships and tanks. They will be able to see what we can't, take G's that we can't, temperatures, etc.
-bevr
that does not heat up a barrel or get it dirty and cartridges are light as a feather. Also is small small small. Maybe even would work in a plastic barrel or carbon fiber maybe.
In the near future I would like to see invisible tracer ammo.
Only visible with night vision etc.The real changes aren't going to be the guns it's gonna be the terminator airships and tanks. They will be able to see what we can't, take G's that we can't, temperatures, etc.
-bevr
ShaiVong
Member
Somthing that would kick current NV @SS I think would be a cheap compact THERMAL vision. I know they have thermal cameras for this and that, but they need to be as large as NV goggs: I.E. Splinter Cell.
Way easier to find tangos in the dark with TV rather than NV... Stick out like a sore thumb!
Way easier to find tangos in the dark with TV rather than NV... Stick out like a sore thumb!
Balog
Member
Ah, good to see that even in space, Marines kick butt
Tag
Member
Thinking some more,
The use of composite ceramics in better, and possibly even self contained, body armor, complete with optics, communications, vital monitors... ext. Weapon systems could be integrated with the armor heads up display or maybe a split screen monitor system.
Man portable rail guns, complete with nuclear power supply, would probably be able, when used in conjunction with an assisted targeting systme, to shoot down fighter jets.
Does anyone have any information on Rail Gun volocities? Think depleted uranium slug at 20,000 fps. Very loud!
The use of composite ceramics in better, and possibly even self contained, body armor, complete with optics, communications, vital monitors... ext. Weapon systems could be integrated with the armor heads up display or maybe a split screen monitor system.
Man portable rail guns, complete with nuclear power supply, would probably be able, when used in conjunction with an assisted targeting systme, to shoot down fighter jets.
Does anyone have any information on Rail Gun volocities? Think depleted uranium slug at 20,000 fps. Very loud!
HankB
Member
50W? Better move the decimal point over a couple of places. I work with lasers in this power range, and while impressive to the uninitiated, they're a long way short of being powerful enough to use as weapons. (Unless you want an "eye popper.")
I agree that the next leap forward will be in optics - 'scopes with built in laser rangefinders have already been sold commercially (Swarovski?) but they're big, bulky, and expensive. But give the technology another decade or so, and the same thing, with automatic trajectory compensation, ought to be available at the price of a "premium" 'scope.
Hmmm . . . diamond has a very low coefficient of friction. And they've been synthesizing diamond coatings for a while, with improved results every year. I wonder if a diamond-lined bore - or even a solid diamond barrel - would allow for improved ballistics?
The whiz-bang directed energy weapons (as well as rail guns and their variants) will have to wait for improvements in energy storage technology - we'll need several orders of magnitude improvement over today's batteries before we'll have something man-portable and practical.
And there's the matter of increased complexity leading to increased vulnerability. What if an EMP device fries your weapon's electronics? What if your weapon produces some RFI/EMI leakage that the other side can detect? (Gordon R. Dickson alluded to this in his "Dorsai-universe" novels. Combatants had switched to "spring guns" which were simple, reliable, and couldn't be disabled by the other side's jammers.)
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