Caseless ammo?

[feddoc]

This is from an engineering friend of mine who happens to also be a gun guy.

"......3D printing will be the future of propellants for small arms ammunition all the way up to solid rocket propulsion.

Also, they stated that the future of small arms will end up being caseless and electronic ignition. since the 3D printed propellants would be far easier produced minus any other items added to the print sequence. No primer. Just propellant and a solid combustible and consumable coating over it.

Seems like H&K, RWS, Rhienmetal and even Remington Etronic was ahead of their time.

Going to be an interesting 21st Century for small arms development for sure.

Military is really interested since in means huge weight savings on ammo and simplicity. It seems that printed ammo propellants are far easier to store long term and are more stable and resistant to moisture and temperature chances since there is no metal casing to condense around."

 

[Tristate]

I have read up on experiments with caseless ammo, not 3D printed, and electronic ignition ammo in the past. Actually haven't seen anything on it in probably 15 years.

Caseless ammo was filthy stuff that doesn't seem to function well in auto loading mechanism. Plus 3D printed ammo manufacturing time is horrible. The electronic fired ammo actually allows for faster firing of automatic fire but is extremely limiting for battlefield conditions to retain functionality.