‘Green’ ammo shipped to Afghanistan - This summer soldiers will start fighting with a new, “green” bullet that Army ballistics officials are touting as “the best general purpose 5.56mm round ever.” The Army has begun shipping the M855A1 Enhanced Performance Round to soldiers serving in Afghanistan, according to...Picatinny Arsenal, N.J....The new M855A1 will replace the current Cold War-era M855 round, which was developed in the 1970s and approved as an official NATO round in 1980. In recent years, troops have widely criticized it. They complain it is ineffective against barriers such as car windshields and often travels right through unarmored insurgents, with less than lethal effects. The M855A1 has a “number of significant enhancements”...These include improved hard-target capability, more dependable, consistent performance at all distances, improved accuracy, reduced muzzle flash and a higher velocity”...“During testing, the M855A1 performed better than current 7.62mm ball ammunition against certain types of targets, blurring the performance differences that previously separated the two rounds”...Unlike the current round, the M855A1 is designed for use in the M4 carbine, which has a 14.5-inch barrel compared to the M16’s 20-inch barrel...“Its fielding represents the most significant advancement in general purpose small caliber ammunition in decades”...
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Full report @ Army Times
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I hope like hell this ammo lives up to it's hype, particularly the claim of improved performance vs. the bigger & badder 7.62x51mm NATO (aka:.308 Winchester) round(!). We'll have to wait for reports from the field to find out. Now if these brain-boys would find a (long overdue and shamefully ignored) solution to the IED problem, I'd really be impressed...(S9)
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