Article




Ammunition goes green at Lake City plant
By BRIAN BURNES
The Kansas City Star

JOHN SLEEZER
A limited run of lead-free ammunition was assembled in October at the Lake City ammunition plant. Go to KansasCity.com for video of production at the plant.
Lead-free "green" bullets less toxic
On a recent day in Independence, a below-the-radar event occurred that figures to affect the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

An employee inside a huge government factory pushed a “buggy,” a low-riding wheelbarrow filled with thousands of new rifle cartridges, toward an inspection area.

Other employees and visitors crowded around.

The cartridges were made of brass casings assembled with propellant charges and projectiles, or slugs. The Lake City Army Ammunition Plant in Independence produces millions of such 5.56 mm cartridges every day for weapons that are carried by U.S. military forces.

But the employees attending this loading operation at Lake City knew these cartridges were different.

“This is the ‘green ammunition,’ ” said Bill Melton, a Lake City Army consultant.

These were cartridges without lead projectiles.

The recent manufacture of lead-free cartridges represented an evolutionary shift for Lake City, the largest producer of small-arms ammunition used by the U.S. military. The slugs, instead of being made of lead — a metal used for centuries — now are being manufactured with a bismuth alloy.

That alloy has a density roughly equivalent to lead but without lead’s toxicity.

The lead-free cartridges assembled in October were part of an initial 600,000-round test sample of green ammunition headed for the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland for evaluation.

This month, Lake City employees will begin producing the first order of 20 million rounds of lead-free cartridges.

The cartridges still will have to pass muster in ongoing evaluations, but they could be delivered by January to U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“What I try to tell the work force here is that they almost have an effect on global stability and the global economy,” said Lt. Col. Christopher Day, the U.S. Army’s plant commander at Lake City.

Ammunition manufacturers know lead to be malleable and comparatively inexpensive. But lead also is toxic. “The military is looking to preserve its ability to train in the context of increasing environmental regulation,” Melton said. “The Army wanted to be able to continue live-fire training exercises without restriction.

“That’s the reason for going to a lead-free round.”

Within the ammunition-manufacturing universe, the conversion represents a vast retooling.

The ammunition produced at Lake City includes 5.56 mm cartridges used in the M-16 rifle, M-4 carbine and M-249 machine gun. The traditional lead-projectile cartridges still being manufactured at the approximately 4,000-acre complex represent the basic unit of foot-soldier combat.

Further, the plant’s defense role has grown in the last decade. Since the mid-1990s, production has rocketed from between 300 million and 400 million rounds a year to perhaps 1.4 billion.

“Every single soldier, sailor, airman or Marine who goes out of a combat outpost in Iraq or Afghanistan goes out with something that we make here,” Day said.

There’s also the effect on the local economy.

Lake City is the largest employer in Independence. Its work force, which numbers 2,550, has jumped almost 300 percent from 650 employees eight years ago.

“There have been times over the last five or six years when the spotlight was pretty hot on the plant to produce,” said Karen Davies, vice president and general manager at the government-owned facility, operated since 2000 by Alliant Techsystems.

Operators say the transition to green ammunition — combined with a seven-year, $240 million modernization — positions Lake City well for the long term.

The lead-free cartridges will display the same performance as cartridges with lead, Day said. In fact, the new M855 LFS is expected to include some improvements.

A suppressant will eliminate the muzzle flash that can give away the shooter’s position.





I didn't see a mention of how much more this ammo costs to produce.



-K

The ammunition's extra cost is more than made up in cost savings in range maintenance. Lead projectiles must be cleaned out of ranges very often to meet occupational safety and health standards. Doubly so for indoor ranges. Inspection and certifications also must be done. Ranges remain toxic places for a soldier to spend his time in even after this, due to the nitrogen oxides emitted by the propellant, but every little bit counts. And yes, range workers have been treated for occupational heavy metal poisoning or respiratory illnesses.

And has anyone done long term studies on the health effects of bismuth(another heavy metal)???? Of course not, it's all just change for the sake of change. Or it's going to be like tungsten, where 100% of the test animals developed extremely aggressive cancer and died. Nice improvement there, dickheads!

The lead boogie man is just a tool for the asshats to change shit to make more money. Unless you're a 6YO kid eating bullets or some RO virtually living in a piss poor ventilated indoor range, you're not going to have a problem. The new EPA standards for airborne metallic lead are completely arbitrary and are going to destroy the US lead mining base(it's only done in MO as I understand).

Back in the bad old days of tetraethyl lead in gas, there was a problem. Now, with that having been phased out since '87, it's a non-issue in practical terms. But we're going to add cost and regualtory burden just so we can say we did something.

Morons. Bullets are as safe as they need to be, it's a medically understood technology. Leave well enough alone. Go meddle somewhere else or get a job doing something useful, like picking up litter on the side of the highway. S/F....Ken M

FWIW: Back in July, Picatinny awarded a $78,305 contract for a mutagenicity study of 5.56mm bismuth-tin cores.

Right, so how does less then 4 months(based on the typical speed of funding, study probably hasn't started yet) consistute "long term"? I guarantee it's some asshat looking for data to justify his predetermined decision, so it'll be written to show what it is "supposed to". Crap. S/F....Ken M

The award was July 31, and draft reports were to be submitted by mid-October. Final reports are due December 15. So no, it hardly qualifies as a long term study. However, it seems to be the only study they have commissioned so far.

Deary deary me! And I've allways thought that ammo was *designed* to be hazardous to someones health

"Green ammo" for military use was first proposed in the '90s. I remember listening to G. Gordon Liddy discussing this on the radio. And of course, non-lead shot shells have been around for a while now. In some states, lead shot is banned for bird hunting.

I have a long term study with a statistical analysis of 1 subject, me. I have shot thousands and thousands of rounds in indoor pistol ranges with pure lead .38spl and jacketed 9mm. None of this was lead free at all. Even the primers were of the toxic variety. After doing this for years on end, I had my blood levels checked for lead poisoning, a very simple blood test. The medical report came back that I had no lead in my system. I could not believe it. I was dumbfounded! All of the talk of toxic lead is pure BS based on my personal experience. Now others may for some reason have reactions to it, but I didn't (Thank heavens!). Of all of the other shooters I know, they have not had any lead in their systems either. I think, but I can't say with absolute fact, that the lead issue is pure hooey. I have shot on a range where there was so much smoke and powdered lead in the air you couldn't hardly breath, many times, but still no lead. So, it may be hooey that the anti-gun freaks are using to make it more expensive to shoot. Well, that's my story. Take it for what it is worth.........

LMAO!!! Yeah, if you hit the bastard with it, it's a moot point as to what it was made of...

Gunguy has a point, though... if lead were that toxic in our service environments, millions upon millions of us would now be sick or dead. The simple fact remains that all the years I spent in indoor ranges, never mind on ranges outside, have affected me not one iota. This is a politically-motivated, probably-very-expensive throwaway to the greenies; one has to wonder what could possibly justify this exercise at this point in time.

Hush!
Don´t you see the potential for legal action?
Lead could be the next DU.