JASmith Wrote:To expand on the dense metal comment -- We can also anticipate the need to defeat Level IV body armor. This is likely to mandate the use of dense metals or moving to significantly larger (even larger than the 7.62X51) cartridges.Joe, perhaps I wasn't clear. What do you mean by "dense" metal? Tungsten? Depleted uranium? Lead? If so, none of these meet environmental standards for use on stateside shooting ranges.
That's the reason for thinking of dense metal as a "growth" option. I don't know, nor do we need to care today whether the future Level IV defeat round is called GP or AP.
A GP round must be (legally) usable for training, as well as war.
In contrast, an AP round can have a core of a dense metal like tungsten, because it will normally be used only in combat in the other guy's country
, not in training on our ranges.