The Army potentially could save $10 million per year over the next 20 years by recycling a family of old artillery shells in the M1122 Program, to create less expensive, more realistic and safer training rounds, Picatinny Arsenal officials said.
“It’s a win-win situation,” said David Kondas, project management officer for the recycling program that produces the M1122 High Explosive Training Round, under the Program Executive Officer for Ammunition. “It’s cheaper than the M804A1 that we use for training and the M107 that we use for training and combat. At the same time we’re reducing the total quantity of DPICM rounds that have to be disposed.”
Picatinny munition experts developed a process to recycle the old shells. It starts with old, obsolete 155mm M483 Dual-Purpose Improved Conventional Munitions (DPICM) shell bodies slated for demilitarization and to be sold as scrap.
The M1122 program salvages the old projectile body and base, removes and demilitarizes the submunitions, and reuses the metal parts to produce 155mm M1122 High Explosive (HE) rounds.
The M1122 will be the primary 155mm training projectile for HE artillery fire missions. It will replace the 155mm M804A1 Practice Projectile and M107 HE Projectile, which are more expensive, for training.
In addition to being less expensive, the M1122 has been designed to maintain ballistic similitude, appearance and function of the 155mm M795 HE Projectile.
“The M795 has a range of 22 km,” said Marty Moratz, Chief of the Conventional Ammunition Division for PM CAS. “For the past 10 or 15 years, to save money, the Army has been using the M107 for training, It only goes to 17km, it weighs less than the M795, has less explosive fill, but is a lot less expensive than the M795. So soldiers were getting good, realistic training, but they weren’t training the way they were fighting.”
However, he added, the M1122 is basically the same as the M795–it weighs the same, flies the same way and has the same range.”
Moratz said it’s improving how soldiers train at a significant cost savings and helping to address demilitarization.
The M1122 rounds also contain Insensitive Munitions Explosive-101, IMX-101, which makes them safer for U.S. Soldiers. IMX-101 replaces TNT and is a more-stable explosive fill. It has the same explosive effects as traditional TNT, but is safer because it is far less likely to explode if in a fire, shot at or hit by a roadside bomb during transport.
“Once the M1122 Program reaches full rate production, the M1122 rounds filled with IMX-101 are anticipated to cost $27 cheaper than an M107 filled with TNT, and $131 less than what an M107 filled with IMX-101 would cost,” Moratz said.
To carry out the M1122 program, PM CAS employees teamed up with the Product Manager for Demilitarization, also at Picatinny, on the DPICM demilitarization efforts. The M483 demil and M1122 production currently takes place at McAlester Army Ammunition Plant in McAlester, Okla.
“The Army produced approximately 3.6 million M483s,” said Moratz. “Over a million of the M483 rounds are scheduled for demil and the expectation is that all of them will be disposed of.”
With funding from the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the M1122 was developed by the Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center at Picatinny. The government owns all the data rights to the round.
The M1122 rounds achieved Full Materiel Release (FMR) on June 22, 2012. M1122 rounds built last year under Initial Production were recently placed in the Army inventory ready for troop use.
The program is currently scheduled to build approximately 280,000 M1122 rounds through 2018.
The M1122 Program has also paved the way for three additional programs that will use DPICM shell bodies to create new tactical projectiles: XM1123 Infrared Illuminating Projectiles, XM1124 Visible Light Illuminating Projectiles and M110A3 White Phosphorous Smoke Projectiles.