BLANK AMMO Two ‘dimples’ caused by the BBR bolt’s firing pin missing the primer of a standard blank round.
ADF training is dangerous. Even training with blank ammunition could have fatal consequences. But a new range of training munitions completely eliminates that danger. WORDS AND PICS BRIAN HARTIGAN
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ne of the biggest risks faced by ADF members training with blank ammunition is the distinct possibility of live ammunition getting into participants’ magazines. It has happened – at least twice that I’ve heard of in Australia in the past year or so. Currently, if live contamination occurs with the conventional blank ammunition used by the ADF, the best case situation is a catastrophic weapon failure – the worst case being loss of life. Not only could the soldiers, sailors or airmen being fired at be seriously injured or even killed, but so too could the person firing the weapon as a live projectile bursts through the blank firing attachment (BFA) at the end of the barrel. So, why doesn’t someone come up with a system whereby live ammunition could not
be fired by a weapon that is only supposed to fire blanks. Well actually – someone already has! UTM have come up with a system including a round known as the battlefield blank round (BBR) and an internal weapon modification that both eliminates the need for a BFA and makes it impossible for a live round to be fired, even if one is accidently chambered. Another advantage of the UTM battlefield-blank system is that minimal personal protective equipment (PPE) is required – the safety stand-off distance when firing the blanks is just 45cm from the muzzle. That’s because there are very little emissions from the round – a minute amount of primergenerated gas expelled from the muzzle, but no little bits of powder, wax or metal as can be expelled when using current blanks. There is also negligible barrel fouling and no fouling in the gas system.
Compare the firing-pin placement of a live bolt (left) and a BBR bolt.
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UTM’s battlefield blanks employ a two-primer configuration in the same round. The first primer produces the energy required to cycle the weapon’s working parts. It also causes a ball bearing to propel forward inside the round, initiating the second primer, which causes the ‘bang’ required for realism. However, there is also a second round – the silent blank round (SBR), which, as the name suggests, operates with little or no noise, but otherwise cycles the weapon’s working parts in the same way as the BBR. This is ideal for training indoors or in a real urban environment without disturbing the neighbours. This noiseless operation is achieved by the SBR because it does not have the ball bearing and second primer built in – just the one primer required to impart the energy to cycle the weapon. The key safety feature of the whole system, though, is the blank-firing bolt, which simply replaces the live bolt in a standard weapon. Before going on exercise using blanks, the Q store will issue a UTM BBR bolt to replace each weapon’s live bolt, instead of issuing the usual BFA. In the BBR bolt, the firing pin is installed at an angle, thus making it impossible for it to strike the primer of a live round (see pic above). The only concern I might have with this system is that, without the visual cue of a BFA screwed into the end of the barrel, a person being aimed at has no way of knowing whether the rifle is live or blank. But this could easily be solved by adding a visual reference when the bolts are swapped. For more information on UTM’s battlefield blank and silent blank rounds, contact XTEK on 1800 500 032.
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