M MILITARY SYSTEMS & Technology
INTRODUCTION TO THE LIGHTWEIGHT AMMUNITION CASE It is not often that a very old (nearly a century) design of a military item can be refreshed resulting in major operational and environmental benefits to the whole of defence (and many civilian fields). Yet that is the case with what turns out to be a ground breaking advance from PlastPackDefence (PPD), a small Danish company that has completely rethought the concept of ammunition boxes.
from which ammunition boxes are made from steel, to plastic. The reality is more complex. PPD was set up by a group of people with decades of experience in the defence and packaging industries who were determined to bring civil best practice and state of the art technology to solve the problems caused by nearly a century of resistance to change and embedded technology in military packaging.
PPD has developed a sustainable and re-useable ammunition package solution Lightweight Ammunition Case (LWAC) - that hugely increases combat power on operations – as a force multiplier and achieves Defence environmental targets for Net Zero 30 or 50.
Testing Up to UN and Military Standards Once PPD had the design and industrial strategies lined up and units could be manufactured, testing and customer engagement became the biggest priorities. The two are part and parcel of the same thing. One of the biggest issues was sorting out what exactly was intended and meant when the test specifications were written nearly a century ago. This had to be resolved. Many of the tests were being carried out because “we have always done that” and “we have always done it this way”. No one had an answer to the simple question “but why?”.
LWAC has been called “the biggest ground breaking advance in military logistics since motor transport”. PPD will be exhibiting LWAC on stand DC 711 in Hall 5A at Eurosatory. This is a major accolade for a small company. Like most great ideas the reason for the change is simple: change the material
Some of the tests, the burn and drop and topple tests from various heights and angles and at different temperatures for example, were relatively easy to understand but some of the pressure resistance or containment tests were essentially dark arts which had been practiced for a long time and neither the testers nor the safety authorities could explain why. Rationalising these disparities and bringing the test methods up to date to everyone’s’ satisfaction was a test in itself. The units were heated, burnt, frozen, bashed, smashed, over pressured, under pressured, squeezed, attacked by corrosives and assaulted by fragments and projectiles and suffered a good www.militarysystems-tech.com
42
T. +44 (0) 1884 258019
E. sales@militarysystems-tech.com
