LSAT Caseless Ammunition

LSAT caseless ammunition is caseless ammunition produced as part of the U.S. Army’s Lightweight Small Arms Technologies (LSAT) program.

Although less advanced in development than the other ammunition component of the program, the caseless round has already produced its own outstanding results. Having replicated Dynamit Nobel's ACR ammunition, the HITP (High Ignition Temperature Propellant, which is hexogen/octogen-based to decrease heat sensitivity) ammunition was modified to a 5.56 mm round. Tests proved the ammunition's usability, and development of the weapon was advanced using knowledge gained from the cased ammunition version. The Alliant Techsystems ammunition production team has reduced the production time and costs by reducing from fourteen to two the number of steps used to complete processing. The second spiral of caseless ammunition was rolled out in 2008, with the necessary facilities to produce the ammunition in bulk completed. It has vastly reduced the weight and volume of standard ammunition (by 51% and 40%, respectively), and it has reached the verge of achieving Technology Readiness Level 5. The development of the third spiral was also initiated, with the goal of replacing the propellant binder with a binder more environmentally and cost friendly. It also aims to reduce the heat ablation on the inside of the weapon by modifying the burn rate of the propellant, and by giving the round an exterior coating to absorb or prevent transferred heat. Benefits the system has gained from using the caseless ammunition go beyond the unparalleled weight and volume reduction to, for example, the lack of ejected shells (which both improves the weapon's protection from dirt and removes any need to "police" cases after firing).