safer-smoke

A demonstration shows the concealing power of a new, less toxic HX artillery smoke payload at a production review held at the RDECOM C&B Center April 25.

RDECOM C&B Center Works Toward Bringing Safer Smoke to the Warfighter

RDECOM C&B Center Works Toward Bringing Safer Smoke to the Warfighter

Getting better training rounds into the hands of our warfighters in Europe

By Brian Feeney, Ph.D.

Pyrotechnics experts and production managers from across the Department of Defense came together at the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command Chemical & Biological (RDECOM C&B) Center to review the progress of a program to replace HC smoke with the less toxic HX smoke in 155mm M116A1 Smoke artillery projectiles currently used to create battlefield obscuration for training by U.S. Army forces in Europe.

The production management review (PMR) took place in the RDECOM C&B Center Berger Auditorium on April 25 and included a field demonstration at one of APG’s test ranges. Subject matter experts and managers from Program Executive Office Ammunition’s Project Manager Combat Ammunition Systems (PMCAS), the U.S. Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center, Pine Bluff Arsenal, U.S. Marine Corps Systems Command, McAlester and Crane Army Ammunition Plants and the Bluegrass Army Depot took part in the event.

RDECOM C&B Center engineers and pyrotechnicians developed HX smoke to replace the legacy zinc-hexachloroethane based HC smoke used to create smoke screens on the battlefield. HC is an irritant and potentially toxic to unmasked warfighters. It is also toxic to the environment as an aquatic pollutant. M116A1 projectiles with HC payload were last produced in the 1980s.

PMCAS’ Conventional Ammunition Division stated at the PMR that the M116A1 with HX program is their top priority since there are limited numbers of original M116A1 training rounds remaining and white phosphorus cannot be used in Europe. “By July of this year, we plan to have HX canisters available for the production personnel at Pine Bluff Arsenal to place in artillery shells in order to prove the production concept,” said Kevin Fritz, the chief of the RDECOM C&B Center Obscuration & Nonlethal Engineering Branch. “The modified M116A1 projectiles will then be proven operationally during a live fire test.”

By July of this year, we plan to have HX canisters available for the production personnel at Pine Bluff Arsenal to place in artillery shells in order to prove the production concept.”
Kevin Fritz | Obscuration & Nonlethal Engineering Branch chief at the RDECOM C&B Center

After the formal briefings on the preparations for production, the group traveled by bus to a test range on Aberdeen Proving Ground’s Gunpowder Peninsula and watched a static demonstration of the volume of smoke released by three canisters of HX simultaneously.

Four HX-filled smoke canisters are placed into each 155mm artillery shell along with a fuze and expulsion charge. Upon detonation of the expulsion charge, the smoke canisters are pushed out of the projectile and a cloud of smoke is generated from the canisters for a minimum of 70 seconds after they hit the ground. The smoke lingers in the atmosphere for several minutes after that. In both cost and performance HX is similar to the original HC smoke formulation.

However, mastering the production of these artillery rounds after a 30-year hiatus involves some relearning. “RDECOM C&B Center engineers led by Nino Bonavito, chief of RDECOM C&B Center’s Pyrotechnics and Explosives Branch, are working side by side with Pine Bluff Arsenal production personnel to transfer this skill and work out the production issues,” said Fritz. This includes new techniques related to formulation mixing, canister pressing, reaming, and crimping operations.

The effort of transitioning from HC to HX smoke is well worth it, according to Fritz. “All of us who work in obscuration are proud to be a part of protecting the warfighter on the battlefield. We get feedback from the field describing how we helped save lives, and that is a very rewarding part of our mission.”

A demonstration shows the concealing power of a new, less toxic HX artillery smoke payload at a production review held at the RDECOM C&B Center April 25.