exterior-ballistic properties than have the Type A bullets, with which latter type the system evaluation has largely been conducted to date.
The use of bullets having a more favorable aero-
dynamic shape (such as Type B) would allow a reduction of 50 fps in muzzle velocity, thereby reducing the proba- bility of interior-ballistic problems which might arise in large-scale loading of .223 ammunition, and [would] still provide higher impact velocities at 100 yards and all greater ranges.
141 The First 130 Changes
It appears that Remington had not been able to mass-produce acceptably accurate bullets to Stoner's original drawing, due to the marginal stability problem in the 14" twist, as discussed above. Accordingly, they had redesigned the 7-caliber ogive
..It was clearly a necessary measure, given the funda- mental problem of marginal stability inherent in Stoner's choice of the 14" twist with his chosen bullet configuration. [As noted above] the changes had the concomitant effect of increasing aerodynamic drag, however... Furthermore, the improvement in gyroscopic stability was not enough, as [the subsequent change to 1-in-12] made clear.
.. I inquired into the reasons for the changes, and found they had been made rather quietly by Remington, for reasons that Remington officially declined to disclose to the Army...The reluctance on the part of Remington to discuss the matter was said..to have resulted from a telephone call to a Remington top-management official, by an officer who claimed to represent the OSD position,
bullet, giving it a shorter boattail and a shorter and "fatter" (5.5-caliber radius) ogive.
Bill Davis comments further on this quiet switch from Stoner's "original" bullet to the 55-grain Remington design:
warning him that any further discussion of the matter between Remington and the Army would be regarded with great disfavor by OSD. Remington.. apparently decided thereupon that discretion was the better part of valor in this delicate matter, and no further cooperation was received officially from them in the matter of bullet design and twist of rifling.
..From information I was able to gather at the time, it appeared that most of the partisan advocates of the AR-15 system in the great controversy were unaware that the .223 ammunition being manufactured by Remington did not actually contain bullets corresponding to Stoner's original design, until the comparisons made at Frankford.. in early 1963 [above] revealed the difference..
"Cartridge, 5.56mm Ball, M193"
- The Round Nobody Wanted to Make
The reversion to a bullet akin to Stoner's "Type B" (above) was Bill Davis' personal choice as a solution to problem of the .223's inherent inability to meet the cast-in-concrete pressure/ velocity requirements with IMR4475 propellant, in volume production. He accordingly recommended this course of action to Lt. Col. Yount, who readily agreed and presented the idea, along with Frankford's supporting documentation, to the TCC. Here it was summarily vetoed by the O S D representative, who declared that this proposal, which would have avoided the chamber pressure problem altogether with even better resulting bullet lethality, had "insufficient merit to justify a reevaluation".
"Cartridge, 5.56mm Ball, M193" was officially adopted on September 27, 1963. Unfortunately, Frankford's reasoned
The FY64 ammunition procurement program has been suspended because ammunition manufacturers have stated that under the present state-of-the-art, American industry
Over the new year, with deliveries of the first M16 and XM16E1 rifles just a few months away, the FY64 ammuni- tion requirement rose to 132 million rounds. T h e stalemate persisted, with all three approved commercial manufac- turers, Remington, Olin Mathieson (Winchester/Western)
advice had been disregarded on three counts. First, the M193 specified the inferior "Type A" Remington bullet over the more aerodynamic and hence more lethal original. Secondly, having made this crucial decision, there could be no reduction in muzzle velocity, in order "not to degrade the lethality of the [Remington] bullet". Finally, the T C C was guaranteed a host of future headaches by the reaffirmation of IMR4475 as the only approved propellant, and the 52,000 psi ceiling on allowable average chamber pressure limits.
All three approved commercial ammunition manufacturers promptly declined offers to bid on the M193 round as defined by the specifications. To quote from the P M R ' s significant action report of 16-20 September:
cannot manufacture ammunition within the limits imposed by Army staff.
and the Federal Cartridge Co., still refusing to bid. T h e 13-17 J a n u a r y 1964 P M R ' s report describes a compromise which, although it permitted the manufacture of the necessary "Specification Verification Quantity", did not solve the problem:
5 The First 130 Changes
..As a result of review of [specifications] for procure- ment of M193 Ball Ammunition, commercial. .producers advised that certain prescribed requirements. .could not be met.
The project manager discussed this problem with the services involved and formulated a solution which was presented to three of the cartridge producers and the propellant producer in a meeting at Frankford Arsenal
on. .17 January.
This solution was to increase allowable average chamber pressure from 52,000 psi to 53,000 psi, and for retest only, to increase allowable individual round chamber pressure from 58,000 psi to 60,000 psi.
All producers reacted favorably with respect to the first procurement of one million rounds, but the propellant manu- facturer would not make a firm committment on being able to
meet the specifications for the 131,000,000 round procure- ment to follow.
T h u s the "solution" was temporary at best, amount- ing merely to a waiver on the first million rounds, but leaving the actual specified pressure limits for future production untouched. Significantly, upon completion of their 500,000- round portion of the Specification Verification Quantity, Remington withdrew I M R 4475 from use as a propellant for 5.56mm ammunition.
Other methods of curing the self-generated chamber pressure problem were sought and eventually found, but at a cost which the Army would later be forced to admit was too high.
As we have just begun to explore, the design of an automatic firearm is somewhat like a miniature, speeded-up model of a universe wherein bodies interact within units of time measured in micro- and milliseconds, but are nevertheless linked in a chain of cause-and-effect relationships with the inexorability of planets orbiting a sun.
Further to this cosmic analogy, the eminent British biologist and scientist J. B. S. Haldane, in a paraphrase of Gertrude Stein, once commented on his suspicion that the universe is "not only queerer than we suppose but queerer than we can suppose." As we shall see, these were fateful words indeed for the TCC.