Army, Marines face new pressure to use same ammunition
By James K. Sanborn, Staff writer 4:22 p.m. EDT May 4, 2015
The Army and Marine Corps will conduct comprehensive testing this year to determine the viability of adopting common rifle ammunition, a potential cost-cutting initiative that could have serious implications for troops on the battlefield.
Members of Congress are driving the efforts, saying the switch to a single 5.56mm cartridge for all conventional U.S. forces stands to save American taxpayers considerable expense. It is likely to prompt a showdown between the two rounds favored by each service, raising the possibility the Marine Corps could be forced to adopt ammunition it rejected in 2009 because its early development was plagued by problems.
On capitol Hill, the House Armed Services' Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Forces has ordered Defense Secretary Ashton Carter to study the issue and report to Congress by next March whether it still makes sense for the Army to use its M855A1 round while the Marine Corps moves to make the M318 Mod 0 Special Operations Science and Technology round its new standard.
"The Army and Marine Corps are using a very similar enhanced small caliber 5.56 rounds for the same operational environment," subcommittee chairman Rep. Mike Turner, a Republican from Ohio, told Marine Corps Times April 29. "We want to ensure our warfighters are provided with the best equipment available and ensure maximum value to the taxpayer."
The subcommittee's ranking Democrat, Rep. Loretta Sanchez of California, has indicated she also supported the potential shift.
Concerns with the Army's round
Marine Corps officials say they do not oppose the idea, provided the Army has fixed its round's propensity to wreak havoc by causing excessive wear on a weapon's inner workings.
The problem stemmed from the M855A1's high chamber pressure and exposed steel tip, which could chew up a weapon's feed-ramp, erode barrels and crack bolts, said Col. Michael Manning, the program manager for Infantry Weapons Systems at Marine Corps Systems Command in Quantico, Virginia. The Marine Corps believes SOST is superior "at this time," he added, "but we are always open to testing and are participating in ongoing testing of the M855A1. We will always adopt whatever is best for the service."
Both rounds' ballistics are acceptable and meet both the service's needs, Manning said. Each is considered "sub-two-minute-of-angle ammunition," meaning that when fired at 100 yards they will strike a target within two inches of a rifle's point of aim. Both also easily cut through common battlefield barriers like cinderblocks.
This was never an issue of ballistics or effect on target — be it an enemy's armor or his body, Manning explained. Rather, concerns stemmed from testing showing the Army rounds tended to cause problems like early erosion within a weapon's gas port. This was a particular problem with M4 carbines, which as a consequence cycled faster, especially during automatic fire. That has great potential to induce malfunctions.
This led the Army to consider putting electronic shot counters on its M4s to ensure they underwent maintenance as cracks appeared. That could happen after the weapons fired 6,000 rounds. In some cases, however, cracks appeared after firing as few as 3,000 rounds.
Meanwhile, the round's exposed steel penetrator was gouging carbines' feedramps as their bolts fed rounds into their chambers. Gouged feedramps and cracked bolts can cause jams and major malfunctions, potentially taking a Marine or soldier out of the fight.
"You are not functioning in combat if your bolt cracks," Manning said. "That is a weapon failure in combat, and we are not seeing that with SOST or [the legacy] M855 for that matter."
Army leaders have continued to defend the round against criticism over the years as more accurate and more capable, but they have occasionally acknowledged trouble with the round. When they canceled a $50 million competition for a next-generation carbine in 2013, PEO Soldier officials acknowledged use of the M855A1 likely resulted in lower than expected reliability. But they have continued refinements, down selecting to a single manufacturer to remedy pressure consistency issues and designing a new magazine to prevent damage to carbine and rifle feedramps.
Much is riding on the upcoming test, expected to take place between now and September. Led by the Army at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, the evaluation will demonstrate improvements to the M855A1 and include participation from Marines, Manning said. Notably, the Marine Corps has loaned the Army several of its new M27 Infantry Automatic Rifles to ensure the test considers how the Army round performs in all systems it could be used with on the battlefield.
Hidden costs to consider
From a cost and procurement standpoint, a common rifle round could save a bunch of money. But should the Marine Corps convert, there would be some expense tied to retrofitting the service's rifle ranges, which have established "surface danger zones." That is the space beyond impact areas that ensures ricochets or rounds that miss a berm will not cause any injury or property damage, Manning said.
SOST rounds have the same "surface danger zone" requirements as legacy ammunition, so they can be used on all current ranges where Marines have used M855 for decades. The M855A1, however, requires larger safety areas because its exposed steel penetrator can cause the rounds to ricochet farther.
If it were to adopt the Army's round, the Marine Corps would have to perform new range surveys, new environmental impact studies and ultimately new construction, all of which could cost millions, Manning added. In some locations in populated areas like like northern Virginia or Southern California, larger surface danger zones could prove impossible to construct because the rifle ranges abut roads, Marine facilities, nearby businesses or homes. As a result, the round would not be permitted on some ranges, Manning said.
The Marine Corps is conducting an assessment to estimate the potential total costs to upgrade its facilities to accommodate the M855A1.
Two rounds compared
The pursuit of a replacement for M855 ammunition began during the Iraq war, after soldiers and Marines repeatedly complained their rifle rounds were failing to kill or even wound their enemies. The problem is most pronounced when, to reach a target, the round must first pass through intermediate barriers like auto glass or plywood. M855 rounds, which were designed to defeat body armor and steel combat helmets, often punched straight through the thin, unarmored fighters U.S. troops encountered in Iraq. They simply weren't inflicting the soft-tissue wounds that either kill or incapacitate.
"We didn't get the terminal ballistics we wanted," Manning said, "and when it hit barriers, it was inconsistent." Auto glass, for example, sheared off much of the M855 bullet's weight, leaving only fragments to squirt out the far side of a windshield and strike the enemy. In 2005 the Marine Corps partnered with U.S. Special Operations Command to develop a new round, SOST, that was considered "barrier blind," meaning it can pass through common obstructions — sandbags or sheet metal, for example — and still cause grave injuries.
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At the same time, the Army was developing its M855A1, also known as a green round because it does not contain lead. But developers encountered significant problems, prompting the Marine Corps to continue pursuing its own program.
Marines saw an immediate benefit when the SOST round was fielded in Afghanistan in 2010. The institution has continued to be impressed, so much so that this past winter the Marine Corps' foremost weapons experts announced their objective to see SOST adopted as the service's standard rifle round.
Although Marine combat units still deploy with a mixture of SOST and legacy M855 rounds, their recommendation called for a dramatic shift: Marines would take only SOST into battle and use M855 exclusively to train until those stocks were exhausted in the next seven to 10 years. After that, all new purchases would be for SOST — for use during training and in combat.
That recommendation, which emerged from the service's annual marksmanship symposium, has not been finalized and would appear now to be in jeopardy — unless the service can make the case that only SOST and not M855A1 can meet their needs.
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Advocated by Weapons Training Battalion, which also is based in Quantico, the SOST recommendation is sound and will receive just consideration, Manning said. However, a decision cannot be made until the next round of M855A1 testing is complete, he said. The service will then have to argue their case to the defense secretary to justify SOST if Marines still find M855A1 lacking and the secretary's report to Congress is followed by movement to adopt the Army's round.
Training vs. equipment
One of the world's premier small-arms experts says the debate over performance is irrelevant. The accuracy provided by both cartridges is more than sufficient for a conventional infantry force, said Larry Vickers, a retired Army Master Sergeant who served 15 years in 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment – Delta and designed the Marine Corps' Vickers's Combat Applications two-point sling.
"If you've got ammo that shoots 2 MOA, that is eight inches at 400 meters. That is still easily the upper chest area of a bad guy," he said, referencing the acronym for minute-of-angle with each minute translating into an inch from a rifle's a point of aim at 100 yards. "Accuracy of the ammunition is not the issue. It's the guy behind the gun."
The Army touts its M855A1 ammunition as match grade meaning it is as accurate as cartridges that would be used in a high-level marksmanship competition. However, some have voiced reservations about its consistent accuracy. Independent testing by staff at the National Rifle Association's American Rifleman magazine found in 2012 that, while it was more accurate than old M855, it was not within 1 MOA, the standard many would consider match grade.
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For highly trained units in special operations, match-grade or specialty ammunition can be beneficial and will continue to be available, Vickers said. It might not yield as much benefit, however, is a regular soldier or Marine is not trained to the same exacting standard.
He supports the idea of returning to a single standard round, particularly if it will save money.
"I am really against this trend we have seen over the years of different uniforms for different services where everybody has to be unique and special," he said, alluding to another potential cost-savings target military leaders have resisted.
The money to procure separate high-end cartridges would be better spent on teaching troops to shoot better, he said.
"Tackle some training deficiencies first. Go out and issue M193 ball to Delta and they will hand anyone their ass on a platter because they are bringing training and technology together," Vickers said, noting the round U.S. forces used before the M855. "You can't bypass the first step. You need guys who can hit targets in a variety of situations under stress, bringing the skill to the table that warrants that ammo," he said.
To that point, the Marine Corps is working to revamp marksmanship training by pushing more combat marksmanship into its early training. This will force Marines to perfect their ability to shoot while on the move and hone skills such as shot placement on a photo-realistic target, positive identification and making decisions to shoot, or not.
Nitpicking ammunition, Vickers said, is like trying "to fix a software problem with a hardware solution."
"The US military as a whole -- their theory is not to put in time and effort to build better skill, but to try to buy better effectiveness and hits on target," he said. "It is very misguided."
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