Intermediate cartridge
An intermediate cartridge is a rifle/carbine cartridge that has significantly greater power than a pistol cartridge but still has a reduced muzzle energy compared to fully powered cartridges (such as the .303 British, 7.62×54mmR, 7.65×53mm Mauser, 7.92×57mm Mauser, 7.7×58mm Arisaka, .30-06 Springfield, or 7.62×51mm NATO), and therefore is regarded as being "intermediate" between traditional rifle and handgun cartridges.[1]
As their
The first known early intermediate cartridge to see service was the
With the data collected during World War II and the Korean War, the benefits of intermediate cartridges became apparent. This resulted in the development of "modern" cartridges such as the Soviet
). Later an international tendency emerged towards relatively small-sized, lightweight, high-velocity Intermediate military service cartridges. Cartridges like the AmericanHistory
High power rounds
The late 19th and early 20th century saw the introduction of
In the years leading up to World War I, the Lebel set an international example, and smokeless powder high power service cartridges and service rifles began to be produced by all the world's great powers. This included, but was not limited to, the German Gewehr 98, the British Lee–Enfield, the Russian Mosin–Nagant, and the American M1903 Springfield. These rifles weighed over 8 lb (3.6 kg), and they were longer than 40 in (1,000 mm) and as such were generally inappropriate for close combat. They fired cartridges and featured iron sight lines designed in an age when military doctrine expected rifle shots at ranges out to over 1,000 m (1,100 yd) for simultaneous fire at distant area targets like ranks of enemies, but typical combat ranges were much shorter, around 100–300 metres (110–330 yd), rarely exceeding 500 metres (550 yd).[7]
Introduction of semi- and full-auto weapons as service firearms
World War II revealed the demand for better fire density in infantry operations. To achieve this goal, both Allied and Axis countries rapidly developed and produced a number of semi-automatic service rifles, such as American M1 Garand, Soviet SVT-40 and the German Gewehr 43. Compared to their bolt-action predecessors, these weapons provided a considerably higher effective fire rate. In 1951, the US military published a study on the M1 Garand's fire rate: a trained soldier averaged 40–50 accurate shots per minute at a range of 300 m (330 yd). "At ranges over 500 m (550 yd), a battlefield target is hard for the average rifleman to hit. Therefore, 500 m (550 yd) is considered the maximum effective range, even though the rifle is accurate at much greater ranges".[8]
Simultaneously, armies of both sides had put
Seeking to combine the rapid fire capabilities of SMG and advantages of the rifle calibers, both Allied and Axis powers developed a range of early automatic rifles. The first automatic rifles to be adopted by the fighting armies were the German FG42 and Sturmgewehr 44.
Demand for lighter ammunition
Although efficient in the battlefield, early automatic rifles had a considerable drawback compared to both semi-automatic rifles and submachine guns. With a fire rate of 600-1000 rounds per minute, automatic rifles increased the amount of ammo a soldier had to carry. However, the ammo was much heavier (393 gr (25.4 g) for 7.62 x 51 round compared to 160 gr (10.4 g) for .45 ACP), effectively limiting the ammo load.
Additionally, when fired in full automatic mode free recoil delivered by full-sized and full-powered cartridges became an issue, too.
Though technically a full-powered cartridge, the first one to fulfil this requirement may have been the Japanese
This led to a series of early attempts to produce a lower-powered round using existing calibers. Examples include the US
Post-war developments
These earlier examples were generally developed with the goal being ease of development and logistics, and lacked any rigorous study of their performance. In the immediate post-war era, the British Army began such a study with an eye to replacing their pre-World War I .303 British. The .303 had been slated for replacement repeatedly, but a series of events kept it in service decades longer than expected. Their studies led to a new purpose-designed intermediate round, the .280 British, along with new weapons to fire it. The round attracted significant interest among other UK-oriented forces, but during NATO standardization effort the US was dead-set against any reduction in power.[14] The British EM-2 bullpup rifle used an intermediate round, and was issued in limited numbers in the 1950s but the 7.62×51mm NATO was selected and it was removed from service.
In practice, the 7.62×51mm NATO was found to be too powerful for select-fire weapons, as the British testing had warned. When the US entered the
Universal service cartridge
Some militaries have considered the adoption of a 'universal service cartridge' – a replacement of small caliber, high-velocity intermediate cartridges and full-power cartridges with a cartridge at the larger end of the intermediate cartridge spectrum, well suited for both assault rifle and general-purpose machine gun use in the
The
Characteristics
Typical intermediate cartridges have:
- Bottlenecked, rimless cartridge
- According to the official C.I.P. (Commission Internationale Permanente pour l'Epreuve des Armes à Feu Portatives) and NATO EPVAT rulings the maximum service pressures range between 320.00–430.00 MPa (46,412–62,366 psi) Pmax piezo pressure
- Muzzle energies ranging between 1,250–2,500 J (922–1,844 ft⋅lbf)
- ft/s)
- Relatively low Oratios ranging between 2.87 and 7.99
List of intermediate cartridges
LE and Paramilitary
Cartridges issued to Law Enforcement and Paramilitary forces were or are chambered for.
- .22 Spitfire cartridge of the Iver Johnson Spitfire
- .221 Remington Fireball
- .300 AAC Blackout
- .375 SOCOM
- .450 Bushmaster
- .45 Raptor
- .458 HAM'R
- .458 SOCOM
- .50 Beowulf
- .500 Auto Max cartridge of the AR500
- 6.5mm Grendel
- 7.62×37mm Musang
- 7.62×45mm Pindad cartridge of the Sabhara/Police V1-V2
- 8.6 mm Blackout
- 9×39mm
Service cartridges
Service cartridges are cartridges the service rifles of armies were or are chambered for.
- 5.45×39mm cartridge of the AK-74 assault rifle
- 5.56×45mm NATO (.223 Remington) of the M16 assault rifle and M4 carbine
- 5.8×42mm cartridge of the QBZ-95 assault rifle
- .345 Winchester Self-Loading of the Winchester-Burton M1917 automatic rifle
- .351 Winchester Self-Loading of the Winchester Model 1907 semi-automatic rifle
- 7.62×39mm cartridge of the AK-47 assault rifle and SKS semi-automatic carbine
- 7.62×45mm cartridge of the vz. 52 semi-automatic rifle
- 7.92×33mm Kurz cartridge of the StG 44 assault rifle
- 10.4x38mmR Swiss cartridge of the Vetterli rifle
- 10.4×47mmR cartridge of the M1870 Italian Vetterli
- 11x42mmR Albini-Comblain cartridge of the M1870 Belgian Comblain
- 11×50mmR Comblain cartridge of the M1870 Belgian Comblain
- 11mm Beaumont cartridge of the M1871 Beaumont rifle
- 12x46mmR Musket Spain XPL
- .43 Spanish Carbine
- .45-75 WCF
- .433 Egyptian
Prototype cartridges
Cartridges tested for standard issue or research were or are chambered for.
- .351 Winchester Self-Loading cartridge for the Winchester Model 1907[19]
- .345 Winchester Self-Loading cartridge for the Winchester Burton Machine Rifle[19]
- 4.85×49mm cartridge of the experimental Enfield IW assault rifle
- M249
- Zastava M70assault rifles
- 6.8mm Remington SPC (6.8×43mm) cartridge of the limited service LWRC M6 assault rifle
- .280 British (7×43mm) cartridge of experimental weapons and the briefly in service EM-2 assault rifle
- 7.5×38mm Swiss trials Cartridge Stgw Patrone 47
- 7.5×38mm chambered for the CEAM Modèle 1950 rifle and experimental French variant of StG 45(M) rifle
- 7.65×33mm Argentine variant of German 7.92×33mm cartridge for use in Argentine copy[which?] of German Sturmgewehr 44 assault rifle[citation needed]
- 7.65×35mm chambered in CEAM Modèle 1950 and experimental French variant of the StG 45(M) rifle[citation needed]
- 7.75×39mm GeCo the first intermediate round ever made, German experiment[citation needed]
- 7.92×41mm chambered for the CETME rifle
- 12.7×55mm STs-130 subsonic cartridge of the limited service ShAK-12 assault/battle rifle
See also
- List of assault rifles
- List of carbines
- List of rebated rim cartridges
- Table of handgun and rifle cartridges
- Fully powered cartridge
References
- ^ ISBN 978-1-57356-557-8.
- ^ Kjellgren, G. L. M. "The Practical Range of Small Arms" (PDF). The American Rifleman. pp. 40–44. Archived (PDF) from the original on 5 March 2015.
- ^ Roblin, Sebastien (18 Dec 2017). "Was the M2 Carbine America's First Assault Rifle?". Retrieved 1 Feb 2021.
- ^ Frenchak, Chris (18 December 2017). ".30 Carbine – A Complete Guide (Ammo, History and Guns)". Retrieved 19 Feb 2021.
- ^ "ASSAULT RIFLES AND THEIR AMMUNITION". Archived from the original on 2017-11-05. Retrieved 2014-11-09.
- ^ "How much does your ammo weigh?". tfb.com. 9 April 2016.
- ^ a b Military Small Arms Of The 20th Century, 7th Edition, 2000 by Ian V. Hogg & John S. Weeks, p.243
- ^ U. S. RIFLE, CALIBER .30, M1, DEPARTMENTS OF THE ARMY AND THE AIR FORCE, October 1951
- ^ Williams, Anthony (6 Feb 2012). "Assault Rifles and their Ammunition: History and Prospects". Archived from the original on 5 November 2017. Retrieved 4 Apr 2012.
- ISBN 5-85503-072-5.
- ^ Williams, Anthony G. (June 22, 2008). "Assault Rifles and Their Ammunition: History and Prospects". Military Guns & Ammunition. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 14, 2008. Retrieved April 3, 2018.
- ^ Hallock, Richard R. (March 16, 1970). "M16 Rifle Case Study. Prepared for the President's Blue Ribbon Defense Panel" (PDF). p. 162. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 6, 2015. Retrieved November 14, 2020.
- ^ "SKS Simonov -- Modern Firearms". Modernfirearms.net. 28 October 2010. Archived from the original on 2018-02-15. Retrieved 2018-02-09.
- ^ "British Military Cartridges .280/30 Enfield". Archived from the original on 2014-12-31. Retrieved 2014-12-31.
- ^ South, Todd (7 May 2017). "New rifle, bigger bullets: Inside the Army's plan to ditch the M4 and 5.56". armytimes.com. Retrieved 14 May 2017.
- ^ Trevithick, Joseph (10 May 2017). "The Army Is Once Again Looking to Replace the 5.56mm Cartridge". thedrive.com. Retrieved 15 May 2017.
- ^ U.S. Army Public Affairs (19 April 2022). "Army awards Next Generation Squad Weapon contract". United States Army. Retrieved 19 April 2022.
- ^ Roblin, Sebastien (18 Dec 2017). "Was the M2 Carbine America's First Assault Rifle?". Retrieved 17 Feb 2021.
- ^ a b F, Nathaniel (April 2, 2014). "Before The Sturmgewehr: Assault Rifle Developments Prior to 1942". Archived from the original on April 9, 2023.