Caseless Binder
Caseless rounds offer numerous advantages, from reduced weight of rounds, reduced volume, increased magazine capacity with no detriment to spring strength, no spent casings, and a completely closed bolt firing system. The caseless rounds can also decrease recoil somewhat, since there is no brass casing to eject, reducing the total momentum of the system.
The only challenge with caseless rounds has been the high potential for a cook-off, since the brass in cased rounds serves as a heat sink. The issues, for the most part, have been resolved however, and can be applied in a wide variety of weapons. An RDX and plasticizer binder is utilized to decrease the sensitivities of the propellant to shock and heat. Having replicated Dynamit Nobel's ACR ammunition (also used in the G11) the HITP (High Ignition Temperature Propellant, which is hexogen/octogen-based to decrease heat sensitivity), the ammunition was modified to a 5.56 mm round, used in the LSAT caseless weapon. Tests proved the ammunition's usability, and development of the weapon was advanced using knowledge gained from the cased ammunition version.
The cook-off problem was reduced, by using a denatured hexogen propellant with a special binder and coating for the ammunition that increased the spontaneous ignition temperature to 100 °C (212 degrees Fahrenheit) above that of standard, nitrocellulose propellant. This in turn has mostly eliminated the cook-off problems with the round. The primer utilized is a multi stage high strength shock specifically sensitive propellant, which is only more complex than standard primer. This in turn allows for a more controlled burn of the round and reduces the sensitivity of the primer, as well.
This type of propellant, similar to the one in the ACR, LSAT, and G11, allow the weapon to significantly reduce the weight and volume of the rounds, and therefore increase the total volume of rounds that can be carried in a given weight.
