Amphibious bullets that have at least 40% better effective range than current bullets and destructive power even in the water have been developed by a South Korean company. Because they can be used on the ground and in the water without changing a projectile, it is expected that they will greatly expand operational capabilities of military operations.
Duratek (CEO Kim Hyung-sae), which is a startup company established three years ago, announced on the 10th that it has developed a bullet called ‘KG17’ that has increased effective range of a 5.6mm bullet from 460m to at least 600m and has higher destructive power and improved accuracy and that it is planning to mass-produce ‘KG17’ starting from early 2018.
‘KG17’ moved center of weight to the front and reduces rear resistance that occurs from vortex and improves accuracy and destructive power by having an air guide groove inside of its base. When current bullets are fired, their front and back are switched starting from certain distance due to precession that changes axis of rotation, which is due to huge angle of yaw, and cause turnover phenomenon where they are flying with their front and back switched.. Due to this reason, destructive power and accuracy drop significantly when a bullet passes certain distance.
‘KG17’ is designed so that it can be used on the ground and in the water. Current bullets are divided into bullets for the ground and underwater. If bullets that are used for the ground are shot at water, it is difficult for these bullets to hit targets that are under the water as they are either reflected back or separated.
Bullets that are specifically for underwater are used under the water. However because South Korean Army does not have any related technologies, it is heard that they are looking into ways of bringing in entire supplies of amphibious bullets from foreign countries at an expensive price. Currently, it is carrying out its operations by separating bullets for the ground and bullets for underwater as it is not able to carry out maritime operations and ground operations at the same time.
Bullets developed by Duratek are amphibious bullets with at least 10m (based on 5.6mm bullet) of penetration power underwater. This is at a same level as underwater bullets that are developed by countries as the U.S. and others that are advanced in national defense. If these bullets are used, armies can use them in variety of operations such as ground operations, maritime operations, and special operations without changing bullets and allows them to greatly expand operational capabilities of their military operations.
Duratek finished evaluation tests of its bullets’ performance at an international official test site and it also obtained related patents in South Korea and foreign countries.
“Reactions towards our bullets were very positive at a national defense exhibition that we recently submitted our products to as one of the representatives for U.S. army rated them as ‘amazing products’.” said CEO Kim Hyung-sae. “We are planning to work with other small and medium companies with a goal of mass-producing our bullets in January of 2018 and push for foreign marketing.”
Staff Reporter Shin, Seonmi | smshin@etnews.com