These Bullets Can Be Fired Underwater And Penetrate Through Submarines

According to Defence One, the U.S. Special Operations Command is conducting tests on a type of bullet that can work underwater. Since the air’s density is just one-eighth of that of water, bullets in this environment are slowed down greatly, reducing the threat they can pose.

The aim here is to help soldiers trained in underwater environments to hit targets on the surface, like boats. And for soldiers to target submarines while they are operating.

These bullets are reportedly being tested by the Secretary of Defense’s Combating Terrorism Technical Support Office.

These ammunitions are manufactured by DSG Technologies, a military contractor. What they did was to coat their tips with tungsten, meaning the bullets will have tiny bubbles of air. This whole process is known as supercavitation. Air bubbles can lower the torpedoes’ drag and the underlying principle of this occurrence is how these underwater bullets work.

The new bullets have been put through tests and shows at a shooting range in North Carolina. DSG Technologies demonstrated the capacity of the CavX Multi Environment Ammunition by shooting some of them from a Colt AR-15. The bullets were able to penetrate 13 ballistic gelatin blocks, each of them is 0.4 meters.

The chief science officer of DSG, Odd Leonhardsen, said that they were selling these bullets to several countries all over the world. However, he did not provide any name. The only information he mentioned was that these buyers were conducting tests by firing the bullets from helicopters.

Leonhardsen also shared that the ammunition would be available to nations in NATO as well as NATO-friendly ones.

As stated by Defence One, the CAV-X bullets could penetrate through a 2-centimeter panel of steel shot from 17 meters away, meaning it can be shot through the walls of submarines.