Nammo Insights 2019 THE RAMJET Offering you perspectives and insights from one of the world´s leading manufacturers of specialty ammunition and REVOLUTION rocket motors HOW WILL EXTREME RANGE MISSILES AND ARTILLERY CHANGE THE MODERN BATTLEFIELD? 2019 SPECIAL REPORT PROPULSION The range revolution page 10 What could the next war look like? page 13 Propelling missiles into the future page 16 A different way to launch into space page 18 FINDING THE WINNING BULLET Lars Axel Nygård test fires 30 000 page 6 bullets every year. Find out why 2 Photo: Winifred Brown / U.S. Army INTRODUCTION Western democracies are today get five times the range they we have changed our annual facing challenges on a scale not seen have today, for instance? Military magazine into a new format, since the end of the Cold War. After scientists try to understand the allowing you to get deeper insights decades of fighting insurgencies implications: what if both sides can into the ongoing technological and non-state actors, states hit almost any target, anywhere? developments in a historical and with significant industrial and Will there still be front lines? Can we strategic context – this time with technological capacity can once protect our most important assets? a special report on developments again be possible adversaries. Will we even have a battlefield in in propulsion technologies. the classic sense of the word? At the same time, technology has Thorstein Korsvold rushed forward. Some of the most We won’t pretend to have the Web & Content Manager pronounced changes have come in answers, but thanks to our Nammo the field of propulsion. What will technical expertise, we may offer happen when artillery or missiles some insights. This is also why CONTENT 2019 SPECIAL REPORT PROPULSION 3 THE BULLET 10 THE RANGE 16 PROPELLING THAT SWIMS REVOLUTION MISSILES INTO Nammo’s new “Swimmer” Artillery ammunition THE FUTURE bullet works underwater is getting a massive Ramjets are back, and upgrade this time they could 4 FOUR GENERATIONS change everything OF NAMMO 13 WHAT COULD The family making THE NEXT WAR 18 A DIFFERENT ammunition since 1896 LOOK LIKE? WAY TO LAUNCH Do we understand the INTO SPACE 6 FINDING THE implications of new Hybrid propulsion WINNING BULLET technologies on the could help power a This Norwegian gunsmith future of warfare? new generation of fires 30 000 rounds a year space launchers to help athletes win 3 The Swimmer is already in active service with both the U.S. Navy and U.S. Army, the latter having adopted it for the new Stryker Dragoon vehicle. Photo: 2nd Lt. Clay Harmon THE BULLET THAT SWIMS “Super cavitation” has the potential to cause radical change to the battlefield. Suddenly defenders have a tool that works equally well against submerged threats and armored opponents on land. Nammo’s Swimmer bullet is a of the new Mk258 ammunition we multiple target types – instead of concept that combines armor found out that the impossible was several that need to be changed – piercing with the ability to shoot actually possible,” Hasslid explains. makes units more effective in battle. straight through water. For the It also helps the logistics chain. Under the right circumstances, first time, it is being rolled out a bullet can create a bubble as it Both the U.S. Army and the U.S. Navy in significant numbers. goes through water. The super are now using the Swimmer. That Jan Hasslid, one of Nammo’s leading cavitation effect can then happen gives them a new weapon against engineers on the project, explains if low pressure behind the bullet underwater threats. Plus, instead how the Swimmer started out as reduces drag drastically. of using expensive and specialized an armor piercing ammunition. counters, defenders can now simply But getting there is a daunting fire with the guns they have. “The original Mk258 (today also technological challenge. At the tip of known as the ‘Swimmer’) was the bullet, massive pressure has to “The interest in the Mk258 is designed for use with the Norwegian be induced, enough to lower pressure tremendous. I’m also very optimistic army’s combat vehicle, the CV90. behind it (using the Venturi effect) so about what we can counter with Test results were really good when much that liquid there becomes vapor. this: torpedoes, mines or even the ammo was fired through their submarines could all be within “We already had something that 30 mm Bushmaster cannons – we range,” Hasslid concludes. we knew worked well against could defeat armored vehicles at a armored targets. In addition, our distance of 4 000 m,” Hasslid says. engineers utilized the latest materials DID YOU KNOW? But when the U.S. Navy started technology, hydrocode simulation looking at the ammunition, they tools, as well as Computerized Nammo has been saw even more potential. Fluid Dynamics, CFD, to maximize making 30 mm vehicle performance of the new design. “We worked with U.S. Navy ammunition for nearly It took a lot of effort, but we got engineers to qualify the Mk258 for it to work,” Hasslid says. 30 years, beginning use with USMC amphibious vehicles. with the Norwegian U.S. Navy engineers had an idea about The main advantage of the Swimmer shooting straight under water, and is versatility. Having just one CV90 fighting vehicles with the robustness and performance ammunition type that works against in the early 1990s. 4 FOUR GENERATIONS OF NAMMO Jostein Lundgaard’s family has been making ammunition for Nammo since the very beginning – in 1896. That’s four generations! “I was born into a family of factory workers, wanted to continue the tradition, and never regretted that decision,” Lundgaard says. Production manager Jostein the products they made are still Our users “After all, quality Lundgaard eagerly shows us very impressive,” Jostein says. need does not exist the pictures of factory workers in a vacuum. It from 120 years ago. They all look WARTIME DEMANDS ammunition has practical solemnly at the camera. He is Norwegian authorities established that works implications. clearly proud of his heritage. the factory at Raufoss because they every single Our users need feared the struggle for independence ammunition that “There he is. That’s my great time. In all from Sweden could escalate into works every grandfather. He started here just conditions a war. Therefore, they needed the single time. In all after they built the factory.” capability to produce ammunition. conditions. They In other pictures, Lundgaard points While relations between the two need to know that the precision is top out a grandfather, an uncle, his countries are very friendly today, in notch. The ability to penetrate must own father, a brother and several the 19th century the Swedish king was be the best possible. Because these other relatives. Some have worked also the ruler of Norway, holding both factors save lives,” Lundgaard says. in the very same building where in a personal union. The Norwegians When talking to younger Jostein has his office today. wanted independence, and prepared workers or new colleagues for war. In the end, Norway seceded here, what do you tell them? “It’s a bit strange to think of. But peacefully in 1905. But developments also a very natural thing for me. on the continent would soon bring “That compromising when it So many of us have worked here. a huge increase in demand. comes to quality is never an It feels like home, I guess.” option. We don’t do that.” World War I defined what Raufoss What’s left today of the reality Ammunition – today part of SURVIVING AFTER THE COLD WAR these people lived in? the Nammo group – would When asked what Nammo’s biggest become, Lundgaard believes. “A lot has changed, obviously. We accomplishment is, Jostein talks live in very different times. Safety “Mass production of ammunition about simply surviving. After the end concerns have become immensely definitely started in this period, of the Cold War a lot of competing more important. And I think there because wartime demands were so companies did not make it. is a different understanding of the great. Yet the bullets we have in our “A lot of other factories went bankrupt. role of the workers: the respect for museum show a surprisingly high Our colleagues and competitors had their skill and the importance of level of workmanship. The precision a very tough time adapting to a new their work; it’s improved immensely is remarkable, the threads are very reality in the 1990s, after the threat from what we saw in the old days. fine, and there is little deviation from the Soviet Union disappeared. These are all differences, of course, from bullet to bullet. I believe they But the industry here at Raufoss, as but there’s one striking similarity.” focused on quality even in these well as in Kongsberg, has managed early years,” Lundgaard says. And what’s that? to survive, and over time even thrive. “I believe my great grandfather Today, one of his responsibilities as I think that may be our greatest and his generation had some of the a production manager is to make achievement. We actually have same focus on quality, and doing sure only the best makes it out of just as many people working in the things right. If you look at what they the Nammo gates. He describes industrial park today as we did in 1989. made and consider their machinery it as a constant fight to improve That’s something to be proud of!” – primitive by today’s standards – things little by little, every day. 5 After World War II, the company also began developing space products, and a space division was set up.