New handguns and assault rifles for the armed forces are benefiting from National Defense University’s proprietary technology, a polygonal rifling that doubles the service life of barrels and more than doubles their precision, the university said.
Employed in the military’s new T75K3 pistols, polygonal rifling would also be used in the T91K3 assault rifle, which is being developed at the Armaments Bureau’s 205th Arsenal, the university said.
Rifling — a groove that spirals down the inside of a barrel — gives a bullet spin, thereby improving its aerodynamic stability and making the gun more precise at longer ranges, power vehicles and systems engineering professor Deng Shi-gan (鄧世剛) said.
Photo: Aaron Tu, Taipei Times
The inside of a barrel with conventional rifling is marked with sharp, angular indentations that cause friction and allow gas to escape, he said.
The smooth undulating grooves of polygonal rifling — the name comes from the shape of the bore, which resembles a polygon with rounded corners — gives superior wear-and-tear and gas-sealing properties, he added.
The university team used computer-aided design to make the rifling patterns to greatly extend the barrel’s service life and improve precision, Deng said, adding that the program was partially funded by the National Defense Industrial Development Foundation.
Firing the barrel at 100m would result in an average 10-shot grouping about the size of a NT$10 coin, while the barrels can be used to fire more than 20,000 bullets without any loss of accuracy, material sciences professor Liu Yi-ming (劉益銘) said.
The university and the arsenal are also jointly developing a nickel-boron finish for bolt carriers that should almost eliminate the need for rifle lubricant, Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology Commandant Major General Jing Yuan-yeu (荊元宇) said.
Compared with phosphate, nickel-boron finishes last longer and offer greater resistance to corrosion, increasing the number of rounds between malfunctions and are less harmful to the environment, Jing said.
In testing, a T91 rifle with the nickel-boron finish and no additional lubricant could fire about 10,500 rounds before jamming, he said, adding that there was no discernible damage at 8,000 rounds and the corrosion tests were promising.
The finish would make the next generation of small arms more reliable and durable, while decreasing upkeep requirements, he said.
In other news, a defense official said that the army plans to buy 10,404 T75K3 pistols at a cost of NT$368.6 million (US$12 million) to completely replace the aging Colt M1911A1 handguns in its inventory.
The M1911A1 pistols, either 60-year-old holdouts from US military aid or locally produced copies, show significant wear-and-tear, the official said on condition of anonymity.
The M1911A1 is considered an overly heavy weapon with excessive recoil and a small magazine — only seven rounds — compared with the T75K3, which has a more durable barrel and a 15-round magazine, the official said.
All of the aging pistols should be replaced by 2022, the official said.
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
UNREASONABLE SURVEILLANCE: A camera targeted on an road by a neighbor captured a man’s habitual unsignaled turn into home, netting him dozens of tickets The Taichung High Administrative Court has canceled all 45 tickets given to a man for failing to use a turn signal while driving, as it considered long-term surveillance of his privacy more problematic than the traffic violations. The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), lives in Changhua County and was reported 45 times within a month for failing to signal while driving when he turned into the alley where his residence is. The reports were filed by his neighbor, who set up security cameras that constantly monitored not only the alley but also the door and yard of Tseng’s house. The surveillance occurred from July
TRADE-OFF: Beijing seeks to trade a bowl of tempura for a Chinese delicacy, an official said, while another said its promises were attempts to interfere in the polls The government must carefully consider the national security implications of building a bridge connecting Kinmen County and Xiamen, China, the Public Construction Commission (PCC) said yesterday. PCC Commissioner Derek Chen (陳金德), who is also a minister without portfolio, made the remarks in a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, after Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Hsu Fu-kuei (徐富癸) asked about China’s proposal of new infrastructure projects to further connect Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties with Xiamen. China unveiled the bridge plan, along with nine other policies for Taiwan, on Sunday, the last day of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun’s (鄭麗文) visit
RSS