Black powder and the military?

[Skychief]

Anyone have knowledge regarding how much black powder is needed for our military?

I can't imagine our forces relying on foreign powder or domestic powder produced under foreign ownership.

Lord help our country and her leadership, Skychief.

 

[Tasbay]

We were discussing this at work today but my question was what would a modern military use black powder for today?

 

[Musketeer]

The M-249 LMG was designed and built by FN in Belgium. Once adopted, US service guns have been made at an FN factory in South Carolina. They could do the same with powder. Assuming they still have substantial use for black powder, and assuming GOEX goes under, they would probably contract with someone like WANO and have them build a plant stateside specifically for the military.

 

[Kansas Kid]

It’s a global economy and the military has used imported arms and support equipment for many years. FNC rifles Baretta pistols, Rein Main Smooth bore cannons on M1 Abrams tanks. The list is very long. The last black powder I used was for jet engine starter cartridges for Pratt and Whitney TF33 PW102 engines. About a four pound keg per engine. It was for emergency and alert type use.

 

[mooman76]

Not a big use but when I was a prison guard, we had blank shotgun rounds, we called poppers. They were for warning shots and were BP. I imagine they could use another powder instead.

 

[leadhoarder]

Other Nato countries produce it so maybe they are not that concerned.

 

[Whitworth]

It's long but quite interesting and informative on black powder.