Spin discarding multiple projectile sabot

• US 10,443,993 B1
• Filed: 11/29/2018
• Issued: 10/15/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 11/29/2018
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: United States Secretary of the Army
• Original Assignee: United States Of America As Represented By The Secretary Of The Army (Government of the United States of America)
• Inventors: Chaplin, Raymond, Parisi, Christopher C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Semick, Joshua T
• Application Number:
  US16/203,706
• Time in Patent Office: 320 Days
• CPC Class Codes: F42B 12/06 with hard or heavy core; Kinetic energy penetrators F42B12/16, F42B12/74 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: F42B 12/20 of high-explosive type F42B12/44 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: F42B 14/064 Sabots enclosing the rear end of a kinetic energy projectile, i.e. having a closed disk shaped obturator base and petals extending forward from said base
• CPC Class Codes: F42B 14/065 Sabots carrying several projectiles

Abstract

An ammunition round for simultaneously launching multiple penetrators enclosed with a single composite sabot, without any nesting or physical contact between the penetrators. The composite sabot has petals which are engraved by the tube'"'"'s rifling during launch to rotate the petals, without presence of a separate rotating band element. The petals are separated from the penetrator elements upon exit from the gun tube solely by centrifugal forces acting on the petals.

Claims

1. An ammunition round comprising:

multiple concentric subcaliber penetrator elements (4, 6) for simultaneous launching in a rifled gun tube,

a rear pusher plate (2) for imparting axial impetus to said penetrator elements during launch, said pusher plate having an aft shaped as convex in the forward looking direction,

a spin discarding composite sabot system enclosing the penetrator elements, said sabot system comprising petals (5, 13) having slots (9) and posts (11) so said petals are keyed to one another and to said rear pusher plate, and wherein the penetrator elements are not nested or mutually touching, and wherein the penetrator elements, pusher plate and petals are not permanently joined,

wherein the petals are engraved by the tube'"'"'s rifling during launch which rotates the petals and the penetrator elements, the engraving being done without presence of a separate rotating band element on the ammunition round to accomplish such rotations, and

wherein the petals are separated from the penetrator elements upon exit from the gun tube by centrifugal forces alone acting on the petals.

2. The ammunition round of claim 1, wherein the penetrator elements (4, 6) are contained within the petals (5) and (13) respectively.

3. The ammunition round of claim 2, wherein each penetrator element contains a warhead with fuzing.

4. The ammunition round of claim 3, wherein the warhead is a shape charge.

5. The ammunition round of claim 1, wherein each of the petals of the sabot system have a cross section which is symmetric about a central open area containing the penetrator elements.

6. The ammunition round of claim 5, wherein the number of petals is three.

7. The ammunition round of claim 1, wherein the sabot petals are held onto the penetrator elements and pusher plate via crimping by a cartridge case (16, 17, 18, 19, 24) prior to firing the round.

8. The ammunition round of claim 1, wherein the pusher plate, petals and penetrators have chamfered edges (20, 21, 22).