Binary Propellant Guns

Interestingly, in 2300 AD, some of the assault arms were lasers, some
were what I'd call a needler or gauss gun, some older ones were
conventional caseless round, and a few were binary propellant. If they
could get it right, it does seem a snappy system, especially if (for an
AR) you can load BP with your mag or in the buttstock once every 10 mags
if that's how it works out. It'd be neat too to be able to siphon some
BP off a tank to reload the squads SAW.

How about this for BP main gun on an AFV:
1: Find chemical that requires a lot of A (one inert element) and a
little B (similar) to produce C (volatile)
2: Mix A and B prior to injection into the breech block to assure even
mix
3: Have a purge cycle (perhaps an electrostatic charge, perhaps an air
pressure or some electromag particle repulsion field) to clear excess
propellant
4: Go to an autoloader (it's about time).

You could load A with a hose (like gas) and a cartridge of B slapped
into the side of the turret. the mixing chamber would have the same
blow-up panels modern ammo storage does. There is a siphon valve to
allow infantry to resupply BP weapons from the tanks supply, or in
extremis vice versa.

BP had the neat advantage of being able to meter the impulse per round
to allow better AP performance, better range, or better accuracy. If you
fired on FA or autoburst, the cyclic went up and the impulse per shot
went down assuming you were shooting in closer. Presumably your sights
autoadjust to reflect this - not that you might be using sights at close
range.

And Oerjan - stop bemoaning the weakness of the DS2 vehicle construction
system. The SG2 system (DS2 lite I'd call it) is far worse. I'd say "Get
up there and write us a good one, oh numbers wizard who knows too much
about modern AFVs...". :)

Seriously, has anyone taken a look at BTRCs GunsGunsGuns! (3G) - It's a
neat system for generic weapon system design. They also did a vehicle
design system that might be worth a look. If one could write a good
conversion system for it, you could just use it and do conversions.
Seems easier than a system from scratch, while allowing you many of the
advantages a more rich and complete system could provide. THOUGH Don't
even mention *costing* such vehicles....

Tom
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