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US Military Seeks Biodegradable Bullets That Sprout Plants (newatlas.com)
The Department of Defense is looking at ways to clean up the hundreds of thousands of training rounds used by the U.S. army. It is putting out the call for the development of biodegradable ammunition loaded with seeds that sprout plans after being discharged. New Atlas reports: At military facilities across the U.S. and indeed around the world, a huge number of rounds are fired for training purposes, ranging from low-velocity 40 mm grenades, to mortars, to 155 mm artillery rounds. All of these feature components that can take hundreds of years to biodegrade, and falling onto the ground in such great numbers means that finding and cleaning them up is no small task. But left behind, they can corrode and pollute the soil and water supplies. So the Department of Defense has put out a call for proposals through the Small Business Innovation Research agency that solve the problem. The DoD describes the solution as a naturally occurring biodegradable material that can replace those used in current training rounds. It imagines that the biodegradable composites will be capable of holding bioengineered seeds inside (a technology it says has been demonstrated previously), that won't germinate until they have been in the ground for several months. Then plants will sprout from the discharged ammunition that actively remove soil contaminants and consume the other biodegradable components. Also imperative is that animals are able to safely consume the plants.
Some people in this world really do need shooting though
You are pretty dumb.
There's nothing wrong with cutting costs and reducing pollution. These rounds aren't being made for killing people. You might as well be arguing that they shouldn't train recruits with "fake grenades" at first because fake grenades don't kill anyone.
In what way does making biodegradable training bullets "misunderstand" the horrors of war? I'm missing the logical leap here...
I don't respond to AC's.
Did you hear that great big whooshing sound? Yeah, that. That was the sound of "training rounds" going right over your head.
Or more likely right through your head. Which is easy to do because it's apparently empty.
Unless the plant is native to the area, keep it out. Last thing we need is another kudzu or similar plant spreading like wildfire.
You are pretty dumb.
And so are you...
Look, realistic training is necessary for our troops, that means firing ammo that is "like" the real thing in weight and performance at least some of the time. Sure, you don't have to fire high explosive rounds or drop real 1,000 lb bombs that are going to go off all the time, but you do need stuff that's close to real from time to time.
I seriously doubt we are going to find a cost effective way to plant trees in mortar shells or wild flowers in target practice rounds. I'm all for not doing harm if we can manage it, but I'm also NOT for these do good green types that advocate the military doing hugely expensive "green" projects that don't really help anything and cost way too much.. (Like that "renewable fuel oil" mess the Navy did a while back that was millions of dollars of waste for a very little bit of fuel).
So the original poster was right... Keep the purpose of the military straight in your head and dump all the nutty parts about environmental awareness and green technology being part of their mission. They are there to break stuff and kill people while avoiding having others break their stuff and kill them and us. To hell with planting trees or saving the environment if we are not here to enjoy it because the bad guys won the next war.
You are pretty dumb.
And so are you...
Oh my, it's the dumberer complaining about somebody else. What a revelation.
Look, realistic training is necessary for our troops, that means firing ammo that is "like" the real thing in weight and performance at least some of the time. Sure, you don't have to fire high explosive rounds or drop real 1,000 lb bombs that are going to go off all the time, but you do need stuff that's close to real from time to time.
Which would be a useful rebuttal if ANYBODY EVER SAID that their intention was to NEVER have ANY real materials expended.
But you'll note that the only absolutes are coming from the people saying "OMG OMG OMG, this would never work, NEVER NEVER NEVER, it's all PC-Bullshit" and other such mendacity.
The argument that Chris Katko made was that there's nothing wrong with cutting costs and reducing pollution. It'd be hard to argue otherwise. Even times where you say "We can't cut that cost" it's because there is still something else wrong with it.
I seriously doubt we are going to find a cost effective way to plant trees in mortar shells or wild flowers in target practice rounds. I'm all for not doing harm if we can manage it, but I'm also NOT for these do good green types that advocate the military doing hugely expensive "green" projects that don't really help anything and cost way too much..
That's nice, but you may want to know something. Actual real ammunition and shells are FUCKING EXPENSIVE. So is the clean-up. Spending some money on research is thus competing against a very high standard anyway.
Really, there is a reason we do have fake grenades, and even dummy rounds. Because it's better to practice without that crap going off on you. Save the live-fire exercises for special times.
(Like that "renewable fuel oil" mess the Navy did a while back that was millions of dollars of waste for a very little bit of fuel).
Because a research project is expensive, huh? Now ask yourself how expensive it would be if they didn't prepare in advance.
So the original poster was right...
You haven't made one substantial argument to demonstrate that they are right to oppose any substitution of munitions at all. . Zero. None. Sorry, I know you hate facing reality, most of your type do, but you didn't actually rebut the premises involved.
Keep the purpose of the military straight in your head and dump all the nutty parts about environmental awareness and green technology being part of their mission. They are there to break stuff and kill people while avoiding having others break their stuff and kill them and us. To hell with planting trees or saving the environment if we are not here to enjoy it because the bad guys won the next war.
Well, don't worry, this will be done by a private company anyway. Just like the fuels. That's how the government works. That's how the military does things.
Don't like it? Too bad. You're dumb anyway.
You're shouting common sense into a deep, dark chasm of stupidity. You should know by now that any time a story mentions sustainability, there's going to be dozens of shit-drizzlers who only know that they're supposed to be agin' it.
And every time a story has anything to do with the military, the comment section will be full of anonymous no-dick keyboard kommandos who think playing COD4 and hassling women on Twitter is "fighting the war back home" and thus qualifies them as experts in all things war-fighting.
You are welcome on my lawn.
this isn't about being eco warriors.
this is about bean counting.
99% of all military ammunition is used in training on firing ranges.
that's a lot of lead to leave laying about in the environment, a lot of hazardous waste sites that will require future and expensive cleanup.
yes the seed idea is pretty far fetched.
but the idea of reducing the amount of lead the military needs to clean up is a good one.
The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.