The U.S. Army is working on biodegradable munitions that will grow flowers
Ammunition used by the military in exercises has polluted more than 60,000 square kilometers of US land. The Pentagon decided to address the problem and announced a competition to design biodegradable bullets.
Looks like there are environmentalists in the military, too. And it was they, concerned about the gigantic amounts of spent ammunition left behind on battlefields and training grounds each year, who decided to initiate the development of a design for such missilesóin, które would be environmentally safe.
Department of Defense stateóin the United States and the Small Business Innovation Research agency have announced a competition to design a biodegradable munition containing plant seeds.
The program’s premise calls for a projectóin the ammunition, która will contain plant seeds. The missile is to be made of materialóin biodegradable. After such a bullet decomposes, a plant should germinate. Seeds in ammunition must also be appropriate. They are to be plants, whichóre will help remove contaminants from the soil and absorb residual biodegradable material.
The competition applies not only to ammunition for standard gunsóin or rifleóin, but also a bulletów artillery. Caliber ranges from 40-120 millimetersów. Of course, the designed bullets must meet all sorts of requirements of currently manufactured ammunition.
The program refers only to training ammunition. There is no planów to introduce new missiles in the futureów to equip the U.S. soldier.
Hundreds of thousands of missiles are fired on the training grounds every yearów. The remnants of them are lying in the soil. Ammunition contains a number of environmentally harmful materialsóin whichóre seriously contaminate the soil and can seep into the wód ground. This is a big problem.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has calculated that the ammunition used by the military in exercises has caused more than 60,000 kilometers of pollutionóin square terrainóin the stateóin the United. Clearing these areasów will cost approximately 35 billionóin the dollarów. Perhaps a financial argument rather than an environmental one prompted the decision-makerów to the start of the competition.
The initiators of the program also thought about non-military applications of the developed materialsów. Biodegradable materials in the future may find use in the private sector in the production of at least environmentally friendly bottles and packaging and other compositesów.
Interested companies can apply until February 8.