Flemish weapons production 1 million weapons per month

Flemish weapon project aimed at converting general industry to produce 1 million weapons and ammunition per month within an hour.

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Why?

The ammunition shortage for supporting the war in Ukraine confronts NATO countries with the fact that the European arms industry is far too small to supply the necessary ammunition to Ukraine.

Be it for reasons inherent to American politics or because America becomes involved in a global military conflict on different fronts in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. The possibility that the American arms paradise will no longer be able to support Europe is no longer considered nonsense.

NATO foresees this problem and urges all European countries to boost their arms production, reform their defense policies, and pay more attention to strategic industrial sectors.

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How?

Without abandoning the American alliance, NATO urges European countries to manufacture as many necessary weapons as possible within Europe itself. European countries urgently need to invest in research and development and expand their production capacity.

The time when the arms industry in Belgium was considered unethical is over. Our Belgian Minister of Defense reacts like a good homemaker and makes drastic decisions to invest the Belgian defense budget in its own Belgian arms industry.

Belgian firearm production mainly consists of Walloon arms production by FN Herstal and its sister division for ammunition production in Zutendaal, Flanders. These two facilities were protected from all sides for a long time, so that no other competing arms company could ever be established in the past. The result is that there is only one active production process for how weapons and ammunition should be manufactured.

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The 5.7x28mm and 7.92x24mm cartridge

Each developed ammunition caliber has its pros and cons. To what extent the Five-seveN pistol with its tiny 5.7x28 mm SS190 ammunition can neutralize a Russian soldier armed with a ready-to-fire AK47 in time before he can fire a 30-round full-auto burst in the direction of a NATO soldier, we will leave aside here, but the construction of the 5.7x28mm SS190 cartridge has its typical characteristics which, although generally accepted as normal, do limit large-scale mass production.

  • Bottle-necked casing that can only be made on special presses for ammunition.
  • Special sliding coating to function in the P90 submachine gun.
  • Difficult to reload and impossible to make on general machines.
  • The 5.7x28mm is prohibited for civilians in most countries, and civilian defense or resistance supported by a large amount of ammunition among civilians is excluded.

Consequently, the ammunition production of the 5.7x28mm cartridge depends on the machines specialized in ammunition production that together form the production line at FN Herstal and FN - Zutendaal. As a result, this production line can only expand its production capacity to a limited extent. All parts can only be made on machines specialized in ammunition production and are not found anywhere else in general industry.

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Thinking outside the box

Most Flemish companies active in the defense industry are dual-use companies that produce both goods for the civilian market and specialized goods for the defense market. The limitations of specialized weapon and ammunition production had already been investigated by various companies.

Manufacturing bullet tips on a CNC lathe is not new. Even for the 5.7x28mm caliber, bullet tips were developed in Flanders years ago that were made on a civilian lathe.

In Flanders, there are hundreds of CNC machines that make bolts and nuts for the civilian market. These CNC machines can load a different program for the production of brass bullet tips in less than a few minutes and be equipped with the right tools to start production in less than an hour. This means that such production can be started in various companies in Flanders and that there is not one production line but hundreds of machines that can immediately produce finished bullet tips.

  

As a result of the anti-gun atmosphere in Flanders, these projects were put on hold. Years later, this principle was rediscovered, produced, and marketed in the American gun paradise by companies such as Vanguard Outfitters and Elite Ammunition.

This is a typical example of how it should not be done. Flemish ammunition developments were sabotaged, and the industry was lost to America.

Now, even in various tests, solid turned 5.7 bullet tips perform better than the well-known SS190 bullet tips, which are composed of several separate small pressed parts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXVxq3DBCF4

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The Flemish 7.92x24mm ammunition project also considered a Dual-Use production of cases and a targeted mobilization of the many available companies with computer-controlled machines for emergency ammunition production.

The first 7.92x24mm cases were turned on a conventional lathe. The production of these 7.92x24mm cases can also be done on CNC-controlled lathes. In this project, too, the hundreds of CNC machines spread across Flanders can switch to ammunition production within an hour.

 

 

  • Straight case that can be made on special ammunition presses as well as on CNC machines.
  • Easy to reload and a multi-caliber role in existing weapons.

  • The 7.92mm or .32 caliber is significantly larger than the 5.7 caliber, where most common .32 bullets cannot penetrate bulletproof vests and are therefore less dangerous in the possession of civilians. Civilian defense or resistance supported by a large amount of ammunition among civilians is just as possible as with the 9x19mm caliber.

Caliber 7.92x24mm N ammunition for smoothbore (project 2005)

The production of firearms can also take place on Dual-Use machines. The use of a smoothbore barrel or pressing a mandrel through a smoothbore barrel and adapted ammunition can be used as an alternative production technique. Plastic frames and smoothbore barrels can also be made on the hundreds of plastic injection molding machines and CNC turning and milling machines. These machines are widely available in Belgium and can switch to weapon production within an hour.

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Production organization by the Ministry of Defense.

Storing a large quantity of weapons and ammunition is one solution to prepare for a weapon and ammunition shortage. Organized mass production is another solution where the army supervises Dual-Use production capacity for weapons and ammunition on general machines. During peacetime, Dual-Use machines produce general-purpose parts, and in a crisis situation, they can switch to the production of weapons and ammunition within an hour.

Through such an organization, where different companies can switch to the production of weapons and ammunition within an hour, production capacity can be significantly increased to a production of 1 million weapons and ammunition per month.

3D printed weapons

Nowadays, there is much discussion about defense and the many Flemish companies trying to contribute. The number of companies offering 3D printing services is rapidly increasing, and more and more private individuals are starting to print plastic parts themselves with 3D printers.

 

Toy version of the FGC-9 3D printed weapon. There are no 3D printed weapons or plastic parts available, and no computer files or blueprints for 3D printers are released on this website. It is prohibited by law to illegally produce 3D printed weapons or parts. 

Until now, the technique for economically producing 3D printed weapons was still in its infancy, but it cannot be denied that 3D printers are getting better and better, and raw materials offer increasing possibilities. 

The technical evolution in 3D printed weapons is happening very quickly, and the known technical limitations of plastic parts, including heat resistance and barrel wear, can be overcome by new developments.

Design of a 3D plastic printed polygonal barrel with 1:10 inch twist.

Conventional ammunition can also be equipped with special 3D printed bullet tips whose performance surpasses that of conventional ammunition. The use of hardened steel penetrators on 3D printed sabots can become a serious competitor for current PDW ammunition. New innovations in 3D printed weapons and ammunition can be incorporated into the armaments of military units. 

Advantages of 3D printed weapons and ammunition.

  • The production of 3D printed weapons can be mass-organized in companies, among the population, or by the military itself, allowing the army to quickly equip soldiers, reservists, or volunteers with 3D printed weapons and ammunition (similar to drones in Ukraine).
  • Simple weapon construction that can be provided with the necessary safeties such as automatic bolt safety, grip safety, or trigger safety, can replace existing weapons such as the UZI, MP5 or P90.
  • 3D printers can be used for manufacturing short-range defense weapons, which relieves the standard production lines at FN-Herstal or allows them to produce more high-quality weapons.
  • Limiting dependence on rare raw materials such as high-quality steel, copper, aluminum, and lead can be solved by using plastic. 
  • 3D printed weapons and ammunition can be made on inexpensive standard 3D printers that are common among the population today.
  • The plastic can be recycled to make new weapons or other parts.
  • Belongs to low-budget armaments such as drones (air and sea drones) with which good performance can be delivered with limited resources.

 

Disadvantages of these 3D printed weapons and ammunition

  • These 3D printed weapons can be made illegally anywhere without weapon registration. The number of ghost guns is increasing rapidly.
  • New procedures for the technical inspection of 3D printed weapons still need to be developed but are not impossible. Testing material strength and even numbering 3D printed weapons is possible but not yet perfected.
  • 3D printed ammunition contains a steel penetrator or projectile; if fitted with a sharp point, they are comparable to the performance of a 5.7x28mm cartridge.
  • Some 3D printed weapons cannot be detected by metal detectors during security checks.
  • Heavier bulletproof vests are needed to stop 3D printed ammunition. (link to our heavy bulletproof vests)

CRISAT and bulletproof vests

Although NATO's CRISAT program is under heavy criticism, it provided a relatively objective view of the future body armor used in current military operations by the Russian army.

NATO CRISAT = 1.6mm titanium plate with 20 layers of aramid fabric underneath (Collaborative Research Into Small Arms Technology) form a general level of protection that includes other lighter military applications.

For example, at the front in Ukraine, we see Russian body armor consisting of a 3mm thick soft steel plate. Although this sounds laughable, a 3mm thick soft steel plate offers the same protection as a modern NIJ-3A class bulletproof vest and is therefore bulletproof against 9x19mm FMJ and 7.62x25mm Tokarev FMJ and is stab-resistant and fragmentation-resistant.

The CRISAT penetration requirements are no longer considered objective. The American doctor Martin Fackler, who was at the cradle of the modern FBI test protocol with a minimum penetration of 12” or 304 mm and maximum penetration up to 18” or 457 mm in gelatin, makes it clear that the CRISAT test protocol cannot deliver the stopping power needed to immediately neutralize an opponent. A penetration of 12” after piercing a CRISAT bulletproof vest should have been the CRISAT minimum. All ammunition developed based on the CRISAT test protocol, such as 5.7x28mm and 4.6x30mm, lack the necessary stopping power to meet modern requirements.

Deluxe NIJ-3A bulletproof vests

Modern bulletproof vests such as NIJ-3A can stop all handgun calibers allowed for civilian use in Europe. The 7.92x24mm caliber with all available .32 bullet points also cannot penetrate an NIJ-3A bulletproof vest. This is not the case with the 5.7x28mm cartridges intended for civilian use. That is why the 5.7x28mm caliber is prohibited for the civilian market in most European countries.

Rhino bulletproof vest Class 4 ICW 3a

Class 3 and Class 4 bulletproof vests can generally stop most types of military handgun ammunition.

Plate carriers class 4

Plate carrier class 4 are used in most modern armies. They can stop not only military handgun calibers such as the 5.7x28mm but also most assault rifle ammunition.