Naval Historywith Dr. Alex

Q&A · 2:28:16-2:28:30

Telescoped ammunition and the salt-water problem

Telescoped ammunition offers an attractive compact system, but naval adoption depends on solving its vulnerability to salt-water conditions.

Naval GunnerySaltwater CorrosionTelescoped AmmunitionWarship Design
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Question

How does telescoped ammunition work, and why is it difficult to use at sea?

Short answer

It is a compact cased system, but current cased ammunition remains vulnerable to salt-water conditions, which limits naval use.

Notes

Telescoped ammunition packages the projectile inside a compact case, but the current system is sensitive to salt water. That vulnerability helps explain why the Royal Navy selected Bofors weapons instead. A mechanism intended for sea service must keep working in the marine environment. Compact ammunition offers little operational value until that problem is solved.