Greener Bullets Use Nontoxic Alloys, Won't Poison Soils

The Kansas City Business Journal's report on a recent "green" bullet deal reminded me of two things:

One, everything uses some kind of material or construction that can be rethought, redesigned and made a little better for everybody.

Two, greening the military exists. It's not talked about a lot, but it's such a huge part of our economy that it has to happen for financial reasons, if nothing else. Here's the report on the green bullets deal:

Alliant Lake City Small Caliber Ammunition Co. LLC received a $7.37 million contract from the U.S. Department of Defense that modifies the basic mechanical and electrical refurbishment to accommodate the "green" bullet design.

According to the Defense Technical Information Center, the DOD's Green Bullet Program seeks to reduce the use of lead-antimony in ammunition used at training ranges and replace it with nontoxic alloys to prevent lead contamination in soil and surrounding areas. The military started using green bullets at training ranges in October 1999.

Catch that? This way, the bullets won't contaminate soil. It's weird to think about in those terms, isn't it? But a recent HuffPost blog pointed out more reasons to think about greening the military:

Greening our military and adopting better fuel efficiency would save money in the long run and cut down on emissions of greenhouse gases. Not to mention that a military less dependent on fossil fuel - which accounts for seventy percent of battlefield tonnage - would require fewer fuel convoys. Such convoys have been a lightning rod for insurgent attacks, putting troops' lives at risk. Better fuel efficiency would save lives.

Comments

[research]

I have a great way to save money:

bring all the troops in the middles east home, and put everyone to work on solar wind and efficiency at home.

OPEC, are afraid green energy is a strategic threat to their economies.

What are we waiting for?

2 trillion in green energy is still cheaper than the Iraq War will be.

If we dropped our 80% in 5 year, you think the price wouldn't go way down?

But for national security reasons, we keep installing solar and wind

till we are more than independent and can sell power.

[NWBrunette]

Oh good, now we can kill people and end up polluting the environment just a tiny little bit less. Anybody aware of the astonishingly massive amounts of pollution the military creates that has nothing to do with bullets? Also, anybody up for putting money and effort in to ways to not kill people? Hey, I love green as much as the next girl. But this is green-washing, pure and simple.

[doriath22]

Beats the hell out of using depleted uranium!

[tailgateshirts]

great, when they use golf carts or battery hummers that will cut down on ALOT of fuel throughout the bases

[EHarold]

Awesome now if some of the spineless media can do an article on how the PENTAGON is the biggest polluter we might start getting somewhere.­. Greener bullets.. Sorry killing things isn't green. . It's barbaric.

[NWBrunette]

True and right... and thank you!

[Greenguy25]

Most new technology gets its start with the military and green tech has been applied for several years. We are now at a time when all these technologies have been proved useful by the military, but investment must be made to bring them to the market place.

The stimulus will bring that investment, generate next generation technologies and start moving green tech forward. We have been marketing renewable and green energy education for 7 years and even durning the worst economic times, our increase in activity has proved that the new energy age is here.

http://www.mygreenscene.com
http://www.greensceneems.com

[berkleyb]

Makes sense to me. Why not start with tanks where mileage is rated in gallons per mile instead of miles per gallon?

[Sumocat]

I think you have that flipped, not that our technology will be able to accomplish that any time soon. Moving a 70 ton tank takes a lot of energy.

[degenerate1991]

An M1A2 Abrams tank (the kind we use) can go 440 yards on a gallon of gas; other diesel powered tanks tend to have (relatively) better mileage.