{"id":29134,"date":"2016-03-18T16:17:22","date_gmt":"2016-03-18T16:17:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/uncategorized\/2016\/03\/18\/new-army-weapon-tech-could-make-cleaning-obsolete\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T02:50:33","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T02:50:33","slug":"new-army-weapon-tech-could-make-cleaning-obsolete","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/news\/your-army\/2016\/03\/18\/new-army-weapon-tech-could-make-cleaning-obsolete\/","title":{"rendered":"New Army weapon tech could make cleaning obsolete"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What if you never had to clean and lubricate your rifle again?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span class=\"rte rte-comment\">Fanciful as it may sound, <\/span>Army engineers at Picatinny Arsenal believe they\u2019ve cracked the code to make it happen with a new surface applicant, which they said could go into production in 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When rifles and machine guns are fired, byproducts\u00a0accumulate, leading to what&#8217;s known as &#8220;fouling.&#8221; Buildup of powder residue and moisture\u00a0can eventually cause the weapon to jam, or lose accuracy, reliability and cyclic rate (rounds per minute<span class=\"rte rte-comment\">\u00a0it can fire<\/span>). That\u2019s why soldiers have to clean their rifles<span class=\"rte rte-comment\">\u00a0every so often<\/span>, generally with a wet lubricant known as CLP (cleaner, lubricant\u00a0and preservative).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The new material, known as\u00a0durable solid lubricant, would be applied during manufacturing and coats the gun&#8217;s moving parts. Currently, shooting byproducts\u00a0accumulate\u00a0during firing of rifles and machine guns, leading to what&#8217;s known as fouling. Buildup of powder residue and moisture\u00a0can eventually cause the gun to jam, or lose accuracy, reliability and cyclic rate (rounds per minute it can fire). That&#8217;s why soldiers have to clean their rifles every so often, generally with a wet lubricant known as CLP (cleaner, lubricant\u00a0and preservative).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The new material, known as\u00a0durable solid lubricant, would be applied during manufacturing and coats the weapon&#8217;s\u00a0moving parts. DSL simply prevents material from sticking to the weapon&#8217;s surface<span class=\"rte rte-comment\">; basically it&#8217;s a more advanced version of teflon on a frying pan<\/span>. Since the fouling buildup only loosely adheres to a DSL surface, any force from\u00a0the other moving parts or vibrations from firing is enough to knock it loose and keep the rifle clean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p>Christopher Mulligan<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"notes\" src=\"\/DesktopModules\/UDMW\/TextEditor\/images\/cq.png\"\/>, a research engineer who has a doctorate\u00a0<span class=\"rte rte-comment\">PHD<\/span>in materials science and has worked for Army Research, Development and Engineering Command for 13 years, said the material is a hard coating that drastically reduces friction and corrosion, improving the rifle&#8217;s\u00a0reliability. Explosive byproducts don\u2019t stick to the material, he said. The Army has a patent pending\u00a0on DSL; he and Foltz didn\u2019t want to go into detail on the technology until the patent is approved.<span class=\"rte rte-comment\"> but say<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Testing so far has been limited but encouraging, the two said. A\u00a010,000-round test of an M4A1, for example, produced zero stoppages despite testers never cleaning the gun, Foltz said. &#8220;The only time we weren&#8217;t shooting was to let the barrel cool.&#8221; There have been other tests that, while lab-based, incorporated sand, mud and extreme temperatures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Not only does DSL make a rifle easier to maintain, but it greatly reduces wear thanks to removal of CPL. The oil mixes with phosphate and hot propellant gas produced by firing, which increases the volume of a buildup that can erode a weapon&#8217;s moving parts, Mulligan said.\u00a0The engineers provided an\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/ec.militarytimes.com\/static\/pdfs\/NDIA_Advanced_Surface_Treatments_%2817348_FOLTZ%29v5.pdf\">image<\/a>\u00a0depicting test results which they say show parts of a bolt and bolt carrier 50 percent to\u00a090 percent worn after firing\u00a015,000\u00a0rounds\u00a0while treated with CLP. The DSL-coated parts showed wear ranging from 10 percent to less than 5 percent on the same parts over the same use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There has been overwhelmingly positive feedback from a limited number of soldiers who have tested the DSL, they said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Limited user evaluations have been conducted as well, generating overwhelmingly positive feedback, they said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This summer, the Army will conduct a more comprehensive test at Aberdeen Test Center in Maryland to determine whether DSL meets performance requirements. Tests so far have been on the M4A1, the Army\u2019s most up-to-date rifle. This summer the Army also plans testing on DSL-prepped M240s, the Army\u2019s venerable belt-fed 7.62mm machine gun. <span class=\"rte rte-comment\">Because the Army will own the technology it will be fairly seamless to incorporate into future guns of all varieties.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mulligan and Foltz said they know\u00a0some soldiers might react with incredulity<span class=\"rte rte-comment\"> to such apparent claims of sorcery<\/span>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;We expect skepticism, and we look forward to proving it,&#8221; Mulligan said. Foltz chimed in: &#8220;I was skeptical.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To address the doubters, they made sure a DSL-treated weapon\u00a0could tolerate a soldier&#8217;s application of CLP,\u00a0<span class=\"rte rte-comment\">it a requirement that what they developed would not have a problem if a soldier applied CLP,<\/span> whether because of doubts or habit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Kyle Jahner covers soldier uniforms and equipment, Medical Command and Recruiting Command along with investigations and other breaking news for Army Times. He can be reached at kjahner@armytimes.com.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What if you never had to clean and lubricate your rifle again? Army researchers say they&#8217;ve made that possible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":60216,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":70,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[12,70],"tags":[],"coauthors":[840],"class_list":["post-29134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-your-army"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"KGBSTTZCC5CC5GXAEXM6M6VH7M","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-army\/2016\/03\/18\/new-army-weapon-tech-could-make-cleaning-obsolete\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>New Army weapon tech could make cleaning obsolete - Army Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What if you never had to clean and lubricate your rifle again? 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