The U.S. military is trying to go green, and not just with berets or fatigues. In a multimillion dollar project, the Army has come up with a new bullet said to be just as deadly as the old lead-based one but cleaner for the Earth. In the new bullet, a less toxic tungsten composite replaces the lead. It's just one of the Pentagon's efforts to keep troops trained for combat while protecting the environment on military land.
Critics say the armed forces have a long way to go on that score.
It's used in the M-16 rifle, a weapon issued to every Army infantry soldier, and an estimated 200 million rounds are shot a year. Md. The new bullets cost about 8 cents each compared with a half cent for the old ones. Dette said they'll cost less in full production and when officials consider the savings of millions of dollars that would otherwise go for cleaning contaminated ranges. They settled on a tungsten composite slug and kept the old copper casing to produce a bullet Dette says actually turned out to be more accurate and causes less barrel erosion. Soldiers won't notice a difference, he said.