Development of a standardized projectile for KENLW

STANREC 4744 proposes test methodologies to assess the risk of using kinetic energy non-lethal weapons and projectiles. To ensure the reproducibility and the repeatability of the proposed surrogates, validation processes and calibrations processes have to be defined. A validation process of surrogates has already been established in the STANREC 4744. It is based on the shot of a commercially available KENLW projectile on the systems, comparing the output to reference results defined in the STANREC 4744. There are currently 3 drawbacks with this method. Firstly, the proposed projectile is quite expensive (around 30 euros per round, not reusable). Secondly, the projectile is not easily procurable in USA or Canada, which is an issue when it comes to implementation of a standard. Thirdly, there is no control on the projectile. This lack of control can be dramatic for the reproducibility of the proposed method if the manufacturer removes the projectile from the market, or if the projectile changes in terms of mechanical properties. These considerations urge the need to develop a standardized KENLW projectile, the Bullet Simulating Non-Lethal Projectile (NLBSP), which objective will be to validate and calibrate surrogates with a repeatable and reproducible mean. There are 3 candidates proposed: foam and FDM 3D printed structure, fully FDM 3D printed structure and fully SLA 3D printed structure. The aim of the current study is to identify a candidate which comply with the requirements for availability, reproducibility and repeatability. The identified solution will be tested on current surrogates.