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Ballistics Testing Ranges
Ballistics/ordnance testing is conducted on-site at
Calspan in Buffalo, NY at the Ballistics Laboratory
as shown below. This facility includes underground
ballistics ranges and associated ordnance laboratories.
Featured are two enclosed 1,000-inch underground ranges
and an enclosed shorter underground range. The ranges
are instrumented for all measurements and have all
the fire controls necessary for research, development,
test, and evaluation. Data acquisition systems and
high-speed cameras are available for use. The ranges
are designed for safe operation from blast damage
and explosives. All testing can be controlled from
rooms with blast-proof viewing windows.
The adjacent laboratory area is fully equipped for
gun and ammunition research. Included are facilities
for modifying, loading, and storing special experimental
rounds. A small machine shop is included for rapid
turnaround of desired modifications. A completely
equipped machine shop is located elsewhere at the
Buffalo facility for more extensive modifications
or complete fabrication work.
Experimental studies have included gun barrel heating
and erosion; ammunition heating and cookoff (autoignition);
heat transfer from conventional, caseless, and combustible
case ammunition; heating in rapid fire weapons (up
to 6,000 rounds per minute); vented combustor erosion;
closed bomb tests of propellants; armor material evaluations;
projectile damage assessments; and projectile accuracy
measurements.
Calspan Ballistics Lab - Buffalo, NY
Located just 35 miles south of Calspan's Buffalo
facility, Calspan's 700-acre Ashford Facility
offers both limited access and isolation from population
centers and, therefore, has been extensively used
for ordnance research and development. Its varying
terrain includes a cleared plateau, steep grades,
and a deep gorge; vegetative cover ranges from field
grass to deep woods.
The Ashford gun range (see figure below) was
built to ensure more-than-adequate safety zones.
A typical firing position can provide a forward
field of 4760 feet over an angle of 80°,
and a rearward field of 1000 feet over 280°.
To make certain that adjacent areas are not
disturbed by tests with smoke or other disseminants,
care has been taken to favorably orient the
Ashford ranges with respect to prevailing winds.
Calspan's Outdoor Gun Range - Ashford, NY
For small- and large-caliber tests that do not
require long-range projectile overflight, our
200-meter range is routinely expanded to over
1400 meters. Designed for the safe and efficient
testing of several types of ordnance--from submunitions
and bomblets having various payloads (smokes,
high explosives, fragments, chemicals, etc.)
to both small- and large-caliber guns--the Ashford
facility is a convenient, yet remotely located,
self-sustaining testing site. The facility at
Ashford features a state-of-the art Ordnance
Laboratory building (see figure below) that
includes munition preparation rooms for safely
handling and loading of explosives, chemicals,
and fragments; a chemical laboratory building;
instrumentation rooms; and a small machine shop.
Calspan's Ordnance Laboratory - Ashford, NY
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