SAR 18#6

Origins of Project SALVO
The Hitchman report’s suggested
solution to low combat effectiveness
was to compensate intentionally for the
soldier’s inherent aiming errors by developing
a new type of automatic arm
capable of projecting missiles either in a
burst or salvo:
...either a simultaneous [salvo], or a
high cyclic rate burst, with the number
of rounds per burst automatically set
rather than dependent upon trigger release.
In the (salvo), the scatter would
be obtained and controlled by multiple
barrels, a mother-daughter type of projectile,
or projection of missiles in the
manner of a shotgun.
The State of Affairs in the “Lightweight”
Rifle Program
Consider the unfortunate state of
affairs as they then existed in Col. Studler’s
vaunted “lightweight” rifle program,
wherein his original favorite, the T25,
had evolved briefly into the T47 only to
be ignominiously terminated in favor of
what was basically nothing more than
a “product-improved” M1 Garand. This
arm, the selective-fire, 20-shot T44, had
been in its initial stages of development
at Springfield Armory when the Hall
Study and the Hitchman Report were released
in 1952. The controversial ORO/
BRL results stood in direct opposition to
nearly every single feature the Army had
approved in the T44.
Nevertheless, the luckless M14 rifle,
the final embodiment of the T44, was to
be adamantly adopted as the standard
U.S. service rifle in May, 1957 after
five more years of snail’s-paced refinement.
During this time the privately-developed
.223-caliber ArmaLite AR-15
had appeared; a direct result of ORO/
BRL research and the resulting SAL-
VO studies. Ultimately, it was to render
both the M14 and the 7.62mm NATO
cartridge obsolete.
The Three Branches of
Project SALVO
Meanwhile, the multi-agency SAL-
VO project was initiated in November,
1952, and immediately diverged into
the three main areas of experimentation
already introduced above.
The Multiple-Bullet, Single-
Barrel Concept
ORO became a strong proponent of
the nested multiple-bullet, single-barrel
salvo weapon concept, testing Duplex
and Triplex loadings in a number of experimental
cartridges, all based on the
standard .30 caliber case.
A version of the ORO Duplex
loading of the 7.62mm NATO cartridge
was subsequently adopted - ORO later
termed the green-tipped M198 Duplex
round, with considerable justification,
a “low-cost, low-risk, high-payoff innovation.”
Curiously, the M198 cartridge
was never made in significant numbers,
nor was it ever issued in any but
token quantities.
Two- and Three-Barrel
SALVO Weapons
Springfield Armory and Olin (Winchester)
drew up plans for several complex
and unwieldy prototypes of two- and
three-barreled salvo weapons, designed
to fire near-simultaneous bursts of small
caliber projectiles. Valuable research
into the nature of burst fire was gleaned
from each of these studies, but as a
design for a combat shoulder rifle, the
sheer and dismaying forward imbalance
of their weighty multiple barrels proved
utterly impracticable.
The AAI 32-Flechette Shotshell
SPIW
On another tack, the Office of Naval
Research had initiated a contract
in 1952 with Aircraft Armaments, Inc.,
of Cockeysville, Maryland, to supply
for test a quantity of 12-gauge shotgun
shells, each loaded with 32 small
nested steel “flechettes,” or arrows.
A display board headed “ORO SALVO Test Ammunitions,” showing cutaway views of the various experimental ball, Duplex and
Triplex loadings under examination, together with the AAI 32-flechette shotshell (far right).
www.smallarmsreview.com 93 SAR Vol. 18, No. 6