umair said:
Thank God! I only know aviation and infantry types.This topic has me in circles :?
Explanation required please.
The M1's use caseless ammo rather than the traditional (brass) casing and warhead.
On a normal ballistic weapon, once the round is fired the shell casing is ejected and the next round is loaded in.
Caseless ammo OTOH burns up the casing as part of the firing sequence. So there is no ejection, hence no littering of the inside of the tank (if no external ejection or evacuation hole is in the floor - which is a mine opportunity as it creates a vulnerable access point).
Caseless also means that the gun can have a higer rate of fire as the ejection reload process is shortened. On a handgun, caseless ammo means that it's also easier to fire underwater etc...
There's a raft of other opportunities, but these are the basic reasons.
Incidentally, the A-10 uses linkless ammo in much the same way. The links are magnesium so (IIRC) are burned up in the detonation sequence