Wonder what FBI wants with 20mm supressed rifles ?

Yup! Thats a real mobile weapons system! The only thing it's good for is when you know when, where and how to shoot it! Perhaps the FBI is going into the assasination racket!

I can see it now, Hold it, Hold it, Don't Move! Hold it! Shit Missed!
 
Find it unlikely they want a suppressed weapon for stealth shooting. The thing fires a freaking 20mm shell that travels way faster than the speed of sound which means it is going to have its own sonic boom. So anyone close to the firing spot is still going to hear a crack even if you suppress the actual firing. This is true with any silenced weapon unless you fire subsonic rounds...then the suppression is actually pretty good. Not quite like the TV version...but not bad. Highly doubt they are going for the stealth shot with subsonic 20mm (effective range very limited [smile]) My guess is the suppression is just to save the ears of the shooter and anyone standing next to him. That thing has got to have a pretty good roar without the suppressor.

T(1)

EDIT: Oh, and I had one in my Ferrari but it was stolen last week while my hot wife was driving through the Italian Alps.
 
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How DOES one suppress a 20MM rifle?

"Well, I suppressed it, so now they'll only hear me coming if I shoot at them closer than 20 miles"

My assumption is the longer the suppressor, the quieter it is (subject to the law of diminishing returns at some point...), but eventually you'll either run out of barrel to turn into suppressor or you'll have a gun so long you'll have to vehicle mount it. Either way...
 
drgrant said:
You KNOW you want one.... to take to an Appleseed. [wink]

-Mike
Click to expand...

Lets see...5.50 a round...the appleseed project site says bring at least 400 rounds, so lets say 450 to make it even, comes to $2475. That is dedication. It would make scoring easier, though. Half the target would be missing, so you'd be guaranteed the x ring if you even got close [smile]

edit: sorry, 5.50 is for their 50 cal ammo, the 20mm is 9.50, so our number jumps to $4275
 
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T3andme said:
Find it unlikely they want a suppressed weapon for stealth shooting. The thing fires a freaking 20mm shell that travels way faster than the speed of sound which means it is going to have its own sonic boom. So anyone close to the firing spot is still going to hear a crack even if you suppress the actual firing. This is true with any silenced weapon unless you fire subsonic rounds...then the suppression is actually pretty good. Not quite like the TV version...but not bad. Highly doubt they are going for the stealth shot with subsonic 20mm (effective range very limited [smile]) My guess is the suppression is just to save the ears of the shooter and anyone standing next to him. That thing has got to have a pretty good roar without the suppressor.

T(1)

EDIT: Oh, and I had one in my Ferrari but it was stolen last week while my hot wife was driving through the Italian Alps.
Click to expand...

Keystone said:
How DOES one suppress a 20MM rifle?

"Well, I suppressed it, so now they'll only hear me coming if I shoot at them closer than 20 miles"

My assumption is the longer the suppressor, the quieter it is (subject to the law of diminishing returns at some point...), but eventually you'll either run out of barrel to turn into suppressor or you'll have a gun so long you'll have to vehicle mount it. Either way...
Click to expand...

Might have more to do with flash suppression rather than noise suppression,
but at 1,500 yards and way beyond, neither is anything to be concerned about unless you're concerned about enemy mortar or artillery fire.
 
20MM rifles were first manufactured by Armscor (Lyttleton Engineering Works), in South Africa. Because of the arms embargo, the South Africans became quite adept at "rolling their own" in terms of military weapons and vehicles. The only advantage that 20MM would have over .50 BMG would be in stopping a (stolen?) Level 5 police-type tactical armored vehicle, such as the Lemco B.E.A.R. and B.E.A.R.C.A.T. These vehicles will stop up to .50 BMG, but could be defeated by anything greater. For anti-armor use, I would skip the rifles altogether and go straight for a compact rocket launcher, such as the 66MM L.A.W. or the AT-4. The FBI's latest toy is simply a solution looking for a problem that does not exist and will likely never exist. Very expensive and very impractical.
 
The FBI will have to post their justification for sole source after they award the order. The document might have more details, maybe not...
 
Interesting that they would be interested in different camo for ballistics testing. I would have guessed that the rank and file acquisition person would just stick to plain vanilla black or whatever.

The Belgian... Go figure.... might just want to have a little fun while testing. Although, I don't get the point of Camo other than desert/navy/urban for a rifle that big. Frankly, what are you going to shoot in the desert with that? A tank? Not enough gun, a jeep? There's gotta be something more effective -- an M242 on a Bradley or something. Maybe for the mountains of Afghanistan...

The Navy warfare... uhmmm... Somali pirates?
 
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terraformer said:
If they are only buying two it's to play with them and figure out their characteristics. They will do wound analysis, ballistic analysis (casing and bullet), etc. When they order 10-20 then you can expect they are heading into the field.
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Wound analysis. What wounds?

"Did you engage hostiles?"

"I didn't engage hostiles, I vaporized hostiles."
 
That ain't no gun! It's a Shoulder Cannon.

I know I have some piece of paper the BATFE sent me that claims anything bigger than 50BMG is classified as an artillery projector.
 
RFWAVELENGTH said:
20MM rifles were first manufactured by Armscor (Lyttleton Engineering Works), in South Africa. Because of the arms embargo, the South Africans became quite adept at "rolling their own" in terms of military weapons and vehicles. The only advantage that 20MM would have over .50 BMG would be in stopping a (stolen?) Level 5 police-type tactical armored vehicle, such as the Lemco B.E.A.R. and B.E.A.R.C.A.T. These vehicles will stop up to .50 BMG, but could be defeated by anything greater. For anti-armor use, I would skip the rifles altogether and go straight for a compact rocket launcher, such as the 66MM L.A.W. or the AT-4. The FBI's latest toy is simply a solution looking for a problem that does not exist and will likely never exist. Very expensive and very impractical.
Click to expand...

Actually, 20mm rifles have been around longer than that... The Finns made use of them in WW2. Zero Hour has one.
 
MACGYVR said:
They are going to use it in testing taking down planes.
Click to expand...

Stinger would work a WHOLE lot better. Even in WWII the 20mm Orlikon deck gun was considered marginal at best for AA use due to limited range. The sailors considered them 'revenge weapons' because by the time the plane was close enough to hit it had already dropped it's bombs/torpedo. Further the round wasn't heavy enough to knock a kamikazi in it's attack run off course - the 40mm Boforus was the smallest caliber weapon capable of that. There're several navy reports that indicate the only reason they didn't remove the 20mm's from the ships was due to the morale effect it gave the sailors - more opportunity to actually 'shoot back'.
 
Bob P said:
Were they 20MM? I thought they were like .52 or something - or am I thinking of the Soviet AT rifles?
Click to expand...

20mmSolothurnAd1957.jpg
 

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