Shock-Absorbing Concrete (SACON) Bullet Traps for Small Arms Ranges

Small-arms training is a requirement in all branches of the military. Over 1,800 active military outdoor small-arms training ranges are operated in the United States. In a typical year, small-arms training activities consume over 300 million rounds and add between 1 and 2 million pounds of lead to the ranges in the form of bullet debris. As a result, Department of Defense DoD small-arms ranges accumulate significant amounts of lead in the soil. Because elevated levels of lead in groundwater and soils can present a health hazard, the migration of heavy metals can result in environmental regulators imposing training restrictions that ultimately will reduce operational readiness. Technology to reduce lead contamination is recognized as a high priority DoD user requirement. The Environmental Security Technology Certification Program ESTCP funded a technology demonstration of Shock-Absorbing Concrete SACON to address this requirement. SACONis a low-density, fiber-reinforced, foamed concrete for use in the construction of live-fire training facilities such as hand-grenade houses and Military Operations in Urban Terrain MOUT villages. SACON was developed to minimize the hazard of ricochets during urban training. The shock-absorbing properties of the concrete necessary to reduce ricochets also function to create a medium for capturing small-arms bullets. In a properly designed SACON bullet trap, the incoming bullet buries itself in the concrete. The low water permeability and high alkalinity of the concrete result in the creation of less-soluble lead corrosion products, which reduces the leaching of lead into the surrounding soil. The use of SACON on small-arms ranges provides the DoD with a potentially recyclable bullet-trap material that does not detract from training realism. T