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Russia in the 21st Century [Superthread]

Russia using Flax to make munitions instead of cotton

From Tanknet:
Russia is increasing the production of gunpowder, solid rocket fuel and explosives, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev reported. In order for gunpowder production in Russia to operate at the limit of its capabilities, new plants are being created and old ones are being re-equipped. Now the plants regularly produce pyroxylin gunpowder for all types of weapons, artillery systems of all calibers, but there are problems with the supply of raw materials. The fact is that gunpowder production requires nitrocellulose produced from cotton, its production is concentrated in China and Uzbekistan. Since 2022, Russia has begun to actively buy nitrocellulose on world markets, but this was not enough, and China has also limited the supply of nitrocellulose to world markets. Since 2015, Russia has begun to decide to develop a new technology for the production of gunpowder from flax. As it turned out, new gunpowder from wood and flax cellulose is no worse than the usual one. The advantages of flax powder are higher energy than cotton, stability of characteristics, this allows to reduce the weight of the powder used to 8% and get the same values as when using nitrocellulose powder. The price of flax powder is up to 5 times lower, artillery shoots more accurately with shells with flax powder. Since the spread when shooting with the use of standard powders is 3-5 meters, and for flax powder this spread is 0.5 meters. It is worth noting that Russia grows flax in record quantities. In the future, the share of wood and flax cellulose in the production of gunpowder will reach 60-70%.

 
Russia using Flax to make munitions instead of cotton

From Tanknet:
Russia is increasing the production of gunpowder, solid rocket fuel and explosives, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev reported. In order for gunpowder production in Russia to operate at the limit of its capabilities, new plants are being created and old ones are being re-equipped. Now the plants regularly produce pyroxylin gunpowder for all types of weapons, artillery systems of all calibers, but there are problems with the supply of raw materials. The fact is that gunpowder production requires nitrocellulose produced from cotton, its production is concentrated in China and Uzbekistan. Since 2022, Russia has begun to actively buy nitrocellulose on world markets, but this was not enough, and China has also limited the supply of nitrocellulose to world markets. Since 2015, Russia has begun to decide to develop a new technology for the production of gunpowder from flax. As it turned out, new gunpowder from wood and flax cellulose is no worse than the usual one. The advantages of flax powder are higher energy than cotton, stability of characteristics, this allows to reduce the weight of the powder used to 8% and get the same values as when using nitrocellulose powder. The price of flax powder is up to 5 times lower, artillery shoots more accurately with shells with flax powder. Since the spread when shooting with the use of standard powders is 3-5 meters, and for flax powder this spread is 0.5 meters. It is worth noting that Russia grows flax in record quantities. In the future, the share of wood and flax cellulose in the production of gunpowder will reach 60-70%.

Remind me again, how much Flax this nation produces ?
It's a fair amount.
 
The ash content issues needs to be solved first. If not it’s not viable for usage in many weapons systems due to fouling and contamination.

Interesting article though, and I’m curious what the follow up results were.
 
I was actually thinking Canada.
I suspect AgCanada probably has the answer.
It would be interesting to see how much Flax you need to make X amount of propellant.
In addition to FJAG's info, piece I linked showed this ....
Screenshot 2024-08-05 061023.jpg
Screenshot 2024-08-05 061051.jpg
Screenshot 2024-08-05 061116.jpg
... so take your pick o' stats :)
 
Seeing some stuff about the Russian railway system under a lot of stress…


Digging a bit further seems to indicate they have a critical shortage of ball bearings due to sanctions and the sabotage incidents have only exasperated the issue.
People making that predication 8 months ago were told they were outright wrong. A lot of crow is going to be eaten if that turns out to be the case.
 
Seeing some stuff about the Russian railway system under a lot of stress…


Digging a bit further seems to indicate they have a critical shortage of ball bearings due to sanctions and the sabotage incidents have only exasperated the issue.
Hopefully it happens. I have assembled/repairs a few train wheel assemblies at this point in time, bearings are pretty important.

If you had the knowledge and time you could make them out of bronze and use a oil bath as they used to do before roller bearings were a thing. That being said I don’t think they have the knowledge, skill, or most importantly the time needed to make that happen.
 
Hopefully it happens. I have assembled/repairs a few train wheel assemblies at this point in time, bearings are pretty important.

If you had the knowledge and time you could make them out of bronze and use a oil bath as they used to do before roller bearings were a thing. That being said I don’t think they have the knowledge, skill, or most importantly the time needed to make that happen.
If it's anything like over here, they would have to resurrect truck frames with journal boxes. I have a friend who has babbitt moulds for old engines and creating the right alloy mix is quite an art. I would bet not many current railway workers would have any working experience with them.
 
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