Ammo Guide

Author: SuperLemonade

RHS/HLC adds some ammo variants mission makers/players might not be familiar with. I'm gonna try to get a quick description of the less obvious stuff up sometime Friday! Feel free to add onto this or point out mistakes. Also, a quick disclaimer: I have no idea if any of these round's real life effects are modeled in-game. Might do some testing in the near future.

Basics

Ball/Full Metal Jacket (FMJ) ammo: Think of this as your standard type of ammunition. Bullet has a lead core with metal surrounding it.

Tracer ammo: Has a little thingy in the rear of the bullet that goes all glowy-glowy when you shoot it. Only lasts a bit.

5.56x45 NATO

Mk 318/SOST (Special Operations and Technology)

More accurate at long range and better at penetrating intermediate barriers (windshields of vehicles, walls, etc). Currently in use by the U.S. Marine Corps and various Special Operation Forces.

Mk 262/SPR (Special Purpose Rifle)

Match-grade round, loses less velocity at longer ranges. Was meant to to be used for the Mk 12 rifle but people found out it worked pretty damn well in everything. Some issues came up with reliability in certain conditions, so they made the Mk 262 Mod 0 round as an upgrade.

M885A1/EPR (Enhanced Performance Round)

An upgrade to the M885 round, soldiers in the field noted the ineffectiveness of the older cartridge and wanted something better. In 2010, the United States Army shipped out this bad boy. During testing it proved to perform better than the M80 7.62x51mm NATO round. Tailored to be used in M4 carbines, but works fine in M16 rifles and M249 light machine guns. This round performs better all-around than its predecessor, especially at range against obstacles.

7.62x51 NATO

Barrier Ball

Bigger version of the Mk 318/SOST round.

Mk 316/Mk 316 Mod 0

Long range sniping round.

5.45x39

Enhanced Penetrator

Higher velocity and tougher bullet. Higher recoil than standard/ball ammunition.

5N7

FMJ mild steel core, old standard round for the AK-74 platform until the early 1990s.

7N10

FMJ enhanced penetration - "Improved penetration" cartridge. Introduced in 1992. Can penetrate 16mm of steel at 100m and rather high rating body armor even around 200m.

7N22

AP round -- hardened steel core in the bullet.

7T3M

Tracer round, ignites ~50m and should burn until the round has passed 850m

40mm

M441 HE vs M433 HEDP

M441 HE is the old standard for the 40mm grenade launchers in the U.S. arsenal with an arming distance of 14-28 meters. Oddly enough, it's more of a grenade than the M433 HEDP round that we're used to using. The M433 HEDP replaced the M441 and older 40mm HE rounds as the standard in the 1970s. It's actually a variant of a HEAT (look up shaped charges if you're not sure what that implies) warhead with a ton of shrapnel making material around it. If I recall, it can penetrate something like 40-60mm of steel. It was meant to be used against light vehicles (looking at you, BTR-70) and infantry alike. Hence, high explosive dual-purpose. Can kill vehicles and people.

M576

40mm round that turns your M79/M203/M320/M32 into a 40mm shotgun with twenty 24-grain metal pellets.

VOG25/VOG25P/BG-40TB

The VOG25 round is a steel encased HE round with a lethal radius of about six meters. The VOG25P is slightly weaker than the VOG25, but there is a small impact charge in the nose thant makes the round bounce ~1 meter in the air before detonating. BG-40TB is a thermobaric round. These are very handy for popping into windows or rooms to clear them of bad guys--extremely deadly if the target area is an enclosed environment.

9x19

JHP

Jacketed Hollow-point. Useless against armor, great for targets without a vest/plate carrier.

RPG-7

PG-7VL

Single stage rocket with a HEAT warhead. This 93mm round replaced the earlier 85mm rounds, improving upon all levels of performance. Can penetrate ~500mm RHA (19.5 in)

PG-7VR

Single stage rocket with a tandem warhead. 64mm HEAT tip will precede the impact of the main 104mm HEAT warhead to detonate any reactive armor so the main charge can defeat the armor behind it. Can penetrate 600mm RHA in the target has reactive armor, 750mm if the target does not. This is quite a heavy round, it does not have much range and its travel pattern is heavily arced. Best to use at less than 400 meters.

OG-7V

Single stage rocket. Basically makes your RPG into a 40mm grenade launcher. Much smaller than even the PG-7VL but is about as heavy due to all the nice bits for making shrapnel. Small explosive charge, but lots of fragments. Lethal radius of around 7m if the targets have body armor.

TBG-7V

Single stage rocket. This 105mm warhead is a thermobaric round (see above in 40mm for a link if you do not know what this is) that weighs the same as the PG-7VR but has nearly 2kg of explosives inside of it. Heavy, slow round means you have to lob it at anything past 200m. Makes a big boom, has nearly a 10m lethal radius.

AT4

HEAT

"The HEAT projectile can penetrate up to 420 mm (16.5 inches) of RHA with beyond-armour effect."

HEDP

"For use against bunkers, buildings, enemy personnel in the open and light armour. The projectile can be set to detonate on impact or with a slight delayed detonation. The heavier nose cap allows for the HEDP projectile to either penetrate light walls or windows and then explode, or be "skipped" off the ground for an airburst. For use against light armour, there is a smaller cone HEAT warhead with 150 mm (5.9 inches) of penetration against RHA."

HP

"Extra high penetration ability (up to 500 mm (19.7 inches) to 600 mm (23.6 inches) of RHA.)"

Sources: Wikipedia for specific stuff and my general knowledge.