Chapter 2: Ammo Routing & Feeds; Energy Conduits

Created by Sarah Choi (prompt writer using ChatGPT)

Ammo Routing & Feeds; Energy Conduits — Weaponization & Hardpoints (for Vehicle Concept Artists)

Why Routing Is Half the Weapon System

A mount that looks right will still fail if ammunition and power can’t reach it cleanly. Rounds jam at tight bends, links shed into sensors, belts saw through cables, and high‑voltage conduits couple noise into avionics. Concept‑side, your page must show how projectiles or energy get to the breech across the full traverse/elevation envelope. Production‑side, your callouts must define bend radii, slip‑ring/rotary‑joint strategies, cooling paths, isolation, and service access—without severing structural rings or violating safety arcs.

Feed Philosophies at a Glance

Belted (linked) feeds are flexible and high‑capacity. They need controlled bend radii, delinker modules, and link ejection paths. Linkless feeds use sprockets and helical drums to present rounds directly; they require precise timing and more volume but eliminate link debris. Magazines (box, double‑stack, pan) are compact and fast to swap but limit capacity and traverse freedom. Drums store rounds densely and can be coaxial with the breech for compact turrets. Dual‑feed systems let the gun choose between ammo types (AP/HE) with a selector at the feed throat. Concept‑side, telegraph the choice with visible chutes, drums, or access doors; production‑side, provide round size, pitch, and target feed rate so sprocket and chute geometry have numbers behind them.

Geometry Rules for Belts & Chutes

Belts behave like segmented cables. Keep minimum bend radius ≥ 10–15× caliber for linked belts (tighter for disintegrating links, looser for steel links). Maintain constant‑curvature arcs where possible; avoid S‑curves in short runs. Keep the belt’s twist low; if inversion is required, use a deliberate half‑twist section with guides. Chute cross‑sections should include anti‑bounce ribs and low‑friction liners; widen slightly at bends to prevent stack‑ups. Show roller or UHMWPE guide blocks at high‑wear corners. Production callouts should include liner material, allowable wear, and access doors with captive fasteners for jam clearing.

Link Management: Where the Scrap Goes

Disintegrating links eject at the gun—either forward, downward, or into a link collector. Non‑disintegrating belts need a take‑up path or rewind drum to manage empty links. Do not let links rain into intakes, hot brakes, or rotor downwash. Concept sheets should show spent link paths and case ejection vectors; production drawings specify bag/box volumes, heat limits for soft catchers, and latch points for rapid emptying.

Case & Gas Management

Even caseless systems eject something—gas or residue. Cases, links, and gas must clear the keep‑out map and not impinge on optical windows. Add blast deflectors or short chutes to steer ejecta through safe sectors. For sealed turrets, include fume extractors and over‑pressure vents with flame arrestors. Production notes should include filter media, replacement intervals, and vent orientation relative to wind/sea.

Ammunition Stowage: Depth, CG, and Service Access

Ammo is dense; it sets CG and survivability. Place primary bins near the mount’s rotation axis to minimize CG shift as rounds are consumed. For manned turrets, separate ready bins from bulk stowage with fire barriers. On ground vehicles, keep bins below the beltline and away from crew egress paths; on aircraft/VTOL, keep bins near the CG and consider jettisonable pods. Provide blast‑attenuating liners and blow‑off panels that vent outward. Concept‑side, show reload doors on the shadow side of fire arcs; production‑side, dimension door clearances, hinge axes, and interlocks that inhibit firing while open.

Traverse‑Friendly Routing: Following the Axes

The cleanest feeds pivot with the gun. Route belts through a moving yoke that shares the elevation axis, then down through a central spine near the traverse axis. Reserve volume within the turret collar for a “feed carousel” that accumulates slack during rapid slews. For deck/roof pedestals, add looms with strain‑relief hoops positioned at neutral points. Production callouts should include slack budgets (rounds of extra belt), sweep angles, and keeper rings that stop loops from whipping in wind.

Remote Weapon Stations (RWS): Compact Feeds

RWS units thrive on short, stiff feeds: top‑mounted boxes with short chutes into the breech or side drums that rotate with the cradle. Keep sensors coaxial with elevation to avoid parallax and ensure the feed does not occlude the optics through the traverse envelope. Show weather seals around ammo doors and heaters for cold climates. Production notes: allowable box mass, latch redundancy, and gasket IP rating.

Chain Guns, Gas Guns, and Recoil Interplay

Feed timing couples to action type. Externally driven (chain/electric) guns can de‑link and clear misfeeds with motor authority—excellent for RWS. Gas‑operated guns depend on backpressure; long chutes and heavy belts raise feed force and may cause short‑stroke—put the delinker close to the breech. Recoil‑operated systems dislike mass on the cradle; isolate feeds with soft couplings. In art, keep heavy feed hardware close to the trunnions; in production, specify allowable feed force and the placement of drive assists.

Misfire, Hang‑Fire, and Jam Clearing

Design for stoppages. Provide top‑cover access with anti‑loss lanyards, safe clear levers, and cook‑off timers that lock the breech closed for hang‑fire wait periods. Show ejection chutes for dud rounds directed away from crew and sensors. Production notes should include arm/disarm flags, jam procedures, and fire suppression integration.

Energy Weapons & High‑Power Feeds

For lasers, railguns, coilguns, and directed RF, the ammo path is a power + cooling path.

Power Delivery: Use segregated HV and logic looms; route HV along short, shielded paths with creepage/clearance observed at connectors. Provide pulse‑forming networks (PFN) or capacitor banks near the mount base to reduce loop inductance; mass these low and central. Traverse passes through slip rings (for moderate power) or rotary HT joints; very high power prefers coaxial rotary joints or co‑located energy storage on the rotating mass with a recharge umbilical stowed in a spiral track.

Cooling: High energy → high waste heat. Include liquid loops (glycol/water or dielectric coolants) with rotary unions, strainers, and degas bottles. Route radiator packs into clean airstreams or to the hull’s thermal plane; for maritime, allow keel coolers; for space/VTOL, consider phase‑change buffers or deployable radiators. Draw quick‑disconnect dry‑breaks near service points; production callouts specify flow rates, ΔT budgets, and coolant compatibility.

EMI/EMC: Keep Faraday cages around PFNs, twist pairs, and bond shields at both ends; separate sensor grounds from power returns. Indicate ferrites and filters near sensitive optics.

Slip Rings, Rotary Joints, and Cable Hygiene

Continuous traverse demands rotary transfer. Electrical slip rings carry power/data; fiber‑optic rotary joints (FORJ) carry high‑bandwidth video/laser pump light; rotary fluid unions carry coolant or pneumatic purge. Place these at or below the slew bearing centerline, inside a clean, gasketed cavity with drains. Concept‑side, hint at the module stack below the turret race; production‑side, specify channel counts, current per circuit, and service access without de‑rigging the turret.

Blast, Recoil & Conduit Protection

Conduits hate blast. Keep looms and chutes inboard of shields and behind blast skirts. Use sacrificial fairings over exposed runs and breakaway brackets so a snag doesn’t tear primary structure. Where barrels over‑travel near looms, add hard guard hoops. Production notes: minimum standoff to muzzle devices, heat‑shield specs, and replaceable wear strips.

Safety Interlocks & Software Limits

Tie door/cover sensors to fire‑inhibit logic; block traverse into no‑go sectors (crew hatches, rotors) and disable fire when replenishment hatches are open. For HV systems, require two‑step arming and show diegetic indicators (pillar bands, yoke lights) mirroring HUD status. Production callouts: sensor types, latency budgets, and fail‑safe behavior on power loss.

Reloading & Replenishment Choreography

Reloads are human‑factor stories. On ground vehicles, open side or rear replenish doors at waist height with drip lips and anti‑pinch hinges. Provide lift points and rollers for heavy boxes/drums; add dunnage slots for empty containers. For aircraft/VTOL, plan top‑up on stands with clear deck footprints; for maritime, design hoist lugs and sea‑state‑tolerant cradles. Concept‑side, storyboard the sequence (open, pin, swap, latch); production‑side, give torque/latch specs and time standards.

Survivability & Fire Suppression

Ammo and energy storage demand protection. Use blow‑off panels that vent externally; isolate bins with self‑sealing lines and intumescent blankets. Route HV away from fuel lines; add pyro‑disconnects that sever power on crash or flooding. Integrate gas‑based suppression (inert gas for electronics) and liquid agents for bins, with manual pulls duplicated inside and out. Production: specify detectors (UV/IR, smoke), zones, and agent volumes.

Integration With Mount Types

Ring mounts/pedestals: favor short, exposed feeds from top boxes or side drums; protect with shields and guard hoops. RWS: compact linkless or delink‑close‑to‑breech, sensors coaxial, short chutes. Turrets: below‑race bins, slip ring stack, central feed column, dual‑feed selector at breech, service doors within shell. Chin/cheek turrets (VTOL): co‑located energy storage or ammo just aft of the nose bulkhead; cooling ducts to chin fairing; caution downwash. Deck mounts: weather‑sealed chutes, salt‑fog‑rated bearings, link catchers that won’t blow overboard in wind.

Reading a Feed at a Glance: Visual Diagnostics

Believable feeds show: controlled radii, no S‑curves in short runs, protected ejection paths, bins near the axis, sensible service doors, and rotary transfer where needed. Unreal cues: belts doing hairpins, cables crossing elevation joints without loops, bins far off‑axis causing wild CG shifts, or ejection where glass or intakes obviously live.

Rendering & Callout Tips for Artists

Ghost the traverse/elevation envelopes and draw belt/loom paths inside them. Use section insets to show chute cross‑sections and liner ribs. Label min bend radius, slip ring/FORJ, rotary union, feed selector, and blow‑off panel. Add faint soot at ejection ports and light scuffing at access doors. Maintain the same icon set used in your mount‑geometry sheets so reviewers can scan quickly.

Concept‑to‑Production Handshake

Close with targets: round size and feed rate; min bend radius; bin capacities and CG shift across depletion; ejection/link management; slip‑ring channel counts and current; HV voltage/pulse energy; coolant flow and ΔT; EMI/EMC isolation approach; safety interlocks; access clearances; and environmental ratings (IP, salt fog, sand/dust). These let engineers convert your routing into a safe, testable subsystem.

Case Studies in a Paragraph

A patrol rover’s RWS uses a top‑box linkless feed with a delinker at the breech; linkless drums mount on either side for dual‑feed. Ejection drops into a soft catch bag behind a blast shield; the sensor head is coaxial with elevation. A small unmanned turret for a scout car stows dual bins below the race, feeding up a central column through a slip‑ring stack; blow‑off panels vent to the sides; reload doors live on the turret’s shadow side. A VTOL chin turret draws from a nose‑bay drum; a coaxial rotary union carries coolant to a fiber laser pack; capacitors sit low on the keel beam with short, shielded HV runs and a recharge umbilical stowed in a spiral track.

Final Encouragement

Routing is choreography: present, feed, fire, clear, cool, and reload—without ever clipping the keep‑out map. When your pages show clean belt/loom geometry, sensible bins, and credible rotary transfer with safety and service logic, your hardpoints will feel inevitable to both artists and engineers.