This module can be taken as a Short Course for Credit or a Standalone Short Course.

Please go to the 'Upgrade to a professional qualification' section for more information.

This course takes you though the fundamental principles of ballistics for ammunition design. The teaching is conducted in a military environment using static displays and the explosive range to aid the teaching environment.

The course is concerned with the design and development of ammunition systems. It aims to provide an understanding of the components of ballistics and the systems technology employed in ammunition, introducing the main types of ammunition from small arms through to large calibre guns and their modes of operation.

To do this, the course quantifies the internal and external ballistics of a gun and its ammunition including the forces and moments acting on a projectile in flight. The elements of ammunition design such as propellant mass, projectile mass and calibre and their subsequent effect on the performance of a gun are presented and the means to calculate simplified projectile mechanics including rigid body motion relating to translation, rotation and gyroscopic effects.

Lectures are delivered at MSc standard by Â鶹´«Ã½AV academics, supplemented by Military Subject Matter Experts. The teaching is supplemented by static displays of military equipment to aid the teaching environment and includes an explosives range exercise to consolidate the knowledge.

At a glance

  • Dates
    • Please enquire for course dates
  • Duration5 days
  • LocationÂ鶹´«Ã½AV at Shrivenham
  • Cost£2,350 - Short Course for Credit fee

    £2,100 - Standalone Short Course fee

What you will learn

The course enables you to:

  • Critically analyse the key points of the internal ballistic including the significance of the travel-pressure curve and how a gun’s performance is affected by the propellant’s size and composition,
  • Identify the forces and moments acting on a propulsion, sabot design, charge and shell design, shell blast and fragmentation, fuses and terminal guidance, smart ammunition, KE ammunition and cannon ammunition.
  • Assess the main types of ammunition and their modes of operation.

Core content

The teaching includes the following topics:

  • Internal ballistics,
  • Intermediate ballistics,
  • External ballistics,
  • Rocket propulsion,
  • Sabot design,
  • Charge and shell design,
  • Shell blast and fragmentation,
  • KE ammunition and cannon ammunition.

Upgrade to a professional qualification

When taken as a Short Course For Credit, 10 credit points can be put towards either the Gun Systems Design MSc or the Military Vehicle Technology MSc.

Find out more about short course credit points.

Who should attend

The course is intended to provide engineers concerned with the design and development of ammunition with an understanding of the key technologies employed within the field of ballistics. The course would also benefit to those involved in requirements capture and procurement of ammunition and associated systems.

Location and travel

Cranfield Defence and Security (CDS) is a Cranfield School based at the Ministry of Defence establishment on the Oxfordshire/Wiltshire borders.

Shrivenham itself lies in the picturesque Vale of the White Horse, close to the M4 motorway which links London and South Wales. It is 7 miles from Swindon, the nearest town, which lies off the M4 at the hub of Britain’s motorway network.

Bath, Cheltenham, Bristol and Oxford are all within an hour’s drive and London less than two hours away by car.

All visitors must be pre-booked in at reception by the person they are visiting on the campus.

For further location and travel details

Read our Professional development (CPD) booking conditions.