Thales Australia is supplying the Australian Defence Materiel Organization (DMO) over 35,000 Bullet Trap Blank Firing Attachments (BTBFAs) designed for the Australian assault rifle Austeyr F88. The BTBFA is a patented technology registered by Thales Australia. The bullet trap is attached to the end of the rifle barrel and enables the weapon to function when firing blank ammunition. If a live round is inadvertently fired, the bullet is retained within the BTBFA, preventing injury to bystanders or the soldier firing the weapon. It is colored red to enable easy identification of their use during exercises. It will be used on training ranges.
BTBFAs weighs about half the weight of the current in-service bayonet, and are optimized for the new Thales F3A1 blank round. A major advantage over conventional Blank Firing Attachment (BFA) is that the BTBFA is designed to actually stops an accidental firing of a live round, before it leaves the barrel, compared to conventional BFA which provides the back pressure to enable blank firing. According to Thales, BTBFA can stop a live round travelling at 800 m/sec down the barrel, in the space of 6cm. Thales Australia has also designed BTBFAs for use with other in-service weapons.
