Blackwater Ammunition is a new company established by Eric Prince, the founder of Academy (Blackwater), James Fenech, ammunition and arms distributor, and Nicola Bandini who also is (was?) the CEO of Arsenal Firearms. The launch of this new company was officially announced during IWA 2018 exhibition. Blackwater Ammunition is located in Malta. It is a subsidiary of another Maltese company called Precision Ballistic Manufacturing.

Among a variety of rifle and pistol ammunition offerings, perhaps the most interesting is the line of .50 BMG cartridges made by Blackwater Ammunition. These cartridges are loaded with CNC machined solid copper bullets and utilize cases machined from 7075 aluminum. As seen in the video embedded below, the cases have a split design with about 1″ tall bottom portion screwed into the top one.

According to Blackwater Ammunition, their aluminum .50 BMG cases have about half the weight of standard brass cases. Depending on the bullet weight, the overall weight reduction per cartridge can be up to 35%. Besides being a benefit for an individual shooter, the light weight of ammunition is also important for logistics and airborne operations.

The company claims that these cases have successfully passed pressure tests withstanding over 70,000 psi of pressure. They have also tested these cartridges in a variety of semi-auto and bolt action firearms and they are currently testing them in full auto guns.

The headstamp of .50 BMG cartridges made by Blackwater Ammunition

Right now, the cases are not available separately and Blackwater Ammunition offers the loaded ammunition only. They have three loads with the M33 bullet, and two solid copper bullets – 600 grain IFS which has a muzzle velocity of 3,050 fps, and 770 grain SOLID projectile with an MV of 2,450 fps.

L-R: IFS, SOLID, M33

Arguably the most interesting projectile is the IFS. It has quite unusual geometry with what looks to be a conical ogive, rather large and deeply recessed portion on the bearing surface and a multi-stage tail.

Blackwater Ammunition IFS bullet

The company also made the cardboard cases of their ammunition useful by printing targets inside them.

Images from www.blackwaterammo.com