A sealed round is a

munition Ammunition (informally ammo) is the material fired, scattered, dropped, or detonated from any weapon or weapon system. Ammunition is both expendable weapons (e.g., bombs, missiles, grenades, land mines) and the component parts of other weapo ...

which is typically stored in some kind of container (usually a cylinder or box, but the container may in fact be the outside of the munition), so that the munition does not require any sort of maintenance and is stored in this container until use. The advantage of this type of system is that such munitions can be stored for long periods without needing to be periodically checked and possibly repaired. Typically these, like all munitions, still do have a shelf-life—but it is often quite long.

Bullets A bullet is a kinetic projectile, a component of firearm ammunition that is shot from a gun barrel. Bullets are made of a variety of materials, such as copper, lead, steel, polymer, rubber and even wax. Bullets are made in various shapes and ...

have been sealed rounds ever since the

cartridge case A cartridge or a round is a type of pre-assembled firearm ammunition packaging a projectile (bullet, shot, or slug), a propellant substance (usually either smokeless powder or black powder) and an ignition device (primer) within a metallic, ...

was invented.

Anti-aircraft missiles

Many

surface-to-air missiles A surface-to-air missile (SAM), also known as a ground-to-air missile (GTAM) or surface-to-air guided weapon (SAGW), is a missile designed to be launched from the ground to destroy aircraft or other missiles. It is one type of anti-aircraft sy ...

(SAMs) and

air-to-air missiles The newest and the oldest member of Rafael's Python family of AAM for comparisons, Python-5 (displayed lower-front) and Shafrir-1 (upper-back) An air-to-air missile (AAM) is a missile fired from an aircraft for the purpose of destroying a ...

(AAMs), which are traditionally very maintenance-intense systems, are moving to this type of system. Examples of modern missile systems which feature sealed rounds include: * MIM-104 "Patriot" SAM *

S-300P The S-300 ( NATO reporting name SA-10 Grumble) is a series of long range surface-to-air missile systems developed and operated by the former Soviet Union, now fielded by the militaries of Russia and Ukraine as well as several other former East ...

( SA-10 "Grumble") SAM *

S-300V The S-300 ( NATO reporting name SA-10 Grumble) is a series of long range surface-to-air missile systems developed and operated by the former Soviet Union, now fielded by the militaries of Russia and Ukraine as well as several other former East ...

( SA-12 "Gladiator"/ "Giant") SAM * 9M33M2/3 "Osa-AKM" ( SA-8B "Gecko") SAM * AIM-54C ECCM/Sealed "Phoenix" AAM The MIM-104, S-300P and S-300V missiles are stored in cylinders, which they are ejected out of upon launch. The 9M33 missiles are stored in boxes in the factory and launched out of them. The AIM-54C missiles are not stored in any kind of container, but are sealed unlike the earlier AIM-54A and AIM-54B which exchanged fluids with the host aircraft. In this case, the advantage of low maintenance has been exchanged for the disadvantage of lower capability, but this is not the case with the other examples.

Anti-tank weapons

Many infantry anti-tank weapons use sealed rounds, some—such as the US

M72 LAW The M72 LAW (light anti-tank weapon, also referred to as the light anti-armor weapon or LAW as well as LAWS: light anti-armor weapons system) is a portable one-shot unguided anti-tank weapon. The solid rocket propulsion unit was developed in t ...

, the Russian

RPG-18 The RPG-18 Mukha (russian: Муха, translit=Fly) is a Soviet short-range, disposable light anti-tank rocket launcher designed in 1972. History The RPG-18 is very similar to the US M72-series LAW anti-tank rocket launcher. The RPG-18 has b ...

and the Swedish

AT4 The AT4 is a Swedish unguided, man-portable, disposable, shoulder-fired recoilless anti-tank weapon built by Saab Bofors Dynamics (previously Bofors Anti-Armour Systems and before that FFV Ordance). The AT4 is not considered a rocket lau ...

—also use the container as the launcher, so that the whole system is discarded after firing. {{DEFAULTSORT:Sealed Round Ammunition