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Now this is nifty!
For the US military: a GPS directed missile that can hit within 10 ft. of a target from 40 miles away.
Rivrdog comments, in a post blocked for some reason by the spam filter:
Sorry, the army's new MRLS missile has been trumped - by the Redlegs. On Future Weapons (Discovery Channel and Military Channel), they covered the new Swedish semi-automatic 155mm howitzer, the Archer, which can shoot almost that far. When they get the new US Army fin-stabilized, GPS-guided 155mm round, that long barreled Borors-on-steroids will be able to do what the missile does, only cheaper and MUCH more rapidly. The Archer fires so rapidly (20 rds/min) that it can put a barrage of 6 ordinary rounds on the same target at the same time, just by altering the angle of elevation. The tube deploys in 40 seconds and takes down as fast, with a crew of two, and on it's own all-terrain mover like a self-propelled howitzer (but it has only minimal armor, in the driving cab.
The arty piece has an extra-long barrel that they didn't talk about AT ALL on the program, because the technology of taming the whip of a barrel that long (and that lightweight) must BE THE SECRET OF THE CENTURY!
The piece also has sophisticated sights so that it can be used for very accurate direct fire. They fired on a compact automobile 3 miles away and scored a cold-tube first shot direct hit. Now, imagine you are a tank. This thing can probably hit you (with a 130# shell) at twice the range you can shoot at the arty piece at.
I'm impressed, but we'll have to stop buying Volvos if we buy many of these, or else the Swedes will get so rich that even they might make Socialism work, and THEN we'd REALLY be in trouble!
Word on the street is that the Excalibur, as many as 6 prototypes, have
already been field-tested in Iraq or Afghanistan. Baqouba Province comes
to mind somehow...
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That would let them implement my concept of 'grid bombing' where you put one munition on each point of a grid slightly tighter than the effective radius of each munition.
You know, when you really want to say you care.
Isn't this the same thing as the Crusader system That we scrapped not too long ago as being too heavy and over-budget?
Tactically speaking, the idea of multiple rounds impacting at the same time on target (TOT) sounds great unless you're fighting a 1st world enemy with decent counter-battery radar. Let's hope it's shoot and scoot capabilities hold up, 'cause by round 5 or so Ivan is going to know where you are.
Here's the math, Mons Meg: about 40 seconds to set up, doesn't count, supposedly the counter-battery radar doesn't know where you are yet, firing the salvo, 15-20 seconds, scoot, 40 seconds. That's a max exposure of one minute, and you have to presume a highly accurate and already waiting counter-battery system.
Unless the Archer boys fire into an actual counter-battery trap that is actively searching and waiting for something to pop out of the end of their tube, the Archer is going to get away with it every time.
I believe that the figure the Army uses for safe escape on a First World battlefield is two minutes to get the tube rolling in whatever direction.
Commenting on the linked article -
Was nice to see a new gizmo weapon system that is successful, and successfully used in Iraq (and especially since I had a minor role with the GPS system in my career). But lest you get an inkling that the military or the war might occasionally do something right, the Examiner counters with three times as much negative news by putting this right in the middle of the article:
"You might be interested in reading these other related stories:
U.S. Military Deaths in Iraq at 3,193
British Probe 'Friendly Fire' by U.S.
Two dozen arrested protesting Iraq war shipments in Tacoma"
Sheesh. No good deed goes unpunished -- in triplicate.
elb
As part of the MLRS system, that thing must have an astonishing potential rate of fire. Line up a bunch of launchers together and give them different targets and you can do a strike against several dozen targets in a few seconds.