We spent a lot of time in 'Nam, inshore gun fire support for the Marines. Marines like a GFS ship to lob some wille peter in followed by HE - spreads the WP arond, sets everything on fire, the Marines can see to kill at night.

quote:

Originally posted by Rusty:
Marines like a GFS ship to lob some wille peter in followed by HE

Talking Sci Fi: have you seen the new NGFS gun they're beginning to roll into the fleet: it's a derivative of the old 5" Mark 50 that can shoot dumb shells, but also new rocket assisted, glide maneuvered warheads. I saw a simulation of 1 of these guns firing every 2 seconds and putting up an array of something like 80+ anti personnel frag rounds, ALL of them landing in a rectangular pattern at precisely the same time. Or they can tell it to give the bad guys an overhead burst of course. All rounds bursting overhead at the same time.
Talking Star Trek... So the North Koreans lose a whole battalion in a quick flash, nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, all with one 5" deck gun.
Kinda' glad I'm too old for all this now. Seems like when the balloon goes up next time, the battles are going to be over pretty darn quick.

I just happened to go back over some posts and this seemed to require my 2 cents.

inre: Trekker - trekkie

IMHO .....logically: Trek; "a slow arduous journey" Funk & Wagnalls S. D.

Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock et al are the trekkers.
The fanatical followers of this fantastic folly are the trekkies.

Radio-controlled bullets leave no place to hide.

A RIFLE capable of firing explosive bullets that can detonate within a metre of a target could let soldiers fire on snipers hiding in trenches, behind walls or inside buildings.

The US army has developed the XM25 rifle to give its troops an alternative to calling in artillery fire or air strikes when an enemy has taken cover and can't be targeted by direct fire. "This is the first leap-ahead technology for troops that we've been able to develop and deploy," says Douglas Tamilio, the army's project manager for new weapons for soldiers. "This gives them another tool in their kitbag."

The rifle's gunsight uses a laser rangefinder to calculate the exact distance to the obstruction. The soldier can then add or subtract up to 3 metres from that distance to enable the bullets to clear the barrier and explode above or beside the target (see diagram).

As the 25-millimetre round is fired, the gunsight sends a radio signal to a chip inside the bullet, telling it the precise distance to the target. A spiral groove inside the barrel makes the bullet rotate as it travels, and as it also contains a magnetic transducer, this rotation through the Earth's magnetic field generates an alternating current. A patent granted to the bullet's maker, Alliant Techsystems, reveals that the chip uses fluctuations in this current to count each revolution and, as it knows the distance covered in one spin, it can calculate how far it has travelled.

The rifle would allow a soldier faced with a sniper firing from a window to take a distance measurement to the window, add a metre, fire through the window, and have the round detonate 1 metre inside the room. The same method could be used to fire behind a wall or over a trench.

As it stands, Tamilio says, soldiers faced with enemies behind cover have the option of using grenade launchers, which have limited range and accuracy, or asking for artillery fire or air strikes. However, both of those options cover a large area and so have a higher risk of killing civilians, especially in urban areas. They are also expensive. "You could shoot a Javelin missile, and it would cost $70,000. These rounds will end up costing $25 apiece. They're relatively cheap," Tamilio says.

"This airburst shell gives the close-combat capability of a grenade launcher, combined with the ability of indirect fire weapons to hit stuff on the other side of the wall," says John Pike, a defence analyst with Washington DC think tank GlobalSecurity.org.

Pike says it is just one example of "smart" munitions now possible because of microchip advances.

Although the rifle will initially use high-explosive rounds, it might later use versions with smaller explosive charges that aim to stun rather than kill.

The US army plans to field-test prototypes of the rifle soon, possibly in Iraq or Afghanistan, and hopes to begin using it by 2012.

Sorry Guys, I hope I didn't hijack this thread from Sci Fi to G.I. Joe here...

I remain a loyal and dedicated Trekkie(er).
And I do love the smell of napalm in the morning...

quote:

Originally posted by Stratosurfer:
Sorry Guys, I hope I didn't hijack this thread from Sci Fi to G.I. Joe here...

I started the thread, I have no problems with it, keep up the banter.

I'm sure the troops would welcome that 25mm rifle whole heartedly. I hope nobody is holding their breath. Some military people recognize the importance and urgency for such a weapon but the bureaucrats involved in approving and funding this project will squabble and debate and screw around for at least 2 more hostile activities before it is OKed with all its modifications and adjustments, if at all. Why is it needed? We are pulling out of these combat zones.

quote:

Originally posted by Dick Dubbs:
I'm sure the troops would welcome that 25mm rifle whole heartedly. I hope nobody is holding their breath. Some military people recognize the importance and urgency for such a weapon but the bureaucrats involved in approving and funding this project will squabble and debate and screw around for at least 2 more hostile activities before it is OKed with all its modifications and adjustments, if at all. Why is it needed? We are pulling out of these combat zones.

'Twas ever thus............The Army dragged their feet in buying the Gatling gun in quantity during the Civil War, the BAR was not issued to front line soldiers in WW I for fear of it being captured, and so on. In the late '30s, executive transport aircraft outsped the Air Corps best fighters. Our tanks ignored Christie's advances to later have them use against us. And how about Bull and the Supergun? Now, there's a story. All examples of our defense department being reluctant to accept superior technology.

End of rant.

That's what happens when you get civilians running things that they don't know anything about. Recently read stuff about interrogation techniques. Military people, John McCain, generals, etc. are very adamant about doing away with 'enhanced interrogation'. It's the civilian warriors who want it.

Lessons for today:

Unfortunately, though sometimes fortunately, slow is concomitant with the operation of a constitutional democratic republic. Now, Hitler had no trouble getting what he wanted, when he wanted it, but a fat lot of good it did him in the end. And do we really want his kind of government efficiency for America?

Anything is possible when you don't know what you're talking about; everything is easy as long as you don't have to do it.

The proper term for "civilian warriors," who haven't seen the elephant, have no intention of seeing it if they can help it, but have no qualms about sending others to view it in their stead, is "chicken hawks."

It's our constitutional right to bitch about the people we elect to govern us. Everyone knows that Congress is a bunch of pork-barreling spendthrifts; except our own guy, of course, he brings home the bacon. But if our neighbor down the street gets some benefit & we don't, that must be pork again.

quote:

Originally posted by Jim and Tere:
That's what happens when you get civilians running things that they don't know anything about.

For an interesting contrast, do a Google search of Bayonet Roosevelt.

quote:

Originally posted by olroy:

........ "chicken hawks.",,,,,,

Politics is rife with draft dodgers. And many more whose connections caused safe gravy duty, present and past.

And very few politicians have sons in harm's way. James Webb is a notable exception.

And me, and my son the Marine

Sounds like the beginning of the end of a FOUR year term.............

All four Kennedy brothers had military service, including Teddy. Big brother Joe was killed in WW II when his bomber exploded, John, who later became President, came back injured from exemplary WW II Navy Service, (remember PT 109?). Bobby was in a Navy V-12 program at war's end, & applied for release from the officer training program to do sea duty as a Seaman Apprentice on the shakedown cruise of the destroyer, U.S.S. Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., named for his brother killed in W.W. II. At cruise end,, on May 30, 1946, Bobby received his honorable discharge.

After being expelled from Harvard for cheating on a freshman Spanish exam, Teddy enlisted in the army for two years, & did a tour at SHAPE headquarters in Paris. Most biographers credit this plumb assignment to his father's influence.

Maybe so. When Teddy enlisted, the Korean War was in full chat. One Kennedy son had been killed in WW II, another came back crippled, and a third had escaped serious danger. I don't know of any father who, after his other sons' sacrifices, would willingly send his son in harm's way if he had the influence to avoid it.

Teddy was no Ranger or Green Beret, but he did wear the uniform for a couple years, something few of his most vociferous detractors can claim. The Kennedy family's military record can be matched by few, if any, of today's crop of political dynasties. Whatever else they may have been, the Kennedys were not chicken hawks.