phavoc said:Yeah, I saw that. Next task is to get the energy output up. The article I read didn't say what kind of capabilities it had (like how many rounds/minute it can engage and destroy). I wonder what kind of effect adding ablative material to shells would have? Or if they were RAP (rocket assisted projectile) and used an intermittent burst motor to randomize the acceleration to make it harder to hit.
On the back of a HEMTT (sniff). I miss my HEMTT. They were fun to drive!
Oh, and the spare tire weighs 540lbs (trivia question used by our platoon sergeants!) Redlegs!
sideranautae said:Ablative is problematic due to weight & aeronautic considerations. The laser is too accurate (also speed of light) to outmaneuver. Also FEL's will be being used in these weapons shortly so ablative and "reflect" won't really work anyway.
You know that tire caught my attention immediately. I was wondering how the F that is taken down and used in the field. :shock:
phavoc said:The laser is going to have to rely upon data being fed back to it by counter-battery radar (the an/tpq-36 firefinder set will pick it up the moment it clears the horizon and within a second or two give you the launching coordinates). The laser still has to move and track the object. A mortar shell is relatively small, so is a 155 round. And to destroy the round it has to hit it square on (not sure what a graze would do). Anything you can do to cause the weapon system to spend more time tracking a single target means you have more opportunity to get one through.
phavoc said:As far as the spare tire goes, I suspect there is a winch up there, either out of the picture or would be assembled. Our HEMTT's (and most of the early ones) mounted the spare tire on the drivers side. It had a winch that was stowed and you just had to swing it out, attach the cable, and start cranking. Gravity took care of the rest. Occasionly we just kicked it down, but if you weren't working on those front two tires lifting that sucker up was hard! Oh, and like most tires they still can bounce...![]()
BlindBleu said:All the enemy needs to do is "Saturate" the defense with excessive targets.
BlindBleu said:There must be a typo in the article linked...power range in the kilowatts? Many modern day medical lasers have more power than that.
BlindBleu said:Sounds like this weapons system will be a "Hanger Queen" like the B-2, ie only taken out to play when nothing can hurt it.