Author Topic: Armored Fighting Vehicles version M4 - are we going with that? Sure, man.  (Read 196841 times)

grimlock1

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No, but they could probably take the gun out and put it into a new truck fairly easily once the damage gets bad enough.
Looks like that's already happened at least one
https://youtu.be/jDGrsi1AIl0?t=270
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Wereling

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Looks like that's already happened at least one
https://youtu.be/jDGrsi1AIl0?t=270

Those stabilizers on the back look like a good idea. Whoever is working on this thing is definitely still refining it.

MoneyLovinOgre4Hire

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Well, you've got to figure that whoever came up with it and made it work is probably pretty clever.
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Wereling

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I'm curious why there seems to be screening over the holes in the muzzle brake.

HobbesHurlbut

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I'm curious why there seems to be screening over the holes in the muzzle brake.
My thought: to prevent debris from entering the muzzle, inside or outside.
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Kidd

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So people are big on anti-drone AA now....


PsihoKekec

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It's the wave of the future, as even terrorists can cobble together attack drones now.
Shoot first, laugh later.

Wereling

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It's the wave of the future, as even terrorists can cobble together attack drones now.

Stingers and similar missiles seem like gross overkill against them though. Every time I see an "anti-drone" vehicle I feel like they're designed for use against full scale helicopters.

DoctorMonkey

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This is quite a hot topic in the UK at the moment as our second biggest/busiest airport was shut down for >24 hours by drone sightings


While a cheap AAA defence might work ok against drones in most cases on a battlefield (eg a machine gun or light autocannon like the 20mm of a C-RAM), for an airport or airbase I would worry about FOD from the expended ammunition so a laser based system might be better for use in more built up areas
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PsihoKekec

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There is also EW with capability to bring down the drones by overriding the ground controls, Russians had some success with this approach when defending their airbase in Syria, with the rest of drones being taken out by missiles.
Shoot first, laugh later.

Easy

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cleanup
« Last Edit: 29 May 2019, 16:51:35 by Easy »

grimlock1

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Well, you've got to figure that whoever came up with it and made it work is probably pretty clever.
Depending on the machine tools to which they have access, I would go so far as to say "really frickin' smart."
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worktroll

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Every time I see an "anti-drone" vehicle I feel like they're designed for use against full scale helicopters.

Thing is, there are drones



and drones



The military is more concerned about #2, I guess. Police, #1, but their budgets aren't (yet) appealing to the arms manufacturers.

Some sort of maser half-assed EMP zapper would seem to be the logical answer - line of sight, no falling debris (other than the zorched drone), and it's unlikely that most drones could be seriously hardened.  Perhaps the Brits could resurrect their anti-crowd microwave weapon from the 1980s? ;)
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ANS Kamas P81

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Don't forget the really big ones like the Piaggio Hammerhead, which is basically an executive transport aircraft turned into a giant drone.
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Wereling

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Quote
The military is more concerned about #2, I guess. Police, #1, but their budgets aren't (yet) appealing to the arms manufacturers.

I suppose that's true, and that you're better off having too much firepower than too little. Still, I've been keeping an eye on the ones being used in places like Syria, and they look a lot more like this:



I suppose that's what the cannon is for, but I can't help but think a smaller guided munition is in order for something like that.
« Last Edit: 22 January 2019, 14:53:47 by Wereling »

Wereling

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Don't forget the really big ones like the Piaggio Hammerhead, which is basically an executive transport aircraft turned into a giant drone.

I don't think that thing would like ever be low enough to hit with a Stinger.

chanman

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There is also EW with capability to bring down the drones by overriding the ground controls, Russians had some success with this approach when defending their airbase in Syria, with the rest of drones being taken out by missiles.

Most drones have the ability to use pre-plotted waypoints without active controls. While attacking point targets like parked aircraft would require manual control, simply buzzing through airspace would not.

Dave Talley

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random thought
iirc the old M79 grenade launcher had a shotgun style shell,
i wonder if you could modify a automatic grenade launcher to use them,
less issues with follow on damage, or just a belt fed 12 gauge could work
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Wereling

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random thought
iirc the old M79 grenade launcher had a shotgun style shell,
i wonder if you could modify a automatic grenade launcher to use them,
less issues with follow on damage, or just a belt fed 12 gauge could work

Maybe. Those rounds have a pretty low velocity though. I could see a version of the Mk 19 shell (which is a higher velocity shell IIRC) set up that way with plastic or otherwise non-metallic projectiles for drone defense over a crowd though.
« Last Edit: 22 January 2019, 16:36:12 by Wereling »

Kidd

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On the pic I posted, the thingy in back under the EO ball is a drone radar, the main sensor for the anti-drone mission. A variety of weapons are available; the autocannon, an EW scrambler somewhere, and a suicide anti-drone drone launcher somewhere else.

The Stinger can be employed too as I believe it was/will be certified for anti-drone ops but it's more for the traditional VSHORAD role which this vehicle can tackle too.

Amazing all the stuff they're throwing on the M-ATV these days.

hoosierhick

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I'd be willing to be that the military is worried about things like this, too:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HESA_Ababil#Qasef-1  One of these was supposedly used in the last week or two to hit a military parade in Yemen.  You can see what kind of coverage it give from about 1:03 to 1:40 in this video: https://youtu.be/JOQLEoAN98o?t=63

Kidd

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I'd be willing to be that the military is worried about things like this, too:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HESA_Ababil#Qasef-1  One of these was supposedly used in the last week or two to hit a military parade in Yemen.  You can see what kind of coverage it give from about 1:03 to 1:40 in this video: https://youtu.be/JOQLEoAN98o?t=63
Supposedly 6 KIA from that

Hard to believe at first, but think about it; crowded parade, all that shrapnel heading straight down for the tops of everyone's craniums

Then there's this - 40mm grenade with a plastic fin added, dropped from a quadcopter drone the size of most such RC toys. This particular attack killed the tank commander who was riding unbuttoned



That drone is a very tiny target by military scales


Cache

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Stingers and similar missiles seem like gross overkill against them though. Every time I see an "anti-drone" vehicle I feel like they're designed for use against full scale helicopters.
Missiles for the big ones, cannon for the little. I would imagine a fused round or two from a small CIWS or C-RAM type system would do the job on small, slow-moving drones.

MoneyLovinOgre4Hire

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Depending on the machine tools to which they have access, I would go so far as to say "really frickin' smart."

Oh, no doubt.  But I was going with clever over smart because of just how outside-the-box the thinking required to make something like that work is.
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Van Gogh

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I'm sure someone will strap a (very) light shotgun on a small commercial quadcopter, with one or two cameras, giving birth to light fighter drones. Much like 105 years ago, when someone started dropping grenades from a Bleriot XI.
It could even be quickly efficient, with the right networking from ground-based modern senors.

... And it will be pictures for the planes thread  ;D

Sabelkatten

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There are videos of people mounting (and firing) everything from handguns up to full-size MGs on commercial drones. Nut I think it will be another decade or two before it's really practical.

Feenix74

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And the light fighter drones are disposable, housed and launched from a UAV blimp that loiters 24/7 in the area of operations until it is tasked to launch a light fighter drone or a ground attack drone or a heavy fighter drone :thumbsup:

Incoming fire has the right of way.

The only thing more accurate than incoming enemy fire is incoming friendly fire.

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Kidd

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There are videos of people mounting (and firing) everything from handguns up to full-size MGs on commercial drones. Nut I think it will be another decade or two before it's really practical.
Recoil must do wonders to accuracy and effective range...

ANS Kamas P81

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So, how about those tanks?

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Wereling

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Love the FT-17. I actually notices one on screen during the Pats @ Chiefs game this weekend because they apparently have one at a military museum in Missouri and they used it as a local background shot.

I'm always shocked how tiny they are when I see one.

 

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