Precision weapons have shown themselves to be militarily superior, yet the Us army has not adapted to their best use.
The tethered copter would have an altitude of about 500 feet with copper wires or 1 000 feet with aluminum wires, aluminum does not conduct as well but weighs only about 1/4 of copper. A 100 lb copter at 5 lb/sq ft disc loading would have a downdraft rate of flow of 63 ft/s theoretical or 84 ft/s allowing for inefficiencies.100 X 84 / 550 (lb-ft/s, 1 horsepower) = 16 hp. 100 X safety factor of 5 = 500 lb. Aluminum and copper can each have a strength of 50 000 lb/sq in, so, 500 / 50 000 = 1/100 inch. 1 sq in of aluminum weighs 1 lb/ft,1 sq in of copper weighs 4 lb/ft. Aluminum wire is 0.01 lb/ft divided between positive and negative wires.; copper is 0.04 lb/ft. There would need to be a plastic teardrop cross-section jacket on the wires for insulation and streamlining against wind. It might have 0.03 sq in of area, plastic weighs 100 lb/cu ft or 0.7 lb/sq in / ft. The insulation might weigh 0.02 lb /ft ( 0.03 X 0.7). Aluminum total is 0.01 + 0.02 = 0.03 lb /ft. Copper total is 0.04 + 0.02 = 0.06 lb /ft. For the copter, 16 hp motor weighs 16 lb, other equipment could bring a total weight of 50 lb, allowing 50 lb for wire weight. 50 / 0.03 = 1 670 ft for aluminum. 50 / 0.06 = 830 ft for copper.500 ft and 1 000 ft allow for error.
The copter would have to be able to operate at 10 000 ft elevation or higher. That would require downdraft velocities to be 20% higher, so a 20 hp engine would be needed.
The height of the wires comes into effect if there is a significant elevation difference of the target above the vehicle with mortar. In almost any other circumstance there is no advantage to the big gun, if there was significant tree cover to obscure the laser the tank would have to maneuver around the trees and would have its optics blocked by their trunks.
If the muzzle velocity of the mortar is 1 000 ft/s, its maximum range, v squared divided by g = 1 000 X
1 000/32 = 30 000 ft. Range varies as the sign of twice the elevation angle. At 3 miles, say 15 000 ft its elevation would be 15 degrees. The cosine of 15 degrees is about 0.97, the horizontal speed is 970 ft /s minus drag losses. Time of flight to 15 000 ft is about 15.5 sec. A tank gun with a maximum range of 2.5 miles would take 3 seconds to strike its target. But the mortar vehicle would fire from behind cover so the tank would be unable to fire and would be killed. The mortar system could be fitted to the tank but the tank would still be no more than equal to the light armor. Heavy armor is obsolete as a main battle system and is only useful as direct fire field artillery to support infantry. Adding the mortar system does give it greater flexibility in fire support and could be useful in urban warfare for being able to see over buildings and fire onto unseen streets. The copter is also useful for general reconnaissance from any armored vehicle enabling the crew to elevate their viewing position at will. At night, with the electric motor the copter would be fairly stealthy and could be left up indefinitely. During the day it might be hoisted up and down to prevent it being used to target artillery at the vehicle. There would be a winch at the lower end which would reel and unreel the cable. The mortar system would be fitted onto the back of the turret.
The light armor vehicle would have a light machine cannon and a 4 man crew; driver, light cannon gunner, vehicle commander and aimer to target vehicles with the mortar. The system could also be fitted to armored personnel carriers to both kill tanks and provide fire support for dismounted infantry.
The mortar could be mounted as a series of tubes, c or with the breeches in a revolver base, d. The cluster of tubes would have the individual tubes factory reloaded after use. For the revolver, an option is to have 2 concentric revolvers with 2 barrels, each ring feeding one barrel. One ring could contain anti-armor, such as explosively formed penetrators, while the other could have high explosive for anti infantry.
The propellant charge would be divided into 7 sections, g. The sections could be separated by steel partitions and would have a plastic cap on top to prevent them from firing from the ignition of the other charges. If the barrel is 6 ft long, the charge will burn in the barrel for 0.012 sec, that should be short enough not to burn through the plastic cap. When the shell has left the barrel the other charges may be detonated to reduce crew hazard in handling. The maximum range is proportional to the number of charges fired, at shorter ranges, reducing the charges reduces the flight time if a high arc is desired on the flight path. At 1 000 ft/s the time to 2 000 feet fired at a low angle would be 2 seconds but the flight angle would be only 2 degrees. Fired at a high arc the shell would take 1 000/ 32(gravity) = 30 seconds to stop and an equal time to fall, or 60 seconds. With only 1 charge fired the time would be 5.5 s and the angle would be 15 degrees. Steeper angles give a better approach to the turret roof and a better angle of attack.
For maneuvering, the mortar shell could have thin tubes lined with tiny propellant charges in its tail fins a, b. The propellant charges could be fired in sequences to develop the desired angle of rotation of the shell. This would mean no moving parts and higher reliability. Similar maneuvering jets could be installed on aerial bombs for precision guidance, again, eliminating moving parts.
1 lb of high explosive has about 20 000 000 (20 million) lb-inches, of energy. Each piece of propellant would need about 5-10 lb-inches of energy or about 0.000 001 (1- 1 millionth) of a lb. Allowing for explosives to weigh about 100 lb/cubic ft and the energy of the propellant to be 1/2 of that of high explosive, propellants are known as low explosives or deflagrating explosives, their speed of detonation is lower and they tend not to shatter surrounding materials when detonated, there are 1 728 cubic-inches/ cubic ft, the propellant charge would be 0.033 inches in each direction. A silicon base etched with electrical contacts could have those small charges installed with a separation of 0.07inches or, maybe, 12 per inch. The individual propellant charges would be capped with plastic to weatherproof them. The plastic coating would also inhibit one charge igniting the others. It would also add mass to the discharge, increasing the momentum transfer for the same energy of ignition. The fins might have 1.5 inches of propellant or 18 charges with two sides giving 36 charges. Allowing the tube assemblies to be separated at 0.25 inches along the fin, and the fins to be 3 inches long, would give 3/0.25 X 36 =432 charges per fin with 8 fins, one at every 45 degrees.
When approaching closely to the turret top, the tail fins on the lower side of the shell could be blown off, the transfer of momentum causing the shell to rotate more vertically, allowing it to fire almost vertically downwards into the turret if using an explosively formed penetrator.
A smaller version of the copter could be carried in a back pack case and be deployed after being set on the ground and opened, f. When under fire, the copter could be deployed and the precision mortar shells used to destroy hostile defensive positions, then rifles and grenades could be used to clean up anything left. It would revolutionize infantry combat. In addition, there were 2 US posts in Afghanistan that were almost overrun, the copter would have allowed them to see the attack coming and better defend themselves.
This system could have been built in 1975, the M1 Abrams tank should have never been built and was obsolete before production. It also shows that the entire Reagan defense build-up was a completewaste of money spent on obsolete garbage.
I sent this to both DARPA and the army, one does not read their mail and the other ignored it. One might think that in the middle of a war the government might take seriously ideas that can help fight the war, but one would be wrong. The reason why the people at the defense department are idiots is because the presidents are idiots. Stupid people hire other stupid people. Political appointees are given ever higher positions without regard to their previous failures, if the hang around Washington long enough, they will eventually be given control of an entire department, which they can then destroy. One of the saving graces of engineering is that slack will usually save your ass, there is usually enough give in engineering systems that small errors can be compensated by the system rather than causing failure. The same must be true of the United States, there must be enough slack to allow for total incompetence not to destroy the country. This would explain how, after over two hundred consecutive years of presidents being morons and losers, the nation has still survived.
And then there is the matter of the house and senate armed service committees. Not only do the members of those committees not know what they are doing, they do not even know what questions to ask. One would think that they would all resign, not only from the committees but from congress, in embarrassment, but I guess they just this country and want to do more damage to it.
The government has a research staff of tens of thousands, including both public and contract workers. They have a research and development budget of billions. I have a research staff of 0 and a research budget of 0, if I can figure this out and they cannot, they have to be thumb sucking imbeciles.
They say they are going to save money on defense; they need to replace the entire air force, replace all of the ground armor vehicles and rebuild navy ships, there will be no cost savings.
No comments:
Post a Comment