They have the Bushmasters, there are still a bunch of M2s that are in double-mounts IIRC, and Phalanx guns all have IIR targeting now. One should also not underestimate a bunch of pissed off sailors when you're trying to blow up their home with a close-in threat.
Carrier good, carrier safe. Now just build those Aegis LPD arsenal ships, you cowards.
They have the Bushmasters, there are still a bunch of M2s that are in double-mounts IIRC, and Phalanx guns all have IIR targeting now. One should also not underestimate a bunch of pissed off sailors when you're trying to blow up their home with a close-in threat.
The Ford and Nimitz class are modern floating fortresses. It would take a lot to take one out, more than a little PT boat could accomplish or even a frigate frankly
The Aegis System Equipped Vessels will have that same discrimination capability with AN/SPY-7, but the plan for them is 128 cells of Mk41 VLS, which essentially makes them single-ended Ticonderogas with much better radars. The LPD based Aegis ship was 288 VLS cells, without taking up much of the flight deck and hangar spaces. It says BMD on the tin, but that's realistically more SAMs than the Navy would probably want to put in one basket, so some portion of that arsenal is always going to be multi-mission. Putting one of those into a task force would almost be like adding a Tico, a Flight III Burke, and an SSGN all with one ship.
Speaking of Mk41 going places and doing things, looks like the Bundeswehr is interested in the US Army's new Typhon launchers. Article is in German.
The Speer-ministry, which in cooperation with the dreaded Zentrale Planung, had the best overview over the stockpiles estimated that depending on the material armaments production
Other things they did Nazi coming, because Germany was ahead of its time : the Goliath tracked mine, a Gen 2 military drone.
Adolf Hitler's controversial entry to BattleBots was an armored vehicle designed to trundle at you, slowly, before exploding hundreds of pounds of superior Aryan high explosive in your balls, which would become a fine pink mist.
It's a good thing for our G.I.s they didn't work:
They mostly failed to reach their targets, although the effect was considerable when they did.[8]
But while the picture above looks like a WW1 heavy tank, these Third Reich rascals were the cutest little remote controlled National Socialist murderbots. I say! Pour more bloody tea on the blasted Gerry contraptions, would you Darling old boy?
If they had time, resources and the technology to build a better model, the Reichsführerexplodenzefahrten 2000 could have even been something of a force equalizer helping to mechanize German infantry against superior Red Army numbers in Operation Barbarossa or Allied numbers in Normandy. You can see the military potential to reduce infantry casualties by sending these little guys in first. The IDF have for many years because they're smart.
The cable control is ok, but more protection/distance for infantrymen operators would be nice. Radio probably too expensive and fragile without transistors, and too easy for Brit EW to hack, but they could have added crude automation features in with 40's tech. The steering (electric motors feeding treads version especially) could be easily on/off controlled in response to an accoustic sensor (tuned to tank engine or other engine sounds) providing a rough, cheap homing system if it's pointed in roughly the right direction. And the main explosive could use a proximity fuze, mounted on a big stick, covered in dog poop on the end. I call it der V-Your Mom
A modern version of this with enough armor to stop 7.62, generous miles of spooled ultralight fiber optic and 4K 360° night vision and infrared cameras for zero latency all-conditions remote viewing and operation using VR headset and Dualshock or Xbox controller Equip with laser guided RPGs, or mobile auto turret, mortar, anti tank missiles, or even MANPADS. Low-noise stealthy electric motors and maybe a speaker to blast Ride of Valkyries, and novelty rubber balls.
Use long life batteries and build an environmentally protected chassis to house sensitive but cheapish smartphone grade sensors and turn these guys into easily camouflaged landmines that can sit in "rest" mode undetected under a ghillie mat for weeks. Then crawl out of their spider holes, and into your foxhole, in the night.
Here's an English article on the German Typhon deal. It's currently still waiting for US approval but it's expected to be an easy agreement. Part of the negotiations also include a longer and more detailed schedule for the US to station Typhons and LRHW (Dark Eagle) in Germany as/until German purchases reach their own units.
In other recent Typhon news, the ability of the system to hit ships at sea with SM-6 missiles was successfully tested in Australia just this past week, as part of the Talisman Saber exercise.
They also jammed near constantly due to standard combat maneuvers. It was incredibly rare for the 262 to actually be able to bring all four cannons to bear in a fight.
The engines just weren't as reliable at the Meteors and the P-80 and Meteor matched or nearly matched in on performance and the British already had the Vampire about to enter service as well.
The files related to that alone are a thrilling read. They became desperate enough to consider wood and coal gas generators for trucks and other vehicles.
Don't forget the based attempts to make coal powered ramjets. I've always wanted someone to make a replica of the Kronach Lorin ramjet in order to see how well it would work, assuming there is enough information available to approximate it. Maybe if I can find enough info I could be the one to make that environmentalists nightmare of an engine. Unfortunately, testing such a full scale thing is not all that possible in most western nations, who tend to be a bit touchy about experimental engines bolted to random aircraft, wind tunnels probably won't appreciate the coal soot everywhere, and I'd need a very fucking fast car to test it properly on the ground without custom building a whole wind tunnel of my own.
Such is life for the modern guy fucking around in his shed, hard to have fun with dangerous stuff these days. Perhaps a really scaled down version could be done, I'll have to think about that one.
As previously posted, modern UGVs are just turning out to be modified civilian gear, and frankly that is the best course at the moment considering how much cheaper that is to build comparatively to modern military procurement systems. So in other words, start a company building Goliaths as some sort of overbuilt fun toy, GI's seemed to enjoy racing around with them after taking the explosives out so there's gotta be some market there to keep it all running legitimately without military sales, and make bank selling them to whatever army around the world needs them.
Except of course they are totally not a military piece of equipment, just a fun little toy being sold to the local commercial market and then resold privately to military personnel, no export restrictions needed here (until some fun hating international organisation classifies them as restricted dual-use and fucks you up for getting in on the war profiteering game without paying the right people).
It's been done before. Leave a bunch of grunts around enough guns for long enough without proper officer supervision and they'll all end up welded to something. Too bad some weenie officer took their minigun away from them.
Not sure what the point is to fitting it to an Abrams, especially in a manned mount, but it is cool.
M1 Abrams with a minigun and a 3000 round drum. Depending on fire rate, that could be a minute of solid fire. Kino. PP hard. Drones beware.
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Other news China has a new modular tank. Has shit like a RWS, APS, and a big gun of unknown caliber (likely 105mm). Can also be configured for IFV roles
i read somewhere (like a decade ago) that the superchargers used in diesel engines like the M6V/M9V for u-boats were often removed/disabled near the end of the war, since slave labor and sabotage resulted in them being faulty. is that true? and on something like a type VII-C, how much speed would be lost as a result? did it affect the charging time for the batteries?
i literally cant find info for this specific autistic detail anywhere except some reddit comment, but i swear i read it in a book one time
1) Drones cost a fraction of what a Javelin or any other similar anti armor system costs. Yes you may have to throw 10-20 drones at a tank to destroy it, but that is still much cheaper than what it cost for a single Javelin.
2) Drones are much safer at taking out targets. You dont have to expose your troops to enemy fire or put them in immediate danger to engage a target. Guys can sit kilometers behind the front line looking for targets and engaging them.
As long as you continue to view and employ drones like the US has done with air power, then yes drones dont seem like that big of a deal and can be managed.
1) Drones cost a fraction of what a Javelin or any other similar anti armor system costs. Yes you may have to throw 10-20 drones at a tank to destroy it, but that is still much cheaper than what it cost for a single Javelin.
2) Drones are much safer at taking out targets. You dont have to expose your troops to enemy fire or put them in immediate danger to engage a target. Guys can sit kilometers behind the front line looking for targets and engaging them.
As long as you continue to view and employ drones like the US has done with air power, then yes drones dont seem like that big of a deal and can be managed.
You may have to remember that a Javelin isn't really designed with mass producability in mind and it would likely cost much less once it gets re-engineered to be made in an assembly line. ATGMs in general can be as cheap as a drone and would have advantages of speed and smaller front profile when it comes to direct conflict. They also work better in heavy EW environments.
Drones cost a fraction of what a Javelin or any other similar anti armor system costs. Yes you may have to throw 10-20 drones at a tank to destroy it, but that is still much cheaper than what it cost for a single Javelin.
This is a basic blunder consistently made by people who have little real knowledge of military matters, or any complex matter really. You're getting lost in cost analysis without accounting for the difference in time and efficiency of action, which are major factors in the success of the mission that can't be ignored. The difference between losing 10-20 drones due to unfavorable conditions and launching one or two much more reliable missiles can't be easily expressed in currency, it can only be quantified if you understand the kind of vulnerabilities that are created and the opportunities that are lost if you're consistently forced to operate with that level of inefficiency.
This is why a mix of high performance and low performance is a basic aspect of military planning. High performance options make low performance options more useful, low performance options make high performance options more sustainable.
The difference between losing 10-20 drones due to unfavorable conditions and launching one or two much more reliable missiles can't be easily expressed in currency, it can only be quantified if you understand the kind of vulnerabilities that are created and the opportunities that are lost if you're consistently forced to operate with that level of inefficiency.
: the Goliath tracked mine, a Gen 2 military drone.
they didn't work:
Equip with laser guided RPGs, or mobile auto turret, mortar, anti tank missiles, or even MANPADS. Low-noise stealthy electric motors and maybe a speaker to blast Ride of Valkyries, and novelty rubber balls.
