*I thought Yo-yo would appreciate this since it more or less is bring his idealism into praticality ie 'one shot, one kill'. It should make shell firing fairly accurate. Normal shell cases can vary in hitting a target by as much as two football field lengths; while these are accurate within 2-11 yards...most often within 5. **I saw this on Future Weapons (on the discovery channel). They were discussing how effective it would be when ones enemy is 'hugging' civilian locations, which is fairly common as you know. * This comment is particular marketed to some of you folks here:'Fewer civilian casualties, saves lives, keeps the media off your back, and creates good will among civilians in the combat zone.' http://www.strategypage.com/dls/articles/20054121018.asp The U.S. Army continues to try developing an artillery shell that can hit with precision accuracy. Two new such shells are about to enter service: Excalibur and PGK. Back in the 1980s, the 155mm Copperhead round was developed, at great expense, to take out tanks with one shell. The Copperhead was laser guided. That is, it homed in on laser light that a forward observer, with a laser “gunâ€, was creating by pointing the laser at the target. Same deal with laser guided bombs. But this was expensive technology. Each of the 3,000 Copperhead shells cost several hundred thousands dollars (the price varied, up to half a million bucks, depending on was doing the calculating). And it turned out there were many easier, and cheaper, ways to destroy enemy tanks. This was demonstrated during the 1991 Gulf War, when a few Copperhead shells were used, successfully, but to reactions of, “so what?†However, Russia developed its own version of Copperhead, Krasnopol, and sold some to India. During a 1999 war with Pakistan, high in the Himalayan mountains, Krasnopol proved very useful in taking out enemy bunkers, without causing avalanches or destroying the few pathways up the steep hills. The Indians paid about $40,000 for each Krasnopol shell (two thirds what the Copperhead was supposed to cost), and found it a good investment. This encouraged the American developers of the next generation smart shell, Excalibur, which already had several years of design and research invested. The Excalibur shell, which will be issued to artillery units within the next year, uses GPS guidance. It’s expected to cost about $50,000 each, and land a shell within 30 feet of the target. Actual tests have shown the shells will land within half that distance. The army wants this kind of accuracy for fighting in urban areas, and to reduce the number of shells needed to destroy a target. Accuracy in urban areas reduces civilian casualties, and allows friendly troops to be closer to the target. Both of these factors make a big difference. Fewer civilian casualties, saves lives, keeps the media off your back, and creates good will among civilians in the combat zone. Having your troops closer to the target allows the infantry to rush in after the shell hits and quickly mop up the surviving enemy troops. This reduces your casualties, and puts the fear of Excalibur into the enemy troops. Both are good things. Right now, the Excalibur will be competing with the new U.S. Air Force “small diameter bomb†(SDB). This 250 pound device, which looks like a missile, but is an unguided smart bomb, weighs twice as much as Excalibur, and thus produces a bigger bang. But you need an air force bomber overhead to get a SDB, while army artillery is always there. You also need an air force FAC (Forward Air Controller) nearby to call in the bomb, while there are many more army personnel who can call for artillery. The SDB costs about as much as Excalibur. Another competitor is the GPS guided MLRS rocket. But because rockets are less accurate than artillery shells to begin with, GPS guided MLRS cannot hit targets as accurately as SDB or Excalibur. The third generation smart shell is also in development. This is the Projectile Guidance Kit (PGK), which is actually a large fuze, that screws into the front of a 155mm or 105mm shell. This longer “fuze†contains a GPS and small fins to guide the shell to a precision hit equal to an Excalibur shell. The army doesn’t expect to be passing these out to the troops for another five years. But if development goes smoothly, and Excalibur proves useful and popular, then the PGK might show up earlier. The PGK will cost less than half what each Excalibur does and, more importantly, can turn any shell into a smart shell. This is important for artillerymen, who don’t like to carry around a lot of special shells, “just in case.†Artillery units already carry several different types of fuzes for their shells, so one more is not seen as a burden. The pinnacle of artillery operations has always been, “one shot, one kill.†But achieving this has always been like a golfer getting a hole in one. It can be done, but it’s rare. Smart shells make “one shot, one kill†commonplace, and mean artillerymen will spend less time constantly replenishing their ammunition supplies. Firing the cannon less often is also nice, as those beasts are a bitch to keep clean.
I watched the same programme yesterday, some very impressive stuff - especially the remote control robots with gun mounts. Nice to see us brits have some inventions too though! (the triple missile thingy).
You just hope certain people aren't capable of getting such weapons. It's odd, but our weapons are intended for conventional wars, but wars are far more complicated now, aren't they? Nukes complicate things.
That's why I am still most impressed with the plane based laser to take out missiles. If you have these flying overhead and an enemy launches a nuke at you. you blow it up over their territory and the EMP from the blast sends their whole country back to the middle ages. Why isn't more money spent on this?
I saw the show on the military channel (its on cox digital cable for those of you that have seen it). Very interesting, I hope more money is spent on this in the future.
Check this one out! From the Roswell files: http://www.defensetech.org/archives/002723.html Robotic frisbees of death LOL Is it just me or we outsmarting ourselves here? All this money spent on weird ass weapons to kill a few people. We should just end it. Space based laser system. Operative on the ground targets the person. Laser melts him. Why pussyfoot around here?