thedrifter
06-15-07, 06:51 PM
Military tests new smart 30mm rounds
By Kris Osborn - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Jun 15, 2007 16:11:22 EDT
A 30mm Air Burst Munition round fired out of a Mk 44 Bushmaster cannon penetrated a concrete wall some 500 meters away, then exploded to destroy a mannequin target on the other side, said Alliant TechSystems officials.
ATK is developing the munition under a spring 2006 deal with the U.S. Navy and Marines.
“Previously what we had was a conventional high-explosive round with a mechanical fuze on the nose of the round. With those conventional HE rounds, you have to hit something in order to detonate the round and get the effects of the round. But with an air-burst round, we have the ability to fire a 30mm round and have it detonate at a point in space. It does not have to impact anything to detonate,” said Duane Bjorlin, business development manager with ATK’s medium-caliber systems.
Tested June 9-10 at ATK’s proving grounds in Elk River, Minn., some 1,200 rounds will be tested by the Navy and Marines for about 15 more months, then enter mass production, say ATK officials.
“Our last shot we had set up as a representation of an ambush with a vehicle and a few mannequins with simulated RPGs [rocket-propelled grenades] on their shoulder,” Bjorlin said. We fired air-burst rounds and took out the targets. One target was in the vehicle and one in the back. Three shots and five rounds shot them all. We set it so the round would burst a few meters in front of the car so that you could get the maximum effect of fragmentation on the van itself. Having rounds burst at that point in space is a real advantage.”
The munition, with a range up to 2,500 meters, is to be fired by the Marines’ Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV); the USS San Antonio LPD 17, a Navy amphibious ship that will carry the EFV; and the Future Combat Systems Infantry Carrier Vehicle. The rounds are also being considered for the AC-130 gunship, said Bjorlin.
The Army, which has been testing 25mm ABM rounds for the XM 307 machine gun and XM 25 rifle, may test the larger round as well, said U.S. Army Col. Carl Lipsit, project manager for soldier weapons, Picatinny Arsenal, N.J.
“The No. 1 capability gap at the infantry center is counter-defilade target engagement,” which means hitting a target obscured by a wall, vehicle or other barrier, Lipsit said. “If someone is behind a wall, how do you engage them? It is very difficult. You could use a 500-pound bomb, I guess, that comes from the sky, comes down on them. But this way this way you can laze your target, you can add X amount of meters to it, then it explodes in the air. If you have a sniper target behind a window, you can fly the round through the window.”
To make this happen, a gunner uses a laser rangefinder to set the distance at which the round should explode. This is transmitted to the round as it enters the cannon’s breech. Once in the air, the round counts its rotations and explodes after the correct number. The rounds can also be set to wait until they penetrate a wall to explode.
“If you have troops in foxholes, you can now detonate the round over the head of the enemy, thus negating the foxhole cover, because you can do over-head bursts against enemy troops. If you were firing on a squad that was advancing on you, as soon as one shot is fired, they [the enemy] will drop to the ground. With an air burst round, that does not help them,” said Bjorlin.
Ellie
By Kris Osborn - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Jun 15, 2007 16:11:22 EDT
A 30mm Air Burst Munition round fired out of a Mk 44 Bushmaster cannon penetrated a concrete wall some 500 meters away, then exploded to destroy a mannequin target on the other side, said Alliant TechSystems officials.
ATK is developing the munition under a spring 2006 deal with the U.S. Navy and Marines.
“Previously what we had was a conventional high-explosive round with a mechanical fuze on the nose of the round. With those conventional HE rounds, you have to hit something in order to detonate the round and get the effects of the round. But with an air-burst round, we have the ability to fire a 30mm round and have it detonate at a point in space. It does not have to impact anything to detonate,” said Duane Bjorlin, business development manager with ATK’s medium-caliber systems.
Tested June 9-10 at ATK’s proving grounds in Elk River, Minn., some 1,200 rounds will be tested by the Navy and Marines for about 15 more months, then enter mass production, say ATK officials.
“Our last shot we had set up as a representation of an ambush with a vehicle and a few mannequins with simulated RPGs [rocket-propelled grenades] on their shoulder,” Bjorlin said. We fired air-burst rounds and took out the targets. One target was in the vehicle and one in the back. Three shots and five rounds shot them all. We set it so the round would burst a few meters in front of the car so that you could get the maximum effect of fragmentation on the van itself. Having rounds burst at that point in space is a real advantage.”
The munition, with a range up to 2,500 meters, is to be fired by the Marines’ Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV); the USS San Antonio LPD 17, a Navy amphibious ship that will carry the EFV; and the Future Combat Systems Infantry Carrier Vehicle. The rounds are also being considered for the AC-130 gunship, said Bjorlin.
The Army, which has been testing 25mm ABM rounds for the XM 307 machine gun and XM 25 rifle, may test the larger round as well, said U.S. Army Col. Carl Lipsit, project manager for soldier weapons, Picatinny Arsenal, N.J.
“The No. 1 capability gap at the infantry center is counter-defilade target engagement,” which means hitting a target obscured by a wall, vehicle or other barrier, Lipsit said. “If someone is behind a wall, how do you engage them? It is very difficult. You could use a 500-pound bomb, I guess, that comes from the sky, comes down on them. But this way this way you can laze your target, you can add X amount of meters to it, then it explodes in the air. If you have a sniper target behind a window, you can fly the round through the window.”
To make this happen, a gunner uses a laser rangefinder to set the distance at which the round should explode. This is transmitted to the round as it enters the cannon’s breech. Once in the air, the round counts its rotations and explodes after the correct number. The rounds can also be set to wait until they penetrate a wall to explode.
“If you have troops in foxholes, you can now detonate the round over the head of the enemy, thus negating the foxhole cover, because you can do over-head bursts against enemy troops. If you were firing on a squad that was advancing on you, as soon as one shot is fired, they [the enemy] will drop to the ground. With an air burst round, that does not help them,” said Bjorlin.
Ellie