3 ms·
The Davy Crockett’s timer allowed a minimum shot distance of about 1,000 feet, but such inept use of the weapon would certainly result in the deaths of the firi
by hga 10y ago
The Davy Crockett’s timer allowed a minimum shot distance of about 1,000 feet, but such inept use of the weapon would certainly result in the deaths of the firing team.
Just like how standard US style defensive fragmentation hand grenades are very hard to throw beyond the distance they delivers lethal fragments? (That's what defines a defensive hand grenade, vs. e.g. the famous German "potato masher" offensive concussion grenades).
The author ought to do a little research into the concept of cover, like for this case foxholes and slit trenches.
- mrestko 10y agoDoes a foxhole protect from the overpressure blast of a nuclear explosion? With fragmentation grades, you're getting behind cover that will absorb the shards before they hit you--cover can't do anything about a wave of pressure.
- hga 10y agoIt might if it had overhead cover, which became much more important in the WWII era when proximity fuzes were released to the US Army during the Battle of the Bulge, and you could add some extra dooring, but that would get in the way of a quick entry. On the other hand, we're only taking about 10-20 tons, not kilo-tons, of yield, so in pressure it's more like a Daisy Cutter or MOAB, or something smaller that hit close, and there's lots of experience of that. It might well be preferable to being overrun by a unit of the Red Army in the next few minutes, but, obviously, selecting a target at > 1,000 meters would be a good idea. My general point, though, it that this weapon is held to be axiomatically "crazy", when it's not in the context for which it was designed and fielded.