5 ms·
There are a lot of things between "modern Russian tank" and "completely unprotected humans". The 30mm gun is excellent against armored personal carriers. For t
by burfog 7y ago
There are a lot of things between "modern Russian tank" and "completely unprotected humans". The 30mm gun is excellent against armored personal carriers.
For the tanks, the A-10 carries the AGM-65 Maverick with 136 kg (300 lb) of explosives.
Upgrading the gun would be useful. We can now make even the 12.7 mm ammunition have guidance, so 30 mm should be easy. We could compensate for the density reduction by upgrading to something like the 37 mm used by the MiG-17. Guidance would allow targeting the most vulnerable parts of a tank. The toughest modern tank still relies on vulnerable sensors. One could also just pound the same spot many times, chipping out a hole. Reactive armor is nothing if you can get a second shot in the same location.
- pault 7y agoHow does a guided bullet work? I always thought that was one of those perpetually ten years away kind of things.
- burfog 7y agoThey aren't saying as far as I can tell, except that it receives an optical signal at the rear. Some people are assuming it has fins, but none are visible in diagrams. Beginners can hit moving targets at extreme ranges. http://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/2018/07/guided-50-caliber-projectile-darpas-steerable-bullet/ http://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/2018/07/guided-50-calibe... https://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2015-04-27 https://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2015-04-27 Sandia National Laboratories did something similar, but with a non-standard rifle and using a laser target designator. Russia is attempting to do something similar.
- TeMPOraL 7y ago> Some people are assuming it has fins, but none are visible in diagrams. Many years ago I saw a concept of a guided machine gun bullet in a "scientific" magazine; the concept involved steering by a mechanism that moved a lump of mass within the bullet around.
- jcoby 7y agoHow in the world does that work? Bullets spin at ridiculous rates; some 3000 RPS. At long distances it'll have made over 10k revolutions before it hits the target!
- TeMPOraL 7y agoI honestly don't know. I vaguely remember a schematic I saw some 10-15 years ago or so. It may very well not work at all, it was a concept.
- dTal 7y agoFrom your first link: "Inside EXACTO bullets are optical guidance systems, aero-actuation controls, and multiple sensors" Of course that could all be a lie to throw adversaries off the scent, but the trouble with trying to keep a bullet top-secret is the moment you use it, the enemy has as many as they want to study...
- anchpop 7y agoCould it contain a charge or instability that destroys the useful innovations when it strikes the target, to prevent that? Even regular bullets look deformed when they hit something, it seems like if you want to slow down enemy research you could exploit that