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Originally Posted by CDAT
Now I know that it never did make it into full production and all that but I am not sure that I would go so far as to cal the Sgt York a POS, here is a link to an article from a pilot involved in the testing of it and his thoughts on it.
https://www.quora.com/How-effective-...wn-helicopters |
The criteria in its design were flawed. It was supposed to be able to engage a pop-up target within 8 seconds and have a 50% chance of striking a target at 3 kilometers with a 30 round burst. Soviet helicopter-mounted anti-tank missiles of the time had at least a 6 kilometer range, so they could stand off and destroy an armored column from outside the York's (marginally) effective range.
I'd also question the anecdote of its effectiveness, given that in its OT&E testing in 1984, the M247 wasn't able to hit drones until they were limited to hovering and were carrying four radar reflectors to increase their signature. Maybe it worked perfectly in every non-official test and failed miserably any time someone was looking, but I'll tend to lean towards the side of the recorded testing, because anecdote is not the singular of data.
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Originally Posted by StainlessSteelCynic
Edit: If they were so intent on using a twin 40mm set-up, they probably would have been better off upgrading the M42 Duster to the latest tech and all-weather performance. At least the M42 had the speed to keep up with the M1.
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It wouldn't have been able to keep up once the whiz-bang features from DIVAD were added - the additional mass on the Patton (17 tons) was almost equal to the total mass of a Duster (22 tons). Add in the short range of the Duster (100 miles), and you're looking at a slow, short-ranged SPAAG. With the DIVAD weight added, you'd be looking at a vehicle with perhaps 2/3 the power to weight ratio of an M1 or M2, and less than 1/3 of their range. They also weren't insistent on using a 40mm; no other DIVAD entry used that caliber (it's rumored Ford had some sort of side deal with Bofors, and also that they only won the competition because of back room shenanigans, since the XM246 consistently out-performed the XM247).
What could be interesting from the standpoint of the original topic would be to look at the other ARGADS/DIVAD entries:
Sperry-Rand: 35mm Vigilante with 1,464 rounds of ammo. Two radars and IFF.
General Electric: 30mm GAU-8. One radar (AN/MPQ-49).
Raytheon: 35mm turret from Gepard, with Hollandse radar and Oerlikon FCS.
General Dynamics: Side-by-side mounting of 35mm guns (same as Gepard), with Phalanx CIWS radar.