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Let's see what happens with unmanned combat aircraft before we write off the specialized combatant. Quote:
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Convoy Escort
One of your best options for a convoy escort is a HMMWV Avenger - it has an M3 HMG which is perfect for the role and it's not as if you have any aircrft to use them on...
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The USMC has the right idea with an air element desighned to support the infantrymen. USMC aviators feel a close bond to their ground pounding comrades and this is due to their training and indoctrination. I do think Armies (assuming the funding is available) should handle their own CAS requirements. The British Army does to a certain extent as the Apaches are assighned to Army Air Corps. |
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Of course one could argue that with such an iddy biddy defence force, Australia is always going to suffer capability gaps. We may be a wealthy nation on a per capita basis but we just don't have the population base to support a truly capable armed forces. |
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In all honestly, my admittedly scant, research and knowledge of the F35 program tells me its more boondoggle than not. Yes, it has the potential of being a very good multirole Aircraft. But its going to be probably one of the most expensive fighters ever. And the maintance costs are projected to be equally massive. Ignoring the steathy bits of the F35 program, I honestly believe the various Airforces that are buying into it would be much better served with the latest flavours of current strike fighters: F/A18 E/F, Block 50/60 F16s, Gripens, and 15E's. Be massivly cheaper to boot. |
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The US should be buying all the latest Russian gear, if only to see what is going on with the competition. Pilots who thoroughly understand the enemy's strengths and weaknesses, as well as their own strengths and weaknesses, are the most likely to bring victory. Concrete armored cars. I never would have thought of that. The threat of invasion really brings out the creativity in some folks. Getting back the gun trucks, I want to put a question out to the community at large: when does a fire support vehicle become a light assault gun? |
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And electronics and other systems can be upgraded over time....
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http://www.knowledgerush.com/kr/encyclopedia/Icecrete/ |
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Found what I was looking for in the WW2 aircraft with LCG in the nose.. Bell P-39 had a 37mm firing through the rotor hub. Don't ask me how.. just what it says... knew that I saw something on one somewhere... Not may built, and I know there were some in service in PAO.. met an old timer at church years back that flew them, then transfered to P-38 Lightning. He was on the Yamamoto raid flying top cover for them. Funny old guy too... said he was shot down three times... but got five of them.. "Oh your an ace." says I. "That's not how my wife pronounces it." says he.
FB http://www.militaryfactory.com/aircr...ircraft_id=140 |
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Hey Grae,
when you were in Vietnam, did you come across any gun trucks? just curious bdd |
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The Me 109, with a front engine, had a short 20mm cannon that fired through the propeller hub. Quote:
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The P-39 was designed and built with the 37mm gun, for ground support, but not necessarily tank-busting, in mind. It and the P-40 had heavy armament for attack missions. One variant had a 20mm instead, for shipment to the British. Several of these were sidetracked to the South Pacific instead (39th Fighter Squadron, Guadalcanal, IIRC), where they couldn't really fly at high altitude (still had British oxygen equipment, and no turbosupercharger). This was the P-400 ("it's a P-40 with a Zero on its tail!"). The Marines liked them for ground support. There were other P-39 squadrons in New Guinea, Alaska and other Pacific islands, and a few groups in the Mediterranean. Once the USAAF started getting P-47s in bulk, most of the P-39 production went to the French and Soviets. The Soviets loved them-- they had radios! Lots of folks have read that the Soviets used them for CAS, but in Soviet terminology, "close air support" meant stooging over the battlefield, looking for German ground-attack planes to shoot down. There was a really cool book by a P-39 pilot, http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9...t_s_Love_Story. The vibrations of the gun firing through the drive shaft were one of his favorite sensations. I'm still convinced there was a WW1 German cannon-armed plane, but I have not been able to track it down. |
It's amusing that this thread has become as much a place to discuss large caliber weapons mounted on aircraft (especially WWII aircraft) as it is to discuss gun trucks. :)
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I think a convoy escort unit (with gun trucks of course) would make for an interesting PC group. It would work great for the Escape from Kalisz module- it's on its way to resupply part of the 5th when the Soviet counterattack hits. You could do this for pretty much any unit you choose. A convoy following the wayward 8th ID would work well too.
It would provide a group of relatively low-powered (combat skill-wise, at least) PCs with a good amount of mobility and firepower. Do they charge to the rescue with much-needed fuel and tank ammo? Do they head for the hills in classic EFK fashion? Do they try to set themselves up as a local power? A force of gun trucks would also make for an interesting NPC encounter for a more conventional EFK group. "Sorry guys, we don't have any 5.56 or 7.62mm but we have a shit-ton of 120mm AP..." A rogue gun truck unit could also make for a nasty group of marauders... |
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beating a dead (cannon-armed, flying) horse
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One of the SPAD models had a 37mm cannon firing through the hollow propeller shaft. In WW2: The Me109 (some versions, too lazy to track down which) had a 30mm cannon "nestled between the cylinder heads" of the aircraft's engine, firing through the propeller boss. Back to gun trucks: I think the penultimate gun trucks were the SAS jeeps used in the "Jeep Raids" on German airstrips in North Africa. Like the eventual evolution of the PT boats from torpedo to gunboats, these Jeeps had more armament per pound of vehicle weight than just about any other weapons system in their class. |
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The early models of the P-38 were designed with a 37mm cannon, that was replaced with a 20mm somewhere around the D/E model. There was also a B-17 variant that mounted one in the nose for anti-fighter duty, never official, but there are a couple of pics and a old war story of it being used in Europe. My high school shop teacher was a Confederate Air Force Colonel and we got extra credit for "assisting" the regular mechanics on the old warbirds. |
What about rocket pods?
I was looking at some of those crazy Libyan vehicles with soviet rocket pods bolted to them. I was thinking about some of the SNEB pods we used to use on the Jaguar and Harrier aircraft. Put them on some kind of moveable mount and you'll give an ambush a really bad day as you suddely lay down a dozen 68mm HE rockets on their position. |
They have actually looked at that as a factory built system - I recall a Humvee being fitted with 6 FFAR/19 pods. It would lead to a very effective short range bombardment system...
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I want one of those HEMTT gun trucks. Traffic in San Antonio sucks -- it would be nice to clear some of the idiots out of the way...:D
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For what it's worth, since you were talking about weapons on vehicles stripped from aircraft, I remember seeing a pic of a WWII PT boat that had the 37mm autocannon from a P39 Airacobra rigged on a weapon mount on the deck, with traverse and elevation, fire controls, ammunition drum, the works. If they could do it on a boat, pretty sure they could have set up something similiar on a truck as well. Of course, I think you'd find 37mm ammunition to be fairly scarce these days.
Of course, not just guns. If you wanted to get fancier....they were for a while touting around the HUMRAAM, which was basically a Humvee modified to carry a turret rack that mounted (correct me if I'm wrong) 4 AMRAAM's and 2 Sidewinders modified for the SAM role. Just goes to show I guess that with enough ingenuity, you can, within reason, pretty much mount ALMOST anything from an aircraft onto a vehicle, provided the vehicle is large enough and can handle the weight and recoil of the weapons. Of course, something like the 30mm Avenger autocannon mounted on the A-10 might be a bit problematic. :eek: |
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