Quote:
Originally Posted by dragoon500ly
US Tanks have two gunnery sights. The primary, often referred to as the "gunner's head assembly" is the square box positioned in front of the TC's hatch. This assembly has two armored doors, the one on the right protects the thermal sight and the one the left protects the day sight. Inside the turret, these share the same eyepiece which has a aiming point with lead lines and elevation lines. It is possible to use the sight without the ballistic computer, its just damned hard due to the fact that gunnery w/o the computer is not stressed. While I was familiar with the layout of the aiming point and lead lines, I never received training and practise in its use until I attended gunnery school at Fort Knox.
The second sighting system is known as the "Gunner's Auxiliary Sight" and is a telescope mounted co-ax with the cannon. It uses a sighting reticle similar to older sights (roughly 1960s). Training in my day had the gunner switch from the primary to the GAS as soon as there were any problems with the primary. Its harder to use, but any gunner with their salt could hit the target within 1-3 rounds.
The only other tank that you mentioned that I have any experience with is the Leo II. But like the M-1, there is an auxiliary sight in case of any electronics screwup. I have actually shot a gunnery in the Leo's gunner's seat and while I loved the ability of the TC to select and range to a second target while the gunner is engaging the first, I always thought that the Leo II was not as effective a gunnery system as the M-1. My two cents.
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The gas sight isn't all that bad really: Our unit made a big deal about practising with it. Which was a good thing when we got in a tussle by Karbala and Bimp pulled a snoopy on our doghouse. But then even though it is good, its not the same. Don't even try to hit anything moving at range, though if you are close enough, shooting on the move is possible. What we discovered was that if you thought you could hit something at a certain range with the primaries, cut two thirds from that number for the gas sight.
(odd trivia: the troop I was in used the 'Half of' instead of 'Third Of' rule of thumb for range. We had a platoon sergeant that was a history buff, and he drilled into our heads the old WW2 German system of gunnery, which allowed us to really excel at the Table 8's gas engagement. Well enough that they accused us of cheating more than a few times)