I Need Some Google-Fu Expertise

[pmulcahy11b]

I was just fooling around on the internet and started looking at stuff about the Tank Breaker and Assault Breaker programs mentioned in the T2K timelines. (They're real, BTW -- the Tank Breaker program resulted in the Javelin ATGM and the Assault Breaker program created the Wide-Area Antiarmor Munition Bomb and the Extended-Range Antiarmor Munition round for 155mm howitzers, MLRS rockets, and ATACMS missiles.)

But I also came across something else interesting by accident, at this page:

http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa015.html

It mentions this:

STAFF

Another third generation, man-portable antitank system is called the Small Target-Activated Fire-and-Forget (STAFF) weapon. It is described as a 155-millimeter (6.1-inch) diameter recoilless rifle that is fired from the shoulder like a bazooka. Its range is one to one-and-a-half miles, and it is aimed to fly over the tank like the skeet previously described. A millimeter-wave radar looks for the tank and, upon detection, the projectile explodes, driving a slug down at the tank. Whereas TANK BREAKER is all-weather, day-or-night capable, its infrared sensor can be defeated by a smoke screen. The millimeter-wave radar of STAFF overcomes that limitation.

I've never heard of that one, and I'd like to know more about it. I can't figure out how to query any of the search engines to give me anything but irrelevant stuff (virtually all the results I get have to do with the staffs of corporations, businesses, or military units). I need someone to help that has better skill at manipulating search engines, and I know that there are some of you on this board that are really good at it. Help me out?

[cavtroop]

Hmmm, found this, a 120mm STAFF round:

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/m943.htm

But that's it. Lots of crap, though. Looks like 'STAFF' may be a class of weapons, and not necessarily a specific round/weapon system?

I'll keep digging though...

[pmulcahy11b]

I know about the STAFF 120mm tank gun round, but this "STAFF" I stumbled across is something different. Still, they may both be the results of the same weapons research.

[cavtroop]

Originally Posted by pmulcahy11b

I know about the STAFF 120mm tank gun round, but this "STAFF" I stumbled across is something different. Still, they may both be the results of the same weapons research.

Yeah, looks to be the same tech. The only reference I can find to the shoulder launched one is the link you posted. Haven't given up yet though

[cavtroop]

Hmmm, interesting patent appication from 1985:

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/4519315.pdf

[pmulcahy11b]

Originally Posted by cavtroop

Hmmm, interesting patent appication from 1985:

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/4519315.pdf

That does sound like the STAFF missile mentioned on that web site. Nice find!