SMAW NE

[Antenna]

SMAW NE

Antenna

[HorseSoldier]

Thermobaric rounds are awesome.

I don't have any hands on time with the SMAW, but it would be a hard sell to convince me it was preferable to the Goose Gun. It was a very happy day when USASFC decided the Rangers were onto something and bought some Carl Gustavs.

[Webstral]

I'm generally in favor of systems that put more power in the hands of the infantry. Of course, we must bear in mind that our likely enemies are even more in need of yet-better infantry weapons. What we develop today...

Webstral

[StainlessSteelCynic]

The Russians have had a thermobaric round for the RPG-7 since 1988, the TBG-7V. They also have had a similar round for the RPG-29, the TBG-29V, since the 1990s.
It seems we in the West are still playing catch up with giving the infantry thermobaric ammunition.
http://world.guns.ru/grenade/gl02-e.htm RPG-7 and ammunition.
http://www.olive-drab.com/od_infweap...viet_rpg29.php RPG-29

[Webstral]

Great links, SSC!

[StainlessSteelCynic]

Thanks Webstral.
If you haven't already, it's definitely worth your time to peruse the site from which I got the RPG-7 information http://world.guns.ru/main-e.htm
It seems to be a bit of a favourite for a few other people here and the Olive Drab site http://www.olive-drab.com/ has a sort of miscellaneous feel to it but still has lots of good info

[kota1342000]

I dont have any hands on with the Gustav, but as for the SMAW, I can at least say that we finally got a replacement for the M20 3.5in super bazooka in the 80s. Now with that said....

SMAW is loud as hell and has almost twice the backblast danger area that my TOW does. SMAW gunners really have to keep this in mind as well as anyone else in the area. I remember when I was going through the School of Infantry and doing our final exercise, our SgtMaj got too close to one of the student gunners firing a live round and it tumbled our SgtMaj, and he was standing (well, walking before the incident) almost fifty yards away. Fortunately and to our complete amazement he wasnt badly hurt.
The other thing about SMAW is that until seeing this video there were 2 types of rounds, the HEDP (high explosive dual purpose) and HEAA (high explosive anti-armor). The HEDP round was pretty good against bunkers and light vehicles but we didnt see much appreciable damage to the M48s we used to practice on at Pendleton. Our SMAW gunners when I was in rarely saw the HEAA rounds, even in the sandbox. It was told to us that the HEAA would penetrate a T72 from the front; we had a good laugh about that one until we found out the some of our Scout Snipers were getting penetrations to the rear turrets of the T72s and T55s. Still, we are talking about the rear of the vehicle....
Point there being was that I know at least a few of us wanted to give the Gustav a try, or get on the road with getting more types of rounds for the SMAW.
The one thing I used to love about SMAW (with the few rounds Ive fired through it) was the spotting rifle. It fired this quirky round that I was told was a 9mm tracer crimped onto a 7.62mm case. Anyway, it was supposed to have the same general flight characteristics as the rocket did. You fire spotting rounds until youre on target and then let the rocket go; at least that was the theory. Anyone in the infantry will tell you that tracers work both ways. In either case more than one rocket would jolt the launcher enough to blow the boresight.

...So after watching this video (can we say cheese? LOL) I did a little more research and it seems that some of SMAWs problems are being fixed...


http://www.globalsecurity.org/milita...round/smaw.htm

[StainlessSteelCynic]

The 84mm Carl Gustav is a nice bit of kit but just as fearsome with back-blast as the SMAW from the sounds of things (over here we nicknamed it the Charlie Guts-ache for a few reasons but one is definitely the back-blast).
We were always warned that the BBDA needed to be absolutely free from objects because they would be thrown back and could become dangerous to people nearby and one 'tale' I was told was that an instructor had the glass face of his watch cracked because he was a little too close to the BBDA (whether that is true or a tale told to make us pay attention I don't know but I wouldn't be surprised if it's true).

One of my friends fired several rounds of Illum in quick succession on one night firing exercise. He said that due to firing the gun at an angle, the back-blast kicked up all the pebbles and sand and hit him and the loader in the legs. He said it felt like he was being sandblasted.
He also complained about the headache he suffered afterwards because while the concussion from one round firing can be shaken off, nine rounds in a few minutes tended to (in his words) "smack your head around a bit too much". He also mentioned he was left with a snotty nose and that it felt like someone had been trying to pull his brain out through his nose.

You wouldn't have to worry about that in normal use I think, you would fire a round or two then relocate but he was in a static position firing Illum in support so he had no time in between rounds to recover.

[HorseSoldier]

with ours you get so many points per round fired in training (closer to prone higher point value) and were supposed to stop after getting to some specific value. My recollection is that only a couple rounds in prone maxed you out.

[waiting4something]

I was never impressed by the SMAW. The assualt men I was with seemed to like it, most likely a pride thing I think. I never thought they were much better then a AT-4. I mean they seemed to miss a lot despite the tracer rounds. I seems like they spent too much time dicking around with it too.