I like this one, It shows something I have said for years. Us weapons development has produced 50 years of over priced poorly planed weapons that are in every way inferior to the infantry and artillery systems used before and during Korea. It's not just the M-40,the AT-4 and the earlier LAW are and were inferior to the 3.5in Bazooka of the 50s and 60s. This extends to almost every weapons system developed over the last 50 years. The Pentagon spends trillions buying "newer" weapons every year, then GIVES the "old" weapons to "whomever" who then use them to good effect to kill US.
I love these things. We used to mount them on "mules" and they could go anywhere. You can mount it, carry it, dig it in, and it kicks butt. Nobody I remember wanted to trade them for LAWs. Long range and hard hitting.
Saw a privately owned one last weekend - as a prop mounted on a WWII Jeep at a 3Gun match along with a 1961 OTO 105mm Pack Howitzer and a 1919A1 Browning.
my dad (retired vietnam vet seabee, since departed) LOVED these things. he loved them on the ONTOS even more so.
from the few stories he would pass on, they worked well on fishing boats with black sails in Da Nang harbor. "we warned the guy 3 times, no black sails..but there he was, at dawn, with his black sails up...so I put a hole in the hull with a spotter round and then hit him with a shaped charge..he must have had some other stuff on board because a bunch of shit went everywhere"
they also had an issue with rounds that had double the normal amount of powder in them. "flipped the damn Mule right over backwards" he said.
I once had a guy in my platoon who was the top Army gunner with a 106mm RR, in 1974. And he was a damned fine soldier too. Trained with this in the Infantry/Armor Basic and Senior NCO school at Ft. Benning, and with the 90mm RR as well. I still like them better than the missiles, and they seem to do as good a job, or better. They're easier to operate, less technical, and you can reload them, they're cheaper to use, and more adaptable. The back blast is about the same as the missiles, and range works out the same. Missiles have longer range, but soldiers still have a terrible time engaging targets at over a mile. By the time targets are seen, they can be engaged by the RR too. 90% of battlefield targets are far less than a mile. Compare at RR rounds for $100, to TOW and Dragons at $4,000 to $3600. An APC can carry 50 rds for the RR, vs 2 for the TOW. And Dragons have a high rate of failure to explode.
During my early years in the Army I would see entire classes of the M-40 gunnery school loading up the jeeps and heading out to the various ranges.
Then not long after that I, somehow, wound up being the happy (sarc), bearer of the 90mm RR. A literal pain in the ass but an even bigger kick ass gas firing the beast.
Funny thing is that after each shot I would automatically do a nose bleed check. The concussion blast was something to behold!
10 comments:
Love to have one of those !
http://guerrillamerica.com/2012/12/logistics-of-the-irregular-force-warfighter-ak-vs-ar/
For the Republic
Dr.D III%
I like this one, It shows something I have said for years. Us weapons development has produced 50 years of over priced poorly planed weapons that are in every way inferior to the infantry and artillery systems used before and during Korea. It's not just the M-40,the AT-4 and the earlier LAW are and were inferior to the 3.5in Bazooka of the 50s and 60s. This extends to almost every weapons system developed over the last 50 years. The Pentagon spends trillions buying "newer" weapons every year, then GIVES the "old" weapons to "whomever" who then use them to good effect to kill US.
I love these things. We used to mount them on "mules" and they could go anywhere. You can mount it, carry it, dig it in, and it kicks butt. Nobody I remember wanted to trade them for LAWs. Long range and hard hitting.
I noticed them on some news reels mounted on technicals. Wondered if they were relying on old ammo, or if the had a new sources
Saw a privately owned one last weekend - as a prop mounted on a WWII Jeep at a 3Gun match along with a 1961 OTO 105mm Pack Howitzer and a 1919A1 Browning.
Awesome sound and smoke with blackpowder blanks!
III
Damn lethal weapon. Saw them in action at Camp Pendleton firing off fletchette rounds. Nasty.
I agree with Anon @234
my dad (retired vietnam vet seabee, since departed) LOVED these things. he loved them on the ONTOS even more so.
from the few stories he would pass on, they worked well on fishing boats with black sails in Da Nang harbor. "we warned the guy 3 times, no black sails..but there he was, at dawn, with his black sails up...so I put a hole in the hull with a spotter round and then hit him with a shaped charge..he must have had some other stuff on board because a bunch of shit went everywhere"
they also had an issue with rounds that had double the normal amount of powder in them. "flipped the damn Mule right over backwards" he said.
I once had a guy in my platoon who was the top Army gunner with a 106mm RR, in 1974. And he was a damned fine soldier too. Trained with this in the Infantry/Armor Basic and Senior NCO school at Ft. Benning, and with the 90mm RR as well. I still like them better than the missiles, and they seem to do as good a job, or better. They're easier to operate, less technical, and you can reload them, they're cheaper to use, and more adaptable. The back blast is about the same as the missiles, and range works out the same. Missiles have longer range, but soldiers still have a terrible time engaging targets at over a mile. By the time targets are seen, they can be engaged by the RR too. 90% of battlefield targets are far less than a mile. Compare at RR rounds for $100, to TOW and Dragons at $4,000 to $3600. An APC can carry 50 rds for the RR, vs 2 for the TOW. And Dragons have a high rate of failure to explode.
During my early years in the Army I would see entire classes of the M-40 gunnery school loading up the jeeps and heading out to the various ranges.
Then not long after that I, somehow, wound up being the happy (sarc), bearer of the 90mm RR. A literal pain in the ass but an even bigger kick ass gas firing the beast.
Funny thing is that after each shot I would automatically do a nose bleed check. The concussion blast was something to behold!
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