Interesting Idea For Stryker Version - Air/Ground Gun Defense

Partners:

• Vets for Victory
• Military Appreciation Day
• Army Paratrooper
• Patriot Guard Riders

 

[Purplesuiter]

I know the Army retired the M-163 Vulcan, but why not arm a variant of the Stryker with either the Vulcan 20mm gun, a 5.56mm mini-gun, or a quad-50 turret with a fire control system similar to that used on the IFV version where the gunner/commander is able to remain inside the vehicle.

Imagine the amount of firepower it could laydown in support of the attached infantry unit.

IF ONLY.......... they had had that vehicle or a 5-ton cargo truck configured as a gun truck with a quad-50 mounted on the cargo bed........ during the infamous THUNDER RUN through Baghdad.

[DragonSoldier]

Simple answer...  We have better small-unit ADA already...  The Avenger and the Linebacker...

The Avenger has a two-man crew, mounted on a HUMVEE, and combines the Stinger with twin fifties...  The M6 Linebacker is basically Stingers mounted on a Bradley... 

Don't need to re-invent the wheel... 




[attachment deleted by admin]

[Gorilla24D]

Simple answer...  We have better small-unit ADA already...  The Avenger and the Linebacker...

The Avenger has a two-man crew, mounted on a HUMVEE, and combines the Stringer with twin fifties...  The M6 Linebacker is basically Stingers mounted on a Bradley... 

Don't need to re-invent the wheel...

[DragonSoldier]

BTW, Guntrucks with quad fifties were an ad-hoc weapons system last used in Transportation Companies for convoy defense in Vietnam, PS... The quad fifty hasn't been used for ADA since Korea.  Other than armored against small arms, they were slow, fat, juicy targets who's main function was mine-clearing and counter-ambush...  Only takes a hand grenade to make a dead gun-truck...

[Gorilla24D]

BTW, Guntrucks with quad fifties were an ad-hoc weapons system last used in Transportation Companies for convoy defense in Vietnam, PS... The quad fifty hasn't been used for ADA since Korea.  Other than armored against small arms, they were slow, fat, juicy targets who's main function was mine-clearing and counter-ambush...  Only takes a hand grenade to make a dead gun-truck...

Or an IED set off by some ****er you never see......Ma Duece is useless on ghosts.

[docstew]

well, as probably the only person to have been in a stryker on this board (there may be others, but they ain't talking), the 20mm would be too damn big, 5.56 minigun would be an interesting idea, especially as part of the RWS (turret thing with gunner sitting inside, also being fielded in humvees now), and quad 50 would also be too damn big.  considering that most of the time the mission of the gun would be to disable a SVBIED or attempt to detonate an IED, rate of fire is inconsequential, but reliability of the gun and energy of the bullet is paramount, especially against SVBIED's. but i do know several people who survived direct hits from SVBIEDs with little more than minor shrapnel

[Purplesuiter]

D-S;

The ROK Army [as of 1980] was STILL using the quad-50, in both an ADA and ground defense role.

When I was at Osan AB [79-80], they had quad-50s mounted on the back of 2 1/2 ton trucks which gave them the mobility to shuttle from prepared firing position to prepared firing position in a random pattern, so only the ROK ADA director, the gun crews, and their armorers knew where they would be next.

In the ground defense role, they had several batteries of towed quad-50s situated at various locations inside the perimeter fence, especially covering the wide open paddy fields adjacent to the base - if the north Koreans made human wave attacks it would have been a slaughter since they would have had them in a cross-fire.  I remember seeing four quad-50s guarding the western approach to the base - two at the ends of the line and two others evenly spaced between, which gave the ROK army troopers manning them multiple cross-fire possibilities.

When I left Osan in 1980, the U.S. Army [38 ADA] was in the process of transferring their towed 20mm Vulcans to the ROKS while the 38 ADA retaining control of the HAWK systems, so the ROKs had multiple layers of AAA at their control.

[DragonSoldier]

And the Spanish Air Force still had (Buchon)Messerschmitts in the 60s, while the Dominican Republic flew P-51s until 1970...

Quad Fifties are museum pieces, PS... 

[Purplesuiter]

True, for the U.S., but other countries are still finding a use for them.

The ROKAF, in 1980, was still flying the F-86 in a ground attack role.

I was watching the MILITARY CHANNEL the other day and they were discussing the Stryker.  One of the videos showed a Stryker with a Vulcan 20mm mounted.

[DragonSoldier]

Army ADA just doesn't work that way...  At Company/Battery/Troop level, the Air Defense Artillery consists of two guys in a Humvee wit' a MANPADS Stinger...
All other Air Defense weapons are the organic weapons of the unit.  And the only time a small unit gets ADA is if there is an air threat...  Just fer instance, my unit's ADA in Desert Storm was the aforementioned MANPADS plus the 10 Ma Dueces on the tracks. 

Now since on any ground attack sortie, the first thing Mr. Bad guy Pilot is gonna do is a SEAD run...(That's "Suppression of Enemy Air Defense"  for you folks in Rio Linda, CA...)

Think he's gonna lay the damn-damn on the troopage?  Uh-uh...  He's gonna fire up the Mad Turtle that can blot HIM outta the sky, first...

 

[Purplesuiter]

I guess I didn't state it properly. 

I was calling for a gun system for use against GROUND targets [insurgents, buildings, vehicles, etc.]

A 20mm Vulcan would make short work of a building containing insurgents - do the big bad wolf bit and just blow the house down with a 20mm system.

[DragonSoldier]

Vulcans are too ammo-hungry...  The 25mm Bushmaster on a Bradley is more than enough to eat a building...

[docstew]

how about the 105 beehive round designed for use by the mobile gun system strykers? (same gun as original M1 tank)

[DragonSoldier]

Used to shoot beehives from 105mm howitzers...  M546 APERS-T w/ 8000 flechettes.  Came set for muzzle action which caused the fuze to function about 25 meters outta the tube, but you could set the time to up to 100 seconds... 

[Purplesuiter]

Used to shoot beehives from 105mm howitzers...  M546 APERS-T w/ 8000 flechettes.  Came set for muzzle action which caused the fuze to function about 25 meters outta the tube, but you could set the time to up to 100 seconds... 

One of my uncles was with the 101 in Vietnam in Ashua Valley.  He mentioned something about one of the FSB coming under ground attack and the red legs lowering the barrles of their 105s, loading up with beehives and "mowing" the brush with them.  Afterwards they went out to police up the area and found several VC "nailed" to trees.

Imagine loading the rounds up with ballbearings like are in the claymores.  The flechette is nice, but the ballbearings would tear through things the darts can't.