Multiple First Round Impacts

[Yard Ape]

Several moder SP Howitzers & Mortars are capable of firing several rounds and having them all land on target at the same time.  I have heard of studies that have determined that the majority of Arty casualties are not caused by the continuous bombardment of a target, but that they are caused by the initial moments (before guys have gotten under cover).  While I have never seen these studies, the logic behind them makes sense to me.

This would mean that a system that can produce multiple first round impacts would provide increased capability to our artillery.

I know we may be looking at MOBAT to replace our towed & SP guns.  Does this have a multiple first round impact capability?  Can any towed guns produce this effect?

 

[Infanteer]

I remember this was one of the selling points of the now defunct Crusader program.

 

[RCA]

My guess the MOBAT won't. To be capable you must have approx 4-5 rds in the air at the same time. Doing it manually would be difficult, but not impossible. It would be a matter of starting at high elevation, and decreasing that and the charge as you go. It woulds all have to be pre-calculated, definitely have a range restriction due to the high angle and decreasing charges and the max would probably be 4 rds depending how good your layers were.

Its better to have a Battery firing 4 rd FFE. You get 24 rds landing in the space of a minute or so.

You are correct about the first rd lethality. After the initial moments everything has gone to ground. After that its strictly suppresion.

 

[Yard Ape]

Do the "big thinkers" predict single weapons of this nature replacing batteries?  I always envisioned guns would still fight in the same groupings, but that a Bty could produce the same initial punch that would have required a Regt or more to have fired.

 

[Bomber]

Search Jane's and try to find info on the German Pzh 2000, it is supposedly capable of an 8 round MRSI (Multiple Round Simultaneous Impact)out to 24 km's.  There was also info about what different countries consider "simultaneous " German calls it first to last in 2 seconds, The US and France are somewhere around 5 seconds.  There was a great write up in Jane's in Late 2001.  The G6 is also up there for High MRSI, but the MOBAT looks to simply be a C3 grafted onto a 5 ton truck.  On Stalwart Guardian, we received 8 rounds FFE a few times and were able to get them off in just under a minute.  Mind you this was with all of the rounds mated and waiting just before the trails.  The MRSI that these 155 systems use are controlled by computers that put almost everything in Radio Shack to shame.  Flick rammers and Magazines for 155, along with modular charge systems are about the only way to do this.  Hand loading with semi fixed ammunition is a slower process.  The last thing to slow down the process is the CP sending data over the Tannoy, changing the elevation and the charge requires action on the gun, to make a battery of 4-8 guns do this would slow our rate of fire into oblivion.  C3's excel at fire for effect, but from being in the OP, expect delay if you try to change the information going to the guns during the FFE

 

[Michael OLeary]

Do the "big thinkers" predict single weapons of this nature replacing batteries?   I always envisioned guns would still fight in the same groupings, but that a Bty could produce the same initial punch that would have required a Regt or more to have fired.

No, the theory of being able to deliver this type of fire was to have a maximum weight of fire on the target within the first ten seconds, and then followed by the normal rate of fire for the mission. I remember reviewing years ago some statistics that showed that the majority of casualties by artillery fire occurred in that first few seconds, and rapidly dropped off after the targetted troops had time to react and find cover. In theory, it enabled a battery of six guns to drop 18 rounds (vice six) on the target in seconds followed by the suppressive fire of all six guns for the remander of the mission.

 

[solidpoint]

An interesting development to impact this question might be the US Army's M395 Precision Guided Mortar Munition (PGMM) which has winglets that deploy at the apex of the flight. A flying bomb should take longer to get to the target, and if fired first, it should allow more rounds to be in-flight behind it than a standard round.

The fire-control system on the DragonFire II system seems to be capable of these calculations not only for a single gun but also for a whole cluster of guns - although it is a mortar system. The user can "paint" the target area on a computer screen, or bound it with a rectangle, and the system will optimize delivery of all available weapons into the target area, even if the weapons are SP and are moving towards or away from the target area!

solidpoint

 

[FOO TECH G11]

In 2 RCHA we have started doing what is called simultaneous impact procedures. From the command post end, this is time consuming as they have to compute data for each round to land on the target at the same time as well as control the time of firing of each round(s).

 

[The Bat]

As Tech WO i have done this in 2 Guns, and you can only do it SP Guns, to have the effect on the ground. but we still need the weight of fire for as long as we can do it berore thet troops cross the LOD and then the FOO has a simple Fire Plan to have all the TGT supressed which makes movement much faster. and we can surpress the TGT for awhile and all Guns or Tubes can do that.....UBIQUE 

 

[GINge!]

I watched W-Bty fire the mobat...12 rounds in 60 seconds, it was impressive. At that rate of fire, we can mitigate somewhat the lack of a MRSI capability. Any higher rate of fire, and I imagine thermodynamics would become an issue. Once we settle on an MLVW replacement I can see the MOBAT following soon after.