12 Comments
User's avatar
Scientist at the bench's avatar

The utility of drones, coupled to new portability of artillery would completely change the battlescape. Expensive systems should be a thing of the past. The potential utility of this tech in tanks would also change tht system to one lighter, more agile and faster.

BG Pete Chiefari's avatar

You have to love digital technology! Excellent; easy to understand even for a guy like me! Thanks, Wes!

Wes O'Donnell's avatar

Pete, I’m blessed with a smart audience

Craig Ewing's avatar

Well, maybe not smart in some ways, Wes. I had to Google 'butter bar' and 'Rip-its'. Otherwise, a well-told tale of a significant and on-going evolution in artillery technology. My only question is if the upgraded version jointly produced by the US and India will be available to Ukraine. Neither country is exactly on its side right now.

Michael Harmon's avatar

And, maybe someday those weapons systems can be turned into plowshares, instead of becoming better swords.

Well presented technical information presented in an understandable manner. Much appreciated!

Robert C Culwell's avatar

Thank you for the Physics Wes

Great work.

Fire and Maneuver, FAST.

Dominik Lenné's avatar

Interesting. But i see one problem: precision. A shot with the barrel not moving can be precise, even if the vehicle is somewhat wobbly. A heavy barrel being pushed forward with great force will make the vehicle move in unpredictable ways and produce large error ellipses. With only a few shots available, target destruction probability goes out of the window.

BG Pete Chiefari's avatar

Good comment, Dominic! But I think that in the development stage, any CEP effect could be accounted for.

Dominik Lenné's avatar

Actually, this vehicle is not as wobbly as I thought. If you look at the picture, you see two vertical hydraulic supports at the "bow" and two slanted ones at the "stern", which may make the Humvee a pretty stable platform. Disadvantage: time needed to lower/rise those.

Wes O'Donnell's avatar

I think there's some good footage from United24 Media of Ukrainians firing it. I'll try to dig it up.

Fred's avatar

What I want to know is, has anyone tried building a big gun with an integrated regenerative braking system? Use the momentum of the cannon propelling forwards to generate stored force that is spent on dampeners to soak up the force of the return journey (to baseline firing position). Because that feels like exactly what we should be doing.

Do that in combination with this SRT and then you can put that on a 155 millimetre.

Robert C Culwell's avatar

I wonder if the Gunners down at Ft Sill have got any HumVee playtime with this QuickDraw-105?