Posted on 12/29/2014 12:42:19 AM PST by WhiskeyX
The Willys MB – better known as the original jeep – was a game-changer during World War II. Small, agile, versatile and durable, jeeps were easy to deploy, easy to operate and easy to maintain, making them perhaps the Allies’ most important battlefield equipment. More than 70 years later, US aircraft maker and defence supplier Boeing has revisited the original jeep’s winning formula in a stocky little bruiser of a car called the Phantom Badger.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
Badgers, we don’t need no stinking badgers!
Cc
Granted my old Willys CJ5 has problems, I’ll keep it.
How agile will it be when a ton of armor is bolted on it?
“How agile will it be when a ton of armor is bolted on it?”
In order to stay within the Osprey weight limits, the vehicle is intended to have no significant armor.
Like our Humvee. Originally intended as a replacement for the jeep it was not armored. It was soon armored and became a replacement for the APC.
Thanks for the post and link to a good article.
True, but you now have the Humvee and others which are armored, but they cannot be transported by the Osprey which the Phantom Badger was designed for without the armor that would make it too heavy for the Osprey. It is not supposed to be an either or situation.
In WWII terms it is the difference between a White Armored Car towing a howitzer versus a Willys peep towing a pack howitzer off of a glider.
My son’s job is to repair military trucks. He hates the Humvee. He might like this, though.
While you do need armor in these days of 'irregular' warfare, you don't always need an armored heavyweight and in areas where you need rapid mobility air-transported, heavyweights can't!
This looks like good thought and engineering went into it. Love that turning radius!
It should be the Phantom Honey Badger!
You mentioned gliders which were discontinued in the 50’s when the 82nd’s 325 Abn inf Regt was still a glider outfit. Since then there have been many applications where gliders could have been used instead of sending in the much more expensive, and maintainence intensive choppers. Were they a casualty of the rotary wing war ?
More powerful engines on short takeoff cargo-transport aircraft capable of using unimproved short runways while transporting air portable vehicles largely made the highly vulnerable and relatively dangerous to use glider transports obsolete; e.g. Chase/Fairchild C-123 Provider.
Fairchild C-123 Provider
The C-123 Provider was designed originally as an assault glider aircraft for the United States Air Force (USAF) by Chase Aircraft as the XCG-20 (Chase designation MS-8 Avitruc)[1]
Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairchild_C-123_Provider
“More powerful engines on short takeoff cargo-transport aircraft capable of using unimproved short runways while transporting air portable vehicles largely made the highly vulnerable and relatively dangerous to use glider transports obsolete; e.g. Chase/Fairchild C-123 Provider.” So does a helio air assult team hover and drop in a contested area. In fact their entrance to the CZ quickly gets known to everybody including the enemy, but gliders can quietly sneak in and deploy particularly if its a strike and hold operation.
The vehicle described in your PB posting can easily be “air dropped”, as well as trucks and field pieces. Gliders contructed of plywood used in WWII were expendable. Once landed on a open field and unloaded it was put to use toward other purposes; aid stations, comm centers, field hqs etc. The unpowered C-82, the forerunner of the C-119, was tried but needed a cleared field to safely land which means different tactics. Likewise the C-123 from your posting which was considered briefly has an interesting history including sea and snow borne applications as a powered aircraft. A furthur reading of the article did reference very briefly to the war of the rotary wing .Personally I think it has to do with $$$$$.
While attending a quaint little summer camp in northwestern Georgia, I enjoyed the distinct pleasure of taking off twice in the C-123 Provider. It climbed like a scalded ape. Likewise, I am unable to render an accurate critique as to it’s landing characteristics, due to sudden short visits made into Alabama.
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