[Wombat101]

Okay, I see your point, only it doesn't work. The GAU-8 does the job on tanks and vehicles because it attacks SINGLE targets, one at a time. A GAU-8 will not take out a building full of guerillas. A GAU-8 will not cause secondary fires/explosions when it's round comes into contact with concrete. A GAU-8 does what it does to tanks because it's ammo is designed to penetrate their armor, not because of the number of rounds it punches out. If it was simply a question of number of bullets and penetrating power, then every AC-130 and A-10 in the world would be over Najaf right now.

It's not exactly an efficient way of doing business against the type of foe we face right now.

The weapons we have are just fine, when they are used in the way they were designed to be used. Tanks and gatling guns are not suitable weapons for urban combat. High explosives and a lack of remorse ARE suitable weapons. Let's use what we have, more intelligently and less sympathetically, before we go designing new combat systems.

If, in the end, the EXPERTS agree that what we have is not up to scratch, they'll make the changes. But stop gaps and wish lists do not win the kinds of fights we're in now. Vietnam proved that. It wasn't the weapons that failed there, but the WILL to use them that did. We have the same problem here.

[ableChair]

I would add that for urban fire support a new type of grenade launcher needs to be developed. I would envision one with a higher rate of fire than the MK19 that fires rounds similar in pressure to the MK19 rated pressures (as opposed to the M203 pressures). This would have been excellent for Mogadishu.

[endthematrix]

There, you have an APC with firepower! (AMOS)

[Southack]

"Okay, I see your point, only it doesn't work. The GAU-8 does the job on tanks and vehicles because it attacks SINGLE targets, one at a time. A GAU-8 will not take out a building full of guerillas."

See Post #92

5 Legislative Days Left Until The AWB Expires