Posted on 12/05/2005 11:02:45 AM PST by 68skylark
FORT KNOX, Ky. (Army News Service, Dec. 5, 2005) -- While the booming sounds of a 120mm tank main gun firing on Cedar Creek Range were familiar, the type of tank round being fired was very unique.
The 16th Cavalry Regiment provided a live fire demonstration of the first M1028 canister rounds at Fort Knox, Nov. 10. The canister round is the newest 120mm tank main gun ammunition now available to the Armor Force, and has been deployed in the Middle East.
According to Maj. Kevin Parker, the S-3 of the 16th Cav., the purpose of the demonstration was to provide trainers with the opportunity to see close up the unique capability of the canister round.
New round flexibility
While the canister round is not the heaviest tank main gun round in the inventory, its size and weight distribution does make handling and loading the round a bit unique.
Soldiers and Marines who have handled and fired the round in preparation for deployment to Iraq have said that with a bit of practice the round can be handled in much the same way as the other 120mm rounds in the inventory.
Fort Knox senior leaders, including Fort Knox Commander Maj. Gen. Robert Williams and post Deputy Commander Brig. Gen. Albert Bryant attended the demonstration.
“Since the inception of the 120mm-armed Abrams tank, we have lacked a true anti-personnel weapon system. The M1028 canister round has satisfied that need,” said Bryant. “A documented operational need for such a round has long existed in Korea. Operations in Somalia and now in Afghanistan and Iraq have demonstrated that the requirement also exists for stability operations.
“The M1028 canister round provides the tanker in the field with another option to defeat the enemy and protect our troops.”
Battlefield promise
“The canister round was awesome,” according to Staff Sgt. Michael Hill and Sgt. Daniel Miller, of Troop B, 1-16th Cav., who were part of the firing crew. They said the round would be great for tankers confronted by massed enemy troops, inflicting massive casualties and providing a shock effect which will certainly make other enemy troops think twice before continuing their attack.
“We know the canister round will be able to defeat enemy dismounted troops, no question,” said Williams. Based on this demonstration, it is clear that it can also defeat other obstacles, such as wall barriers, during the close in fight. The good news for the tanker is that while the enemy can still run, the canister round will make sure they can’t hide.”
(Editor’s note: This story was submitted by the Fort Knox Turret.)
I don't see us fighting North Korea with thousands of tubes within range of cities in South Korea.... but again, it is nice to have.
Gunner, troops in the open, 75m, Beehive, fire at will...
Oh my GOD!Is that the shell? That thing would turn a human into a sponge!
Canister's been around since before the Civil War. Grapeshot longer than that.
It's an awesome anti-personnel weapon.
If my memory serves, we used a 105mm round in Vietnam called a Beehive round that was effectively used against wire breeches during the Tet Offensive.
Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, Calif.(Sept. 19, 2005) -- As a 68-ton of steel, tracked M1A1 main battle tank rolls down a street, either patrolling or fighting in a highly threatening urban terrain, the crew must use their machine guns to take out insurgents on foot.
It’s either the mounted M2 .50 caliber heavy machine gun or the mounted and coaxial M240G medium machine gun that will pick off individual threats. The tank’s main gun can fire off a high explosive round toward a single small target but is one small target worth a round that can take out a building? A round that disperses like a shotgun blast is being used today on urban terrain. The brutal effects of the round were recently experienced in the Combat Center’s training area.
Third Platoon, Delta Company, 1st Tank Battalion, fired M1028 120 mm Canister Rounds Sept. 19 at Combat Center’s Range 500.
Similar to a shotgun round, Canister Rounds are cartridges made for the M1A1 main battle tanks, which are comprised of approximately 1,100 tungsten balls, three-eights of an inch in diameter, which are dispersed when fired from the main gun. The fuse-less rounds disperse the balls in a cone-like shape, increasing its impact area as the distance toward the target increases.
The anti-personnel round provides effective and lethal reaction against assaulting infantry who could be armed with hand-held anti-tank and automatic weapons.
Delta Company’s Third Platoon got a chance to experience the destruction the Canister Rounds can cause to a target.
“Third Platoon has already executed their gunnery qualification,” said Staff Sgt. Timothy L. Duvall, battalion master gunner.
“They are ready to set out with the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit. Before they go I wanted to give the platoon a chance to test out the rounds. They have never seen the effects of them.”
Third Platoon lined up in their respective tanks at the firing line to blast off one canister round per crew. The targets were wooden silhouettes 100-meters-away, 200-meters-away and 300-meters away, spread out approximately 30 meters apart, laterally.
The rounds demolished the 100-meter target and left the 200- and 300-meter targets riddled with holes from the tungsten shower.
“It was like a powerful shotgun blast,” said Cpl. Windell Brackenridge, gunner, Delta Company, 1st Tank Battalion. “Anything in front of the tanks doesn’t stand a chance with these rounds.”,
They were using canister and grape shot at least as far back as the Civil War.
This weapon, in principle known to Napoleon, has been the topic of several threads over the past year.
"New? This was around in WW2."
This was around in the Revolutionary war when George Washington ordered the men to put their buttons and belt buckles into the cannons.
Heck, this was probably done with a catapult 3,000 years before that.
I was talking specifically about canister as a type of tank shell
You're right. Back in the later 70s when I was at Fort Knox, our M-60 tanks had four standard combat rounds. Sabot, HEAT, HEP, and Beehive. The Beehive could be set to open at various distances and the flechettes would begin their spread pattern.
But since the M-1 uses the 120mm, only two combat rounds were available: HEAT (High Explosive Anti-Tank) and Sabot (depleted uranium penetrator--armor piercing discarding sabot). Only the coax and other machineguns were truly anti-personnel. I'm not surprised that they have again added this type of main gun munition.
This gives new meaning to the term "crowd control"
What was main gun on the M60's? 105mm's??
"Give 'em a whiff of the grape!"
That's easy...the M1 Tank was conceived first and last as a killer of other tanks (unlike earlier US tanks). That is why they gave it the gas turbine engine, the night vision systems, stabilized gun, and eventually that 120-mm Rheinmetal smoothbore.
On a related topic, there never was on official "beehive" round for 155mm or 8-inch howitzers. But at Ft. Sill we were taught that a canvas bag of roofing nails would work well -- I think they recommended 40-60 pounds of nails for a 155. Can you imagine that!?
Why tungsten? Weren't Claymore ball-bearings steel?
I seem to recall the Germans had a good anti-tank gun that
fired a sabot-tungsten round, but that was to pierce metal.
Right it was a 105mm which was still relatively new as some NCO preferred the 90mm because it had a completely mechanical firing pin vs the 105's electric charge in its firing pin.
The article explains this new round is simpler than the beehive and is only for relatively close ranges like the similar round the Sheridan tanks had. But the Sheridan's 152mm stubby big bore used flechettes instead of shot.
Stuarts used them on Guadalcanal
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.